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April 17, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Illness sign
Jeff Russell asks if it's really necessary for the sign to be so explicit. After all, it's posted in full view of customers who could be ordering food.
I must admit, I love the company name. Sheetz!
No, there probably isn't a need for the sign to be so "graphic," although the fact that you consider black dot vomit to be graphic is kind of weird. The sign gets its point across, and it gets it across clearly. I don't really see how this is broken.
Now that I stopped laughing I can type. I'm assuming it's a sneeze but that wasn't what flashed in my mind as soon as I saw the picture. The more I look, the more I think it might be my first thought. (The person IS holding their stomach.)
You're all wrong. He's calling out to his friend who fell in a pit (just off-frame) to toss up all his money or else he'll shoot (or is he just holding his hand inside his coat pocket? We'll never know...).
Or,
"WARNING: One-legged people with triangle-shaped torsoes who try to ingest ping pong balls are not allowed here!
Umm, the question is, "why" do you graphic someone who is sick? This is targeted at employees, so surely a posted text notice would be enough?
(I can't believe I just used "graphic" as a verb ...)
I'm just happy they didn't illustrate the condition the company name suggests! Too many graphics these days. Unclear frequently. Too bad we don't have a national language. That would make text acceptable and elimate these silly vague signs. Although they are a source of amusement!
Sneezing hunchbacks NOT ALLOWED!
I have never heard of "Sheetz" before. Is it a place about which it could be said "Si, eet ees a good place to eet, but you might get de sheetz" ?
How is it going to help to report any Sheetz employee sickness to my supervisor? Neither of us works there!
What is broken is that the average fast food employee gets min. wage and if lucky, 2 or 3 sick days a year. So, they cannot afford to stay home if they are sick. Often, they are 'part timers' and get NO sick pay and NO health benefits, so of course they get sick and have to still go to work. THAT IS THE BROKEN ROOT CAUSE!
My question is...
Do you really want to eat at a place that feels the need to post this sign???
I'd be really worried that I'd get the Sheetz too.
FYI
Sheetz is the family name of the people who own it. Sheetz is a chain of gas stations (be glad the ping pong balls aren't coming out of the rear) in PA that also makes sandwiches/fries/salads. You order at a touch screen (great if the employees don't speak English, Quiznos could learn a lesson from Sheetz (have you ever tried to order more than one sandwich at Quiznos?)). The screen prints out a number. You give the number to the cashier who rings you up. Then when the food is ready they call your number and hand you your food. They have several gas pumps, like 10 to 20.
What's nastier is the "employees must wash hands after using restroom" signs. Or rather, that there are so many scumballs in the world that don't wash. They aren't sick everyday, but they go in there repeatedly.....
Paul: We as a species were never designed to wash our hands after doing business. I do agree with you though that you need to wash your hands before handling food, however we have become such a germaphobe society that it is hurting us. Example: antibiotics, THERE ARE HARDLY NONE THAT WORK NOW because of their misuse. Example 2: asthma: the only places where asthma is a huge problem is the americas and europe and it is BELIEVED to be because we have killed off one of the good bacterias that protected us from it. In developing nations it is abundant, here it is absent even from soil samples.
Since this is an inter-employee communication, it can and should be posted where employees can see it but customers cannot. The communication is not broken - I don't like being waited on by sick people - but the placement in a publicly viewable area, is.
Hey Mike Robinson, I'm quite interested in what you said about the asthma, do you have any sources of information about it that you could point me to? My friend has some big project he is doing about asthma and it would really help him.
Either way, it is broken, customers need not see that, but it does need to be said bluntly and powerfuly to the employees.
And also about the over cautiousness with disease in america, I agree wholeheartedly, I have seen repeatedly in my school that the more germophobic someone is the more often they get sick (usually). I'm probably one of the least... hygenic people in my school, yet I have only taken off three days in highschool from "illness"
two of which I wasn't really ill.
I've bought gas at a sheetz a couple of times. They sure like the color red. the building is RED. The roof is lit with RED, the pumps are RED, with RED lights on top. Like Capt. Wafer said, there are like 20 (RED)pumps. It's like buying gas in a cartoon. You have to drive away with burned retinas.
Mike Robinson: if we ever meet in person, please remind me to never, ever shake hands with you! For all we know you might just recently have been "doing business".
Mike Robinson: that's an interesting article. I believe it's referring more to prescribed antibiotics rather than the run-of-the-mill antimicrobial soaps you see in public restrooms, though. The real benefit of hand-washing comes with the scrubbing motion, which physically takes the bacteria off the skin and deposits a thin layer of protection. That's why surgeons 'scrub in' instead of popping a Keflex or something.
Prescription antibiotics, on the other hand, generally utilize microbial cell surface proteins to gain entry, targeting various internal signalling or replication pathways and causing death to the microbe. Unfortunately, the little critters are extremely adaptable, so every time we build a bigger gun, they build better armor, so to speak. The good news is most bacteria can do nothing about good ole brute force, which is why hand-washing is important.
This sign is also confusing. Is the sign telling a customer who is an employee of a business to report their own illness to their own supervisor? Is it telling the customer to report their own illness to a Sheetz supervisor? Or a Sheetz employee to their own supervisor (most likely)?
BROKEN
I agree that brute force handwashing is good, antibacterial soap is bad however. Washing with ivory soap for 30 seconds is just as effective as washing with antibacterial soap. However, when we need the antibacterial soap, and the antibiotics their misuse has caused them to become useless.
Mike Robinson: obviously washing your hands with antibacterial or even antibiotical soap (if such soap exists, heaven forbid!) is the wrong way.
That does not mean that you should avoid washing your hands after visiting the restroom however... disgusting!
name: I am not saying I don't wahs my hands, but i was pointing out that we were never designed to. Also antibacterial is the same as antibiotical.
Good old soap is all you need.
If I had gone there and seen the sign, I would have wanted to go home and scrub myself and the food I bought there!
I agree with ---------. Look at an earlier posting: http://broken.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/bluescreen1.jpg
Shouldn't you always tell your supervisor if someone is barfing?
P.S. Why don't sign people have any feet, eyes, noses, or hands?
P.S.S. Those people do NOT know how to draw a guy blowing chunks.
No wonder he's barfing.. I mean he's been stuck in an enclosed circle with a line across it for all his life.. I feel sorry for him..
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Previous: Microsoft Access Visual Basic editor help | Main | Next: Rite Aid slogan
Next time he won't try ingesting so many ping pong balls.
Posted by: barf at April 17, 2006 12:19 AM