AMANDA DEDIE
News Editor
When provided the opportunity to speak up about the working conditions at FSA, students and union workers alike took the chance to speak freely about their experiences working for the campus organization.
FSA, or the Faculty Student Association, is the office on campus in charge of meal plans, FREDCards, on-campus dining and more. The majority of FSA workers are Fredonia students taking advantage of easily accessible job opportunities that accommodate for academics, emphasizing the fact that students come to Fredonia first and foremost to get an education.
Despite that ever-repeated mantra, the lack of accommodation for students when it comes to academics and illnesses seems to be amongst workers’ number one complaints.
“In my major I often have a lot of shows and stuff, so I have to go to rehearsal and do a lot of things,” said Graham Caulfield, a senior theatrical production and design major and former Tim Horton’s employee.
“But I often worked the night shift, and most of the events that happen on campus are at night as well, so I’d often have to find people to cover for me or call off … or I’d come from classes and I’d be a minute or two late, but they’d still dock me … even though I’m running from class … if you’re like 30 seconds late, you’ll get docked.”
A current FSA union worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, agreed that FSA could be more accommodating toward students, and thinks that the establishment should be more aware of the fact that students are students first.
“They treat college students as straight-up employees. If you have an exam, too bad. You’re scheduled to work. [Students] are here to get an education, not to have a job. Your job is secondary, but they do not allow it to be secondary,” the source said.
That’s not all — students become ill frequently, whether it be because of stress, chronic illnesses, or just the fact that they share a campus with 5,000 other people. But it doesn’t seem like that matters much to FSA.
“People don’t realize … your students here are running themselves ragged. People are up all night getting sick and that kind of stuff,” said Caulfield. “They make people come in when they’re sick. I know someone that worked [at Tim Hortons, and] she wasn’t feeling well. She went into the back, threw up, washed her hands, and went back to work, and that’s not healthy.”
A former FSA union worker, who prefers to remain anonymous, agreed.
“If you’re having family problems or health problems … they expect you to come to work, even if you’re sick. They should have more sick days for people. Or when someone is sick, give them more than one day off so they have time to get better so they don’t get others sick,” the source said.
However, instances such as that are completely against what FSA should be accommodating for. Darin Schulz, executive director of FSA, spoke about what to do if a student is told to come in sick.
“If you’re being told to come in sick, you should tell us. I need to know about that, because that’s not an appropriate situation. If you’re sick, you’re sick. We can accommodate the time off, and students should be accommodated if there’s an instance of sickness,” said Schulz.
Accommodation isn’t the only issue students and union workers find with working for the school’s dining establishments. There’s not only a high turnover rate — meaning many new students get hired because many of the previous employees leave — but many jobs are being cut as well. Between having to train new students and the fact that there are fewer students around to work, the employees that are still there take on more than a normal workload.
“I did the job of three people. I worked by myself. I got along with all my coworkers, but people were not team players. They were out for themselves, especially management. They helped out occasionally, but they could have done more to help out,” said the anonymous, former union worker. “[With] the lack of workers, you’re doing the job of three people. It isn’t fair, what they’re doing to people.”
Workers not only have to do the work of others, but also at the same time have to train, what seems to be, a constant flow of new workers.
“Every unit has a high turnover rate, because every year we lose 25 to 30 percent of our employees, because of, first and foremost, hopefully graduation. Also, schedules change and it’s just not necessarily feasible to work. So by natural turnover, we lose a lot of our students,” said Schulz.
This still poses a problem, however, with workers who have to train the new students who are there because of graduation, firings, or quitting. This is especially difficult on the workers at Tim Hortons, where there is one of the highest turnover rates amongst the FSA eateries.
“Tim Hortons doesn’t have the highest turnover rate in the company, but it is a little higher,” said Schulz. “Ninety percent of the reason is because it’s extraordinarily busy. It is our busiest unit. It has the most work required to get the job done. The Tim Hortons process of having to custom-make sandwiches by customer is very time-consuming.”
This, however, does not ease the minds of the workers there, who have to pick up the slack of those who are not yet trained properly.
“No one is trained properly,” said a current Tim Hortons worker, who wishes to remain anonymous. “It took me five minutes to make an iced mocha latte. I had no idea what the espresso machine does.”
Caulfield added, “A lot of people aren’t properly trained on how to clean things, or flip things, to really make sure it’s as healthy, clean and safe as it could be.”
However, FSA is currently working on streamlining the orientation and training methods, and hoping to improve the system within the next year.
Terri Helwig, director of human resources for FSA, said, “Our new student workers are usually paired with a current student worker or union worker who has been trained to do the job, and they do on-the-job training. We don’t have a lot of time [to train], because operations begin as soon as students come back from break.”
She also said, “It is difficult to implement a formal training program, but it is something to improve on and it’s something we’re looking into these upcoming semesters.”
On top of that, there are issues of sanitation in the workplace. The current, anonymous Tim Horton’s worker described the working and hygiene conditions behind the scenes.
“Everything is greasy and gross when you walk in there. [Managers] work in the morning and leave the supervisors with all the [expletive] left behind,” the employee said. “A supervisor will come and nothing is prepped, Tapingo orders are behind, the line is flowing out the door … Dishes are disgusting when I get there. [Everything is] all over the place, [everything is] all over the floor.”
Caulfield, a two-year worker, agreed, relaying some hygiene (or lack thereof) stories from Tim Hortons.
“Tim Hortons is definitely not the cleanest place. People really don’t change their gloves a lot, don’t wash their hands as much as they should. I see people in there touching their glasses and touching their face with gloves, and then don’t change the gloves,” Caulfield said.
“They don’t accommodate for cross contamination at all. They use the same knives for meat as they do for bagels. People don’t use tongs to grab the breakfast sausage, so they’re putting their dirty sausage fingers into eggs, which then have a lot of cross contamination, health risks and allergy risks,” Caulfield continued.
Though students and workers alike wish they could say something regarding their complaints about the internal workings of the on-campus food establishments, many are afraid of retaliation from managers and human resources employees. Schulz and Helwig, however, emphasize speaking up to spur change.
“We’re always receptive to complaints. We want to know what can be improved. If they don’t feel comfortable talking to their direct supervisor, then they need to go the next step higher, or just jump right to HR. If they don’t feel comfortable talking to HR, they need to talk to me,” said Schulz.
He continued, saying, “I want to know, because student employees are extraordinarily important to our operation. If student employees are upset for whatever reasons, they need to be addressed. They should never feel afraid, or nervous, or fearful to talk to one of us. We need to know if there are concerns that we need to hear about.”
Schulz then went on to say that if students still fear coming forward, the only way — for now — to file a complaint anonymously is to use one of the FSA comment cards found in every dining facility, though it is important to know that since it is anonymous, the person cannot be contacted for resolution if it is a personal issue.
Student workers have plenty idea on things that should be changed within the FSA department, and hope that in the upcoming semesters, such plans will eventually be implemented.
“I think [students] need actual, proper training, instead of just throwing someone into a station. Actual safety procedures should be told. [Places need to] work on … being accommodating to people with dietary restrictions and making sure there’s no cross contamination. Accommodation in terms of sick days and realizing people have school things, which come first, is needed as well,” said Caulfield.
*Amanda Dedie is a former FSA Tim Hortons employee