The food safety protocol at a Wendy's restaurant in Greenville, Michigan, was considerably compromised after an employee was caught bathing in the restaurant's kitchen sink.
On Tuesday, Connor Somerfield shared a video (which was first posted to TikTok by user @paulkash2) on Facebook with an impassioned warning to potential Wendy's customers. The post, which now has nearly 3,000 shares, documented an unnamed person wading around in a sudsy sink at what was later confirmed to be a Wendy's restaurant kitchen.
The original TikTok video has since been taken down, and the account that initially posted the video is no longer active.
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"So yeah I’m just gonna tell everyone right now DONT NOT GO TO THE GREENVILLE WENDYS. THIS IS DISGUSTING PLEASEEEEEE SHARE THIS," Somerville wrote on Facebook.
"See how they throw Dishes in with him," one person commented in horror, referring to the other uniformed employee tossing his coworker something with which to "wash" himself.
Another stated an opinion rather simply: "Dude no. Not okay."
Regulations for keeping food and food prep surfaces clean and safe are imperative to a successful restaurant. Unfortunately, the rules are sometimes broken. And lately, they are being broken with the sole purpose of achieving viral fame.
Chipotle recently came under fire, for example, after employees reported that their managers are jeopardizing food safety in New York City restaurants. While specific codes may vary from restaurant to restaurant since they're monitored by local health departments, washing one's body where dishes are supposed to sanitized is a ubiquitous no-no.
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Regardless of the consequences, however, more and more employees are putting themselves (and people's meals) in questionable positions.
Why? It's all for the sake of entertainment ... if that's what folks want to call it.
Many people use TikTok for harmless stunts or even good deeds, likethe New York City-based deli worker who gives customers free snacks for solving math problems. But some people post rather unsavory footage in hopes of getting likes, shares, shocks and laughs.
An employee at Panera recently exposed how the chain makes its mac and cheese. In exchange for going viral, she was ridiculed by viewers for not wearing gloves to cover her long nails during the food prep process and eventually lost her job for revealing what really goes on behind the curtain.
The mystery Wendy's bather may have emerged from the tiny tub all clean and spiffy, but his time crafting Baconators is up.
The people behind Team Schostak Family Restaurants, the restaurant group that owns the Greenville Wendy's, plus dozens of other Wendy's, Applebee's and other eateries, confirmed that the worker in the video has since been fired.
"This egregious behavior is completely unacceptable and counter to our safety, training and operational standards. Upon learning of this situation, all employees in the video were terminated immediately and the restaurant was completely sanitized," Christian Camp, vice president of the company's human resources team, said in a statement provided to TODAY. "The health department visited the restaurant following this incident and no violations were reported."
