What Working in a Fast Food Place Is Really Like

We've all heard horror stories about working at a fast food chain such as McDonald's, Wendy's or KFC. The horrible customers, terrible management, awfully low pay... I could keep going on and on, but is all of it really as horrifying as it sounds? Is it actually worse?

Personally, I was a part-timer at a McDonalds for about two years not too long ago, and let me tell you, McDonalds crew members are so underappreciated. The amount of crap you're put through is insane. Despite that, there are times where it's really not that bad. Sometimes it feels like, "Okay, I could see myself doing this as a career once I move up to being a manager or something," (even though you really shouldn't). But yes, most times you just want to punch someone or bang your head against the wall. Here are just some specifically frustrating things or moments that happen as you're working.

Graveyard Shifts

The famous 10-6 shift... where do I even start. You come in, everything's ok, you work for like an hour with whoever worked that day's shift, and then it's midnight and they've all left. Chances are, two people didn't show up and it's just you and the manager. One of you in the front, the other in the back. What now? Is it a busy Saturday night with a bunch of high dudes coming through drive thru for some 2 AM fries? Is it a week night and the store is dead?

Let me actually start by saying that graveyard shifts can be really enjoyable if it's with the right person. Since it's the night, there are only supposed to be four people scheduled for a graveyard. With luck, you'll get scheduled with someone you really get along with. There'll be loud music, dancing, laughter. Time will pass by and you won't even find the chance to be tired or sleepy. On the other hand, you could be working with someone you haven't really talked to a lot, or have some "beef" with. Can you imagine spending eight hours with someone like that? I can, and it's not fun.

1:00 AM—It's that point of the night where you have to do some major cleaning and stocking. Remove massive parts from machines like the fry hopper or the ice cream machine, clean it out and get it ready for the next day. You're probably covered in grease and smell like rotten eggs, while still having to take orders and make them. Once again, the person you're with could make the situation better or they can just ruin your night even more.

By morning, you're all worn out and just want to go back to your bed... It's 5 AM, the shift is almost over, the morning manager comes in, checks all your work and you finish up by doing 'back door,' in which you take all the massive, leaking garbage collected from the night and take them outside into the 'trash masher.' You clear out the nasty organics, mop the floors and you're finally done. You're out of there, and as soon as your head hits the pillow you pass out, forgetting all that happened during the night.

Scheduling

Even fancy restaurants get understaffed at times, stores as well. However, I am convinced that the situation never gets as bad as it would at McD's. I don't know what it is, but it seems that every manager there in charge of scheduling is just bad at their job. Let's say a crew member books the day off, it'll just sort of get ignored. Once the person doesn't come in for the shift they were scheduled for, even though they did book it off, that manager gets mad. Like buddy, this is literally your fault don't try to tell me it's not. Then the other people scheduled for that day are down one person and it's just a mess. Or maybe everyone came in but we're still understaffed just because that scheduling manager wanted to keep labour times down and thought it'd be okay. Once that happens, we're all on our phones, frantically searching for coworkers who could possibly come in. The worst is when it's a dinner rush or an after school rush and we're trying to balance calling people in and serving customers, and it's, once again, a mess. Other times its not the managers fault though, since it is a fast food place, new workers think, "It's just Mcdonald's, they wont die if I don't show," because going out with friends is more important than responsibly showing up at your workplace.

I remember numerous nights when we were down to as low as two people upfront and one person in the back. I remember the literal sweat on my forehead as I was running around trying to not have a breakdown. I remember the angry customers who somehow thought it's my fault that we barely have any people working and the 'fast food' isn't coming fast enough, or that there are minor mistakes in an order. I remember thinking, "Well how about you try being in my place right now, we're doing pretty freaking great considering our current situation, and we're still not letting the stress get to us when talking to you. We have smiles on our faces and we make sure to be polite so fuck you..." But of course I never said that out loud, though I really, really wished I could've.

"The Customer is Always Right" Myth

I'll keep this one short. The customer is not always right. Sometimes the customer is confused, sometimes the customer is mean and rude, sometimes they're even nice. Yet, the customer is rarely ever right. I'm sorry but its the truth. I have countless stories of people being unreasonable and rude towards me but I'll keep those to myself for now.

Coworkers

This one doesn't apply to all places. In fact, you're pretty lucky if you worked in a place with people you love, but I think there's truly a special bond you create when working so closely with people under the same awful conditions. At my McD's, somehow we just had a bunch of weirdos working there. I don't know how we all ended up working under the same roof, but we did, and I like to think it was fate. So many times I was determined to quit and get a better job, it was time, time for me to get a serious job. Still, every time I ended up staying. I couldn't just leave these people, they made all my unbearable shifts just a little more bearable. It would be hard to find a job with a similar arrangement of people. I sound crazy, I know. At a serious job you most likely feel like murdering your every coworker, especially your boss. It's not just me though, my whole store at some point said, "I'm outta here, peace," but they always came back for that same reason.

So no, its not all bad. I would even go so far as saying that some shifts are fun. When it's pretty calm we get out our speaker and play throwback songs and be silly. We share stories of odd customers or crazy orders, we start bonding over our job and maybe even start a lifetime friendship with someone, who knows.

We really do try our best, and after a while we become pretty freaking great at handling the fast paced, crazy environment. Though some people choose not to see that and instead keep the mindset of, "We're above them, they're supposed to serve us." Those people are unfortunately unavoidable, but thats okay. You get used to it all.

So there it is. What it's really like to work at a fast food chain. There really are so many more details I could add and so many more points I could make but that would just be me ranting at this point... So I think I'll end this here. Please respect those people who serve your food, you have no idea how much stress they're probably under—don't add on to that.