Nurses Check If Sick Chipotle Employees are Hungover

Chipotle gets sick employees to call a nurse to prove they’re not just hung over, the company’s CEO revealed. “We have nurses on call, so that if you say, ‘Hey, I’ve been sick,’ you get the call into the nurse,” CEO Brian Niccol told a conference. “The nurse validates that it’s not a hangover — you’re really sick — and then we pay for the day off to get healthy again.” A spokeswoman later insisted that it was a voluntary service, and not one enforced to catch out staff. “You don’t have to call a nurse if you’re taking a sick day,” she stressed, adding, “All employees who call off sick for any reason receive paid time off.” Niccol said the calls were part of the chain’s strict new safety practices following a series of health scares, including a norovirus outbreak in 2017 caused by just one sick employee coming to work. “We have a very different food-safety culture than we did two years ago, OK?” Niccol explained.