I've been working in fast food for over three years and have worked my fair share in drive through. There are plenty of things that aren't too fun working in fast food, most which are common sense and other situations that some don't seem to think about. From being yelled at to being short on employees, there are some things that make working drive through just suck.
1. The headsets
The headsets are usually good, but a lot of times the employees have a difficult time hearing orders. Whether its a particular headset or a user error, sometimes they just can't understand what you're saying. Usually when the employee asks for the order again, the customer either speaks up, yells, or gets angry. It begins to suck when they yell or get angry because it just isn't fun to deal with.
2. Getting busy
When it gets busy, there are typically either a lot of ice cream orders or a lot of food orders. At this point, orders are filling up the screens and everyone is helping everyone. Most of the busy times escalate into chaos. The people on drice through usually stay on drive through and sometimes recruit people who aren't doing anything to help. When both lobby and drive are busy, that is fast food chaos at its finest.
3. Maintaining a good score
We have to maintain at least an 85% average which is based on the time it takes for the food to be out and the car at the window to leave. Sometimes people take their time looking through their bag and putting their money away or sometimes the grill runs out of meat that they need, so sometimes its hard to keep a good score. If we don't have good scores, the managers get yelled at and sometimes the employees do too.
4. Maintaining good times
The times that the score is based on can be hard to maintain. Especially if the grill area runs out of the food they need. The day starts out with two minutes and thirty seconds for each order and fluctuates with the score throughout the day. Big orders are difficult to complete in that amount of time, and its really bad when people refuse to pull forward.
5. Stocking
When it has been busy for hours that don't seem to end, we run out of napkins, lids, straws, cups, and anything we have been using all night. It sucks when we need everybody's help and no one can run to the back to grab them. Sometimes we just run low until there are no more and we need them.