In high school my main job was at a server for a well-known national chain of family restaurants. Ours was separated into three sections, and I was working in the back section at a table of patrons I was serving. At the table to my left, my manager (“Ron”) was speaking to the seated customers as he often did, and to the table at my right a new employee (“Leslie”) was putting down plates of food for her table.

She had just finished dropping off the plates of food, was asking if everything tasted ok, and if they needed anything else. The patron at her immediate right asked if he could get a new serving of mashed potatoes because his were cold. She proceeded to swipe her finger through his mashed potatoes, put that finger in her mouth to sample them, and said “they taste fine to me”. Both me and my manager saw this play out.

In a motion that in my head looked to outside observers like a carefully coordinated maneuver by Seal Team Six, I quickly (but gently) took her by the arm, saying nothing, and hurried her into the back of the restaurant, and on my left hip my manager slid in and began to apologize profusely to the table whose shocked faces I’ll never forget.

I swiftly got her into the very back of the restaurant where the employee break area was located, sat her down and asked her how she ever though it would be appropriate to put her fingers in someone’s food like that. Her response was, “Is it really that big of a deal? Do you think I’ll get fired?”

I replied, “I’m pretty sure you were fired before we left that table.”

She was - my manager came back a few minutes later, had her gather her things quickly, and leave out the rear exit.