Great point.
As an employee; if you find a problem tell the boss and if you can fix it.
If the issue continues to be a problem go above the boss’s head and bring it to the attention of their boss.
The kid deserved to be fired because he did not follow these basic principles of being an employee.
The last thing you do is embarrass your employer. Nowhere did I see that he brought the issue to his boss and his boss blew him off.
That was my first reaction as well.
First off, if I were an employee, and I found that, I would clean it on the damn spot, then tell my boss we need process to clean it and get it on a schedule so it gets done.
But, no. He takes a picture instead of cleaning it.
I’ll take an employee who approaches it in this fashion:
“Ugh. This is disgusting. Boss, I found this (shows it to Boss) so I will clean it, but when we clean this machine at night we need to make sure we check this tray as well!”
Over some POS employee who takes a picture, then shows it to potential customers. What a POS.