Subway employee caught with her bare feet up at work - on the counter, photo shows

What Tara Williams saw at a Subway shop near the University of Michigan was so “disgusting” she took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook.

“I’m sure the health dept would have an issue with this,” she wrote with the photo of a female employee sitting down, talking on a cell phone, with her bare feet resting on a food prep counter.

People have sent that picture flying around Facebook. It’s been shared more than 12,000 times since Jan. 12 and incited nearly 2,000 comments.

But it also led to a visit from health department officials - Williams called them - a statement from Subway and endless footlong puns.

“Everyone has their long days, but you have to abide by the rules,” Williams, of Farmington, Michigan, told MLive.com. “You can’t take your shoes off and put your feet up.”

Subway officials called the incident “unacceptable,” according to MLive.

“The behavior in this photo is inconsistent with the high standards Subway requires of its restaurants,” Subway’s business development agent, Kip Klopfenstein, told Yahoo Lifestyle. “Food safety and restaurant cleanliness are top priorities. We are investigating and will take appropriate action.”

MLive reported that the Washtenaw County Health Department “made sure the area was properly sanitized and provided education on how to prevent such incidents going forward.”

The department inspects restaurants twice a year, the department’s Kristen Schweighoefer told MLive, and that particular Subway had a “good report” in December.

“We explained to Subway why bare feet on a countertop was unhygienic,” Schweighoefer told Yahoo, characterizing the photo as a “strong visual representation of a valid food safety concern.”

“My understanding is that the employee was tired and this was a lapse in judgment,” she told Yahoo.

Unless the department finds that bare feet are a “repeated occurrence,” the Subway will not be fined, according to Yahoo.

When Detroit TV station WXYZ visited the restaurant a few days after the photo went public, “the same worker was back on the job, slinging subs and denying something was ever afoot,” it reported.