We have a new clerk in our butcher block. One of his first days he told me he's scared of the saw. Not to big of a deal because he doesn't really have to be around it. Well today he informed me that he can't stand being around blood and he freaks out if it gets on him to the point if we were to accidentally get it on him he would "cry" and run out. He can't touch any product without gloves on. Even the blood on the floor in the cutting room grosses him out. I think this kid picked the wrong side department to be in.
The question I have to ask is who in the company or in the store assigned this employee to the meat department? Personally, I would get with that person and report this employee to him/her then simply walk away. Let that person deal with this issue. Your responsibility is your department not human resources. There is absolutely no place in a meat department for an employee with these personal issues. He is a detriment to him or her self and could be a serious detriment to other employees.
I would say this is typical grocery store hiring process, where they just take anyone and put them in the meat dept with little or no training. I have experienced plenty of instances where the meat department had an opening and the owner took a stock boy off the floor and said here is a knife, figure it out. Hey its no secret meat cutting is not considered a skilled trade by many anymore. There also seems to be a struggle to keep meat depts staffed in chain stores or independents because they don't want to pay us anymore. So they will gladly put anyone in there who will take the job, whether they are qualified or not. The writer of the post sounds insulted. I would be too. All it does is degrades those of us who actually take meat cutting seriously and consider it a skill.
