It was around two in the afternoon when I got a call from my manager. “Do you want to work the closing shift?” She asked. It wasn’t like I had anything to do that Friday night, so, of course, I said yes. Besides, I could always use the money. I had never worked the closing shift, but I did have a general idea of what I had to do. Having never worked a closing shift before, naturally, I assumed it couldn’t be as bad as everyone made it out to be.
Right as I walked in through the door for my shift, I knew that I made a wrong call. I should have never agreed to come in. It was eight p.m. and the line for the drive through was wrapped around the parking lot and the line in the lobby was at the door. I made my way inside the store and sidestepped the girl at the front register as she frantically rushed from the fry station to the trays up front.
That night, I didn’t move from the drive-thru window for two hours straight. I had to watch in horror as dishes spilled over into the two sinks and there was still more on the back table. I had to clean these dishes before I got to leave. Above all else, what made the night dredge slower was the fact one out of five people had something nasty to say. Mostly they complained that they had to wait for a while and others practically yelled through the speaker that they wanted no onions and/or tomatoes on their buggers. Never had I been so happy to be sent on my thirty-minute break.
The thing that makes closing shifts close to unbearable is the fact that more people come through the drive thru late at night than one would expect, couple that with all the extra cleaning that must be done that night. At the fast food place I work at, the drive thru closer is tasked with cleaning the oven and the racks, cleaning the fry station, and washing all the dishes before the end of the night.
Closing is by far one of the hardest shifts to work. That night, we didn’t get to leave until 3:15 in the morning. After working that closing shift, I resigned myself to sticking exclusively to the late-night shift that ended at ten. To any closers out there, I have mad respect for doing what you’re doing.
