I work at CCF. I started during Covid time and have been there for 1.2 years or so. For those 1.2 years they had a system where you bus and clean the table and place plates and rolled up silverware on top of the plates. They just recently changed the system to where we try not to act like a glorified glory days and have to place the silverware on the table around a plate with a napkin on top of the plate. The silverware lays on the bare table. Two things: As bussers we have to set the tables(the servers are supposed to help but-) and usually we have to bus and then wipe and then set. I don’t clean my hands in between. I try to set the silverware not putting my dirty fingers where your mouth would be but it’s difficult. Two: we put the £¥€#ing silverware on the table bare. Listen, I hate doing this stuff, I wouldn’t want to use silverware sitting on a table that is now covered in chemicals and potential food residue but corporate issued this shit and now I feel bad everytime I do my job. We were best selling restaurant in our county/area last year so we are busy af, we have to be quick and it’s near impossible to spend enough time to make sure the table is fully clean and dry. Also the silverware rollers are out of a job. I will say it does make my job a bit more difficult but I care more that I could be poisoning/contaminating people just because corporate wants us to seem fancier then we are. I literally squash a roach every shift and feed mice behind our restaurant, let us go tf back to where at the very least, your silverware isn’t sitting on a table that ik over half of our bussers didn’t clean well enough or even dried. I need ideas of how to get through to corporate. My mangers are somewhat new and dogs on a leash to corporate, everyone and their mothers has complained and I’m making less money for more work and being behind on tables makes the servers less money. The system is terrible in all ways.
Tl:dr imagine the silverware you use is placed bare on a table that is still wet from cleaning solution and/or placed by someone who hasn’t washed their hands since they left home