Before I started working at Burgerville (a hippie version of your standard burger joint), my expectations of what I would experience were very...innocent. I mean, it’s not like I thought that every day would be full of happy, kind customers plus sunshine and rainbows, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the harsh reality that is fast-food service.
The best thing about my job was my co-workers. Despite the high-stress and fast-paced nature of our jobs, we still managed to joke around, talk and connect. I remember one time when I was taking a drive-thru order, I accidentally said, “Do you want any dipping fries with your sauce?” instead of the other way around, and for the rest of the night, my manager and coworkers kept asking what dipping fries were and where they could get them. We bonded over shared experiences of funny mess-ups and rude customers. We helped each other get through every exhausting shift.
Of course, there were the downsides. Almost everyone I talked to was being paid minimum wage or barely above it regardless of if they were an adult or a teenager. The standard “raise” at Burgerville is 10 to 15 cents. A lot of the managers either took the job too seriously or were harsh on the workers. We were definitely overworked, which isn’t surprising considering we were almost always understaffed. The work itself could get gross with dealing with greasy food and monstrous garbages and dirty bathrooms. You never got out on time. Ever. Seriously, it was more likely that you’d get struck by lightning then get off of work on time. And again, we were overworked and expected to do a lot of side work despite how busy we were (and overtime beyond an overall six-hour shift was not an option). As an aside, I don’t really blame my managers for these working conditions because the reasons why these working conditions are so bad stems from the corrupt fast-food system as a whole that aims to spend the least amount possible on labor so they can maximize their profits. Managers are trying to get by just as much as the crew members.
Now, if you think what I talked about in the last paragraph was bad, you’re in for a rude awakening. That stuff was nothing compared to some of my worst experiences with customers. The ugliest encounter I ever had was when I was just starting to work first-window on drive thru. At first window, you have to take orders through the headset and cash out people at the window, ideally at the same time. However, I was just starting to work the drive-thru and hadn’t quite gotten down the multitasking yet. Luckily, most of my customers were patient. Most being the key word there. One time, I took a lady’s credit card and then was simultaneously alerted that there was a car ready to order, so I closed the first window so I could hear the customer better. Keep in mind that this window is see-through and you can see me holding the credit card. Despite this, about 20 seconds into the headset order, the lady at the window honked her horn. I didn’t know what to do so I just tried to finish up the order I was taking. During this, the lady at the window continued to honk, knock on the window and yell at me through the window. When I finally finished up the order on the headset, I cashed out the car at the window. Very timidly, I opened the first window to give the lady back her card. She then proceeded to yell at me and accuse me of stealing her credit card information. I had a lot of ugly experiences with customers over my six months of working at Burgerville, but none worse as that.
Once I put in my two weeks notice (along with a few other people), Burgerville started hiring. On one of my last shifts, I got to train a few new people on my position which felt kind of like the circle of life, in a good way. They were high schoolers, just like me. They too were happy to be hired for their first job and very innocent to the good, bad, and ugly experiences they were about to endure. The other day, I went through Burgerville's drive-thru because I am still and always will be obsessed with their food, and at the first window was one of the girls I had trained. I asked her how she was doing and the facial expression she immediately gave me said it all. She was tired, overworked, stressed and sad. She then said sarcastically, “Well I definitely haven’t cried today at work. Especially not in the bathroom during my break.” Ouch. I’m proud to have only cried once at work after that horrific drive-thru incident I talked about earlier.
Fast-food isn’t a fun job, especially if you’re in it for the long-term. But these days, it seems like fast-food is the only entry-level job available, which is the main reason why I took it. A fast-food job isn’t hard technically, but it’s mentally and emotionally demanding. You have to have both tough skin and self-control to work in fast-food, because a lot of the time when a customer is rude you really, really want to stand up for yourself, but if a customer complains about you to your manager, it’s basically the kiss of death (aka you get fired). The moral of the story is, if you’re thinking of going into fast-food, make sure it’s really what you want and that you know what to expect. And always, always, always be nice to your server and tip them if you are able. Even a small, simple act of kindness can really brighten that worker’s day.
