Moral Code

When I moved to college, I needed a source of income. I applied at one of my then favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings. This location was on 19th Ave in Fargo, ND. I was hired right after the interview and was excited to start. I have had customer service jobs before, like working at Maurices and as a maid. From my experience I knew that customers could be difficult to deal with and I was prepared for that. What I wasn’t expecting was the treatment toward customers and employees from the company and their practices.  

One of the very first things that I noticed was that employees were never told to wash their hands. I have never seen any of the cooks, waiters, managers, cashiers, or bar tenders wash their hands. There was always something in front of the only sink in the back and no sign in the bathrooms requiring employees to wash their hands before returning to work. I am not saying that nobody washed their hands ever, but I am saying that it wasn’t something that was enforced. I often showed up at work and was handed a plate of food to bring out right after I put my stuff away, so it was obvious that I hadn’t had the chance to wash my hands.  

Another cleanliness issue I had with Buffalo Wild Wings was how we cleaned tables. We used water and rags that were rarely changed, or we used the wet naps that are used to clean hands after eating wings. It was also required of us to stack dirty dishes on the floor, which is not only disgusting, but a safety hazard.  

One more major issue I had with this Fargo Buffalo Wild Wings was the break system. Employees were not allowed a “break” if the restaurant was busy. It was explained to us that even if employees have their own food to eat, we can’t take a break to eat if the cooks don’t have time to make us food if we wanted it. Our breaks only lasted as long as it took us to eat. If we had a granola bar and ate it in three minutes, then our break was only three minutes. This was unacceptable to me as the shifts were about 7 hours+. I was once required to work 8 am to 5 pm, but ended up working until 5:45pm, on our busiest day. That was my last day. 

I quit for these reasons and more, but it all boiled down to the treatment of customers and employees. I couldn’t believe that employees weren’t encouraged to wash their hands and that tables were washed the way they were. A customer could have gotten sick because of that. It is not okay to be putting our customers in danger like that. The worst part is that it would have been such an easy fix to implement. Send employees to the bathroom before they can do anything and before they switch tasks, have a requirement to change the water every so often, and don’t allow dishes to be on the floor. What they are doing is not only against my moral code, but it is also against the law. 

I quit because I could not stay there and watch others and possibly even be made to do things that could put a costumer's heath in danger. I couldn't work somewhere where they couldn’t maintain the basic cleanliness requirements. I also could not work somewhere where the employees were treated so bad. Not only because I don’t want to be treated like that and I want my breaks, but because by working there and dealing with that treatment, tells the business that it’s okay to treat people like this and to not be clean. By quitting and telling the managers my concerns, I made sure they knew that I was not okay working in a place that violated my moral code and I hope that since then they have made some changes in their treatment and safety of customers and employees.

Jim Acosta: What Happened and a Resolution

On November 7th of 2018, CNN White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, had his White House press pass revoked after a press conference the same day. During this press conference, Acosta pushed President Donald Trump to answer a question on immigrants from Mexico coming into the United States. “In the terms that this...caravan was an invasion... and as you know Mr. President the caravan was not an invasion it’s a group of migrants moving up from central America to the border with the US... and why did you characterize it as such... but do you think that you demonized immigrants?” (Acosta)  

As this exchange took place President Donald Trump repeatedly tried to get out of the conversation and move on to the next reporter. As Jim Acosta was speaking, a White House intern tried to grab his microphone. In the process, Jim’s arm moved the intern’s arm away. Videos of this event were taken and a proved to be doctored video of the interaction was posted by Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary.  

In the doctored video the interaction between Jim and the intern looked more violent than what took place. Jim was later revoked his press pass on the term that he placed his hands on the intern and was too rough with her. “She’s young, she was shaken up, she was intimidated by what Jim Acosta did. What we are seeing is bad behavior that cannot be tolerated” (Mercedes Schlapp, White House Director of Strategic Communications) 

Since the revoking of Acosta’s press pass, the company he writes for, CNN, has sued the White House. The Defendents on the White House side include President Trump, press secretary Sarah Sanders, chief of staff John Kelly, Secret Service director Randolph Alles, deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine, and a Secret Service office who took away Jim Acosta’s hard pass. This comes after CNN argues that by taking away Acosta’s press pass, it is violating his first amendment rights. A judge ordered the White House to allow Jim Acosta his press pass back. 

CNN's fight wasn’t over though, as the White House sent a letter to Acosta saying that it could still ban Acosta and accused him of asking too many questions and not allowing other reporters to ask questions. CNN responded by asking a federal court to give and emergency hearing on or as close as possible to Monday November 26th 2018. CNN also replied to letter by accusing the White House of enforcing rules in press conferences that were unwritten. The White House admitted to CNN that it "does not have a written code of conduct for journalists participating in presidential press conferences." (The White House) 

As of today, November 20th, 2018, Jim Acosta was granted back his press pass by the White House as long as he follows the new officially written rules of White House Press Conferences. These new rules are “a journalist called upon to ask a question will ask a single question and then yield the floor; a follow-up question will be permitted at the discretion of the president or the White House and then the journalist must yield the floor; and "yielding the floor" includes if necessary, physically surrendering the microphone” (Sarah Sanders).