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For All You Fast Food Workers Out There...
Shaebylove
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
Let me be the first to say, kudos to you my friend. Because even one day as a fast food employee will drain your soul to literally nothing. I (very happily, I should add) quit my fast food job today after working there for 2 years. First let me defend myself, I am not a drop out nor am I troubled - I graduated with a 4.0, have never been in trouble, and am generally a happy person HOWEVER ever since I have worked fast food, my spirit has been non-existent. I got this job shortly after quitting my first job, and I was in need of money. Of course, being the typical high school student I jumped on the first opportunity I was offered. Unfortunately, this opportunity was to be a crew member at the infamous rival to McDonalds, Burger King. For those of you so fortunate enough to never have to experience this figurative hell on Earth, let me shed some light on this glamorous career.
1. Regardless of being part time or full time, expect to be on your feet for 8 hours (and more often than not, longer) STRAIGHT. I give props to the laborers out there who do 12 hour work days doing nothing but back breaking work, but the next closest thing to that sort of agony is working fast food. There were many times I thought "I think I'd rather be pouring concrete than be stuck here." Mind you that you need to serve ALL of these customers in under 3 minutes or less, regardless of how packed you are, how short staffed you are, or how gigantic an order may be (and I have seen many an order that exceeded $50). You are constantly shuffling around at a fastwalk pace, mindlessly running around with one goal in mind "SERVE THE CORRECT ORDER AS FAST AS YOU PHYSICALLY POSSIBLY CAN". And your goal for that whole 8+ hour shift is that and only that. And don't you dare ever come in to work expecting a break, there were numerous times I worked long hours without a break because we just couldn't afford to be one body short for a half hour.
2. Yes, a half hour break. For 8+ hour shifts. And to add on to that, you still get to pay for your meal! So you work an hour, and you can afford to pay for your break! Joy to the world!
3. Minimum wage is plenty to sustain comfortable living - said no fast food employee ever. I was promised a raise every 3 months I was there. I was there for 24 months and I sure as the s word did not get one single penny as a raise. At the time I quit I was still busting my hump for a measly $7.25 an hour. While I did everyone else's job too. Plenty to live off of, right?
4. You will never meet a more disorganized, dysfunctional management team than those who are put in charge in the fast food industry. Many of them sat on their rears in the small corner of the building called the "office" for their whole shift, only emerging from the depths of their dungeon to moan and groan about how slow we are, how we need to be faster, how lazy we are, and to demand us to clean something. Then trudge back into their cave. And the higher the management goes, the worse it gets. Don't even think about complaining to corporate about your working conditions, you will be blown off or maybe even laid off. Our corporate representative told me one day while I was making sandwiches that the pickles HAVE to go on before the ketchup, and if I put them in the wrong place again I would be fired because I am disposable. This brought me to tears for an hour, and thinking back on it now, I should have told her to buzz of and to stick those pickles somewhere where the sun don't shine.
5. There will be rude customers everywhere you go and at any job. It just so happens to be that all of them choose to meet for lunch at fast food joints every day all day. I think there is a secret rule that you cannot order fast food unless you are already pissed off and are ready to blow a gasket on a poor employee. I have had customers tell me that I'm worthless, I am trash, I am a no body, I will be stuck there forever, and even had a parent tell his child that he will end up like me if he doesn't straighten up - all of this right to my face. I don't know about the rest of you but I don't think I could ever say that to anyone I didn't even know. Some will look at you with this pathetic look on their face as if they owe you some sort of sympathy for the hell you are enduring. You are required to smile, be friendly, and suggest sales constantly all while running around like an idiot to get this 3 minute goal accomplished. Some customers are too good to please, thank you, or have a nice day, some don't even speak one word to you or acknowledge your existence. Their eyes never leave their cell phone as they reach their arm out the window and snatch their grease bag from your hands. Customers who expect to order, as I mentioned before, $50 worth of burgers each one made a specifically different way, and be in and out in 3 minutes. Once that 3 minute mark is surpassed, your time is short to make amends and do SOMETHING, ANYTHING before the dam bursts and you are drowning in a wave of hate and anger. Or who come through the drive through with 10 cars in front of them, order a coffee, and somehow think that they were there before everyone else just because they have a small order. Let me tell you something, if you do not want to wait in the drive through or wait for some poor guy to attempt to speed cook your food, take your $50, go buy some burgers and buns and ketchup (which will not take all of your $50 trust me) go home and cook them yourself.
