Fast Food Worker Told To 'Not Get Sick In Front Of Customers' After She Passes Out From Heat Exhaustion
If you needed more evidence that workers are expendable, here you go.
junpinzon | Shutterstock Every day, there's a new story that makes it crystal clear that we workers are 100% expendable and that basically no employer in the country cares about us whatsoever. Whether it's someone being anonymously laid off after 25 years of dedicated service or bosses reacting to workers' crises with an utter and complete lack of humanity, it's clear we've reached crisis level.
The story a worker on Reddit recently told falls firmly into the latter camp. And the lack of care and consideration their boss showed was so egregious that it has people telling her not just to find a new job, but to hire a lawyer.
A fast food worker collapsed and went unconscious due to heat exhaustion.
They regularly get dismissed out of hand as lazy dimwits with the easiest job on earth, but the truth is that working in fast food can be a grueling job most of us couldn't handle for 30 minutes, let alone eight hours. And before you roll your eyes, this is coming from someone who's done it.
On top of being rushed off your feet and regularly abused by customers, many fast food workers also toil under appalling working conditions, including wage theft issues and inadequate breaks, which are rampant in foodservice, as are dangerous safety lapses.
Case in point, a fast food worker who was forced, during a recent terrible heatwave, to spend seven hours running food to customers outside in 106-degree heat. For context, medical professionals say heat stroke, the deadly stage of heat exhaustion, can set in with just 10 minutes of exposure to extreme heat.
KatarzynaBialasiewicz | Getty Images | Canva Pro
Even the military has mandatory break rules when troops work or train in heat above 85 degrees, and this woman's experience illustrates why, because what finally ended her shift was her collapsing unconscious on the floor of the restaurant from heat exhaustion. And her managers' response was nothing short of appalling.
She was scolded 'not to get sick in front of customers' despite being unable to walk.
This worker was so ill from the heat that others around her began to notice, and her manager immediately told her to clock out. (God forbid she continue being paid a single penny while lapsing in and out of consciousness!)
But she was so ill she was unable to get up and walk, and was quickly scolded that she "can’t get sick in front of customers." Rather than call paramedics, they physically dragged her to the breakroom and left her there alone.
Since her employers basically left her there to die, a very real possibility with heat exhaustion and heat stroke, she called her fiancée for help. "She could just tell by how I sounded on the phone that it wasn’t good." It was her fiancée who finally called 911, after her managers assumed she was on drugs or having a bad medication reaction.
Not even the EMTs took her seriously, insisting that she must have a heart condition. It wasn't until she got to the hospital that she was finally diagnosed with what should have been obvious, given that she'd spent seven hours running around in 106-degree heat.
People urged her to immediately contact an employment lawyer because her life was endangered.
This story isn't just morally egregious; it's potentially illegal. Organizations like OSHA, or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, have rules about heat stress on the job, as do many state labor organizations, like the state-level equivalent of the Department of Labor.
Whose jurisdiction the situation falls under can vary state to state, and state-level laws are often even more protective depending on where you live. So it's important to consult a lawyer in these situations as well. Most will consult with you for free, and as several Redditors pointed out, this is the kind of case lawyers salivate over because it is such a clear case of negligence.
Heat illnesses like heat exhaustion and heat stroke are not just a matter of needing to sit down and drink some water. They kill people all the time. More than 2,300 people died of heat-related illness in 2023 alone. This is inexcusable negligence, and being more concerned about customers seeing it than the person's well-being only makes it more egregious. Perhaps a lawyer can teach her employer the lesson they so obviously need to learn.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
