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With Covid-19, many companies around the world are taking extra precautions to take care of their workers.
This includes providing work-from-home options or replenishing supplies of face masks and hand sanitiser in the office.
However, one company in Saudi Arabia may have taken it too far.
Human sanitiser dispenser
On Mar. 10, this photo was posted on Twitter and it went viral subsequently:
The worker was photographed wearing a sandwich board with the words "Hand sanitiser" on it.
It was affixed with a functioning dispenser which apparently dispensed hand sanitiser.
Photo from @hishamfageeh on Twitter.
Photo from @hishamfageeh on Twitter.
This happened in the office of Saudi Aramco, an oil company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Angry netizens
With over 4,000 retweets and 8,000 likes, this image has caused much anger among many people.
Some even called it an act of "classism" and "racism".
Wanted to show importance of hand sanitation
Following the fallout, Saudi Aramco responded via Twitter on Mar. 11.
According to its tweets, the company recognised that the act was "abusive" and said that it simply wanted to emphasise the importance of hand sanitation.
Here's a rough translation:
"In response to the viral photos of a colleague wearing a sterilisation in one of our facilities, Saudi Aramco would like to express our strong dissatisfaction with such abusive behaviour. We wanted to emphasise the importance of hand sanitation."
In another tweet, Saudi Aramco said that it has also stopped this rather peculiar way of dispensing hand sanitiser.
Translation:
"With immediate effect, the company has stopped this act and has taken drastic measures to prevent it from happening again. The company would like to strongly emphasise that this is doesn't adhere to our values, ethics and conduct.
Top image from @hishamfageeh on Twitter.