Fast food put me in a deep state of depression. Not only was there abuse from customers, but also co-workers. I understand NOBODY wants to be here, or to work here, but come on. It isn't my fault. I'm in the same boat you are in, don't take this out on me. However, they did, and there were some things said I have written down and kept track of just incase I needed to defend myself on the abuse I was facing. I was in a rut that seemed like I would be in forever. I spent every day all day in that place. 9-8, 6 days a week, and on the day I was off I usually got called in anyways. It had gotten so bad that I would cry when I got home at night, and cry in the morning before clocking in. I could not take this place anymore.
This morning I was crying putting my greasy uniform on, hoping and praying for something, anything to come through and then it happened. I got a call. A job offer, a good job offer in an office making more money with (gasp) WEEKENDS OFF. I haven't had a weekend off since the day I took that forsaken job. I cried while accepting this job offer, put my head in my hands and sobbed for a half hour after I got off the phone. Then I gathered up my Burger King costume, bagged it up, made my way to the store and said I QUIT. And I have been the happiest I have ever been for 2 years now. A huge weigh is off my shoulders. I can feel the stress rapidly leaving my body, and it is the best feeling.
So I think the point I am trying to make here is: be kind to those you encounter in fast food, because they may be in tears all day because of this job. They may be struggling to make ends meet for a family, only degrading themselves to this point to support themselves and their family. Fast food is NOT an easy job and is one of the worst industries out there. Be considerate. And if you are a fast food worker please know that you are not in such deep a rut as you think you are. There are ways out. You do not HAVE to work any shift tomorrow, you have the freedom to cut yourself free from this place. Just be smart in doing it, make sure you can get another job, if possible, wait until you have another job. But know that you are not stuck there. GET OUT.
So for the first time in a long time, until Monday when I start my new job, I will be enjoying my first weekend off!
1. Regardless of being part time or full time, expect to be on your feet for 8 hours (and more often than not, longer) STRAIGHT. I give props to the laborers out there who do 12 hour work days doing nothing but back breaking work, but the next closest thing to that sort of agony is working fast food. There were many times I thought "I think I'd rather be pouring concrete than be stuck here." Mind you that you need to serve ALL of these customers in under 3 minutes or less, regardless of how packed you are, how short staffed you are, or how gigantic an order may be (and I have seen many an order that exceeded $50). You are constantly shuffling around at a fastwalk pace, mindlessly running around with one goal in mind "SERVE THE CORRECT ORDER AS FAST AS YOU PHYSICALLY POSSIBLY CAN". And your goal for that whole 8+ hour shift is that and only that. And don't you dare ever come in to work expecting a break, there were numerous times I worked long hours without a break because we just couldn't afford to be one body short for a half hour.
2. Yes, a half hour break. For 8+ hour shifts. And to add on to that, you still get to pay for your meal! So you work an hour, and you can afford to pay for your break! Joy to the world!
3. Minimum wage is plenty to sustain comfortable living - said no fast food employee ever. I was promised a raise every 3 months I was there. I was there for 24 months and I sure as the s word did not get one single penny as a raise. At the time I quit I was still busting my hump for a measly $7.25 an hour. While I did everyone else's job too. Plenty to live off of, right?
4. You will never meet a more disorganized, dysfunctional management team than those who are put in charge in the fast food industry. Many of them sat on their rears in the small corner of the building called the "office" for their whole shift, only emerging from the depths of their dungeon to moan and groan about how slow we are, how we need to be faster, how lazy we are, and to demand us to clean something. Then trudge back into their cave. And the higher the management goes, the worse it gets. Don't even think about complaining to corporate about your working conditions, you will be blown off or maybe even laid off. Our corporate representative told me one day while I was making sandwiches that the pickles HAVE to go on before the ketchup, and if I put them in the wrong place again I would be fired because I am disposable. This brought me to tears for an hour, and thinking back on it now, I should have told her to buzz of and to stick those pickles somewhere where the sun don't shine.
5. There will be rude customers everywhere you go and at any job. It just so happens to be that all of them choose to meet for lunch at fast food joints every day all day. I think there is a secret rule that you cannot order fast food unless you are already pissed off and are ready to blow a gasket on a poor employee. I have had customers tell me that I'm worthless, I am trash, I am a no body, I will be stuck there forever, and even had a parent tell his child that he will end up like me if he doesn't straighten up - all of this right to my face. I don't know about the rest of you but I don't think I could ever say that to anyone I didn't even know. Some will look at you with this pathetic look on their face as if they owe you some sort of sympathy for the hell you are enduring. You are required to smile, be friendly, and suggest sales constantly all while running around like an idiot to get this 3 minute goal accomplished. Some customers are too good to please, thank you, or have a nice day, some don't even speak one word to you or acknowledge your existence. Their eyes never leave their cell phone as they reach their arm out the window and snatch their grease bag from your hands. Customers who expect to order, as I mentioned before, $50 worth of burgers each one made a specifically different way, and be in and out in 3 minutes. Once that 3 minute mark is surpassed, your time is short to make amends and do SOMETHING, ANYTHING before the dam bursts and you are drowning in a wave of hate and anger. Or who come through the drive through with 10 cars in front of them, order a coffee, and somehow think that they were there before everyone else just because they have a small order. Let me tell you something, if you do not want to wait in the drive through or wait for some poor guy to attempt to speed cook your food, take your $50, go buy some burgers and buns and ketchup (which will not take all of your $50 trust me) go home and cook them yourself.
Fast food put me in a deep state of depression. Not only was there abuse from customers, but also co-workers. I understand NOBODY wants to be here, or to work here, but come on. It isn't my fault. I'm in the same boat you are in, don't take this out on me. However, they did, and there were some things said I have written down and kept track of just incase I needed to defend myself on the abuse I was facing. I was in a rut that seemed like I would be in forever. I spent every day all day in that place. 9-8, 6 days a week, and on the day I was off I usually got called in anyways. It had gotten so bad that I would cry when I got home at night, and cry in the morning before clocking in. I could not take this place anymore.
This morning I was crying putting my greasy uniform on, hoping and praying for something, anything to come through and then it happened. I got a call. A job offer, a good job offer in an office making more money with (gasp) WEEKENDS OFF. I haven't had a weekend off since the day I took that forsaken job. I cried while accepting this job offer, put my head in my hands and sobbed for a half hour after I got off the phone. Then I gathered up my Burger King costume, bagged it up, made my way to the store and said I QUIT. And I have been the happiest I have ever been for 2 years now. A huge weigh is off my shoulders. I can feel the stress rapidly leaving my body, and it is the best feeling.
So I think the point I am trying to make here is: be kind to those you encounter in fast food, because they may be in tears all day because of this job. They may be struggling to make ends meet for a family, only degrading themselves to this point to support themselves and their family. Fast food is NOT an easy job and is one of the worst industries out there. Be considerate. And if you are a fast food worker please know that you are not in such deep a rut as you think you are. There are ways out. You do not HAVE to work any shift tomorrow, you have the freedom to cut yourself free from this place. Just be smart in doing it, make sure you can get another job, if possible, wait until you have another job. But know that you are not stuck there. GET OUT.
So for the first time in a long time, until Monday when I start my new job, I will be enjoying my first weekend off!
+89
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Posts
Burger King was my first job at ... 14 years of age? I never showed a whole lot of enthusiasm for the basic tasks involved, and left before working there a full year. Ultimately it didn't matter that much since I was able to move into basic office admin stuff the summer after that.
As far as I remember BK wasn't really good or bad work, just sort of... menial. I think I preferred it to some of the warehouse work that I've done.
Now where's @joeuser with that red panda?
Seeing a person act a dick to anybody in the service industry is guaranteed to reduce my esteem of them by a solid fifteen to twenty percent
@Shaebylove
Congratulations!
Never looked back since.
I am glad I was lucky enough to never have worked in food service.
Good luck to you in the future, broski.
Nah son
nah
I mean, when I was at Papa John's, yeah some of those people were fucked. But when I worked at McDonald's?
Not even gonna lie, McD's was the best service industry job I'd ever had.
Aren't there loads of little businesses that will totally deliver you McDonalds?
Just slap McDonalds Delivery [Your Town] into Google and see what happens.
Note: I've never actually done this.
The more tired I am the more tempting it becomes.
God, we should have all been fired for the shit we pulled.
Getting McDonalds delivered to your house is one of those things that you'll one day be talking about in group as the start of your shame spiral
...three weeks later my front room had a delivery service hatch, and I was bulk ordering adult nappies so that I hardly ever had to even stand up."
That's not really a problem though, the real problem is how relentless it is. No matter what, you're going to wash dishes all day. There will always be more dishes. You can't outthink the dishes. You can't come up with a better way of washing the dishes. All you can do is wash the dishes. You're also not gaining any skills or experience that's useful elsewhere, it's absolute dead time in your life. I remember when there was some shit you were supposed to clean at the start of the day (I'm so glad I can't even remember what it was) and I decided to clean them in the evening instead so I could relax a little in the morning, and the sandwich maker went apeshit at this violation of protocol. There wasn't a safety reason for it or anything, there was no reason for me not to do it, but it wasn't how it was done. The next day I got hauled in to a meeting by the chef and lectured about being insubordinate to the sandwich maker. I was the only person working there who had a degree.
The worst thing? I didn't need the money that badly. The owner of the pub had asked me to "help out" for a few weeks, and as soon as I accepted treated me as though he'd done me a favour. I could teach guitar for an hour and make the same money as my entire shift washing dishes. The entire thing now seems like some bizarre fever dream to me. I lasted for about a month I think. I try and always be nice to people with "shitty" jobs now, because I'm acutely aware of how many people aren't.
I've thought about moving the kettle from the kitchen into my room.
I can only imagine the shitshow when cooked food and a strict time limit is involved. At least at two of my retail jobs, I could talk about the product with customers during the slow times. But having to deal with rushes, bad customers and not even have the benefit of being able to chat with the good customers? Fuck that noise.
Congrats on getting out of that and good luck on the new endeavors.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
I'm just saying.
Still, the work isn't exciting, and when they wanted to promote me to manager I bailed on them because a lifetime of career advancement at McDs was really not my dream and I was really disgusted with them for not having fired the night shift manager who had openly declared his attraction to preteen girls to me about a month prior.
So be nice to your fast food people. Even if I want to yell at them because bad service blows, they're usually not there by choice, and the management is all too often blatantly shit and corrupt. The people at the front counter deserve respect just for showing up to work at a job that actively beats down your self esteem and quality of life until it's almost impossible to drag yourself out of bed in the morning.
Kudos to you, @Shaebylove. Getting out of fast food feels gooood.
i'm gonna start work as a night stocker at King Sooper's pretty soon. some of you may remember i was working the same job, but at the world's worst Safeway, in Seattle, and how i said i'd never work nights again! apparently i was incorrect.
They're almost entirely terrible people. The few you meet that aren't horrible, you end up treating like precious snowflakes anyway because you don't want them to leave.
You then spent the evening cheerfully ordering things and sending them back with inane complaints, right?
"Not 'umami' enough? WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!"
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Too much ham.
Too much cheese.
Too much tomato.
Too much bread.
Plate's too small.
Not toasted enough.
Too toasted.
Where's the bloody lettuce?!? Where I come from, HCT toasties have lettuce in them!
Too much lettuce.
I was too intimidated by her success. She's got to be on what 12, 14k at this point? And they let her live in the one bedroom flat above the pub.
On a related note, one of the nice things about being an atheist is the certainty that when I die, the roiling black hatred for all humanity that I carry within my psyche will die with me.
I know you're poking fun at her version of "success" but I've always found great pleasure in people who are content with the simple life.
We need the one bedroom apartment 14k making sandwich makers of the world.
You sure you weren't on the set of Midsomer Murders? I swear they had a character like that.
I got called down there a month or so later because of complaints about a bad smell, so I opened the access space. I don't remember exactly what I saw in there but now that I think about it, I've never really slept properly since then.
I never respond to them, but they're the occasional reminder of how unhappy I was there, and how lucky I am I'm not there anymore.
But yeah, customer service jobs are ass, too.
Pig livers, mind you.
From a massive vat of livers into smaller vats that were then dumped into a giant paté making device.
Drop a liver on the floor? Don't worry son, just pick it up and throw it in the vat anyway. It'll be fine.
The best part was that the large vat was filled from different orders coming in, so the livers would be at different temperatures. The top layer might be frozen, but then suddenly you'd hit a vein of thawed livers. This would release a cloud of gas that smelled strongly of liver.
It never made me vomit, but others did. Vomit on the floor? Don't worry son, clean it later. Drop a liver on the floor, in the vomit? Don't worry son, it'll be fine.
This sort of soured me on working with food, in any way, I think.
Later though I'm on break right now
you would regularly see kids drop food on the dirty floor, pick it up and serve it to people
... yeah think I'll be eating pate only from small artisan producers from now on