Dear Fast Food Customers,

I appreciate you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have a job. When customers don't bring in business, we get hours cut, so in reality, you're the reason I get a paycheck. While I appreciate you, I do wish you would do the same for me. After all, if it weren't for me, you couldn't get chicken nuggets at 11:30 at night. Thank you for coming, but please, just hear me out and consider these things next time you come in.

Yes, I do have to charge you for extra sauce.

I'm sorry, I know it sucks. But, we have policies that we HAVE to follow, and charging for sauce is one of them. Sure, I like to dip my french fries in sweet 'n sour sauce too, and I pay for extra just like any other customer does. So please don't roll your eyes or storm off angrily because I asked for 16 cents for your sauce packet.

We aren't always perfect.

Every employee has screwed something up at one time or another. It could be that we forgot your sauce or you paid for the wrong order. Sometimes we accidentally give you pickles when you said you didn't want them. Maybe you got pulled ahead and they brought the wrong order out to you. We are all human, and we make mistakes too. 99% of the time, these errors take less than five minutes to fix because they are pretty minor things. Please don't scream at me because someone messed up your order. If you calmly tell me what is wrong, I will fix it. You might even get a coupon.

We have policies we must follow.

I know that I said the sauce charge was a policy, but there are a lot of other policies people get upset about. For example, because of our two-lane drive-thru, we are unable to split your car into several different orders. I know you ask, and I explain that we are not able to do that, but I am often met with rude comments as I try to explain that I could tell you the theoretical total of each order, but do the whole order at once. We have other policies, like if you want to put a McChicken on your cheeseburger, you are more than welcome to, but we cannot do it for you.

Along the same lines as policies, we cannot give you things just because you think they exist. Some stores have different offers or promotions than us, and we aren't able to accommodate all requests. For example, when a special ends, we charge full price for that item. You may ask for the special, but all I can do is tell you that we do not offer it any more. It's a bummer, but the deals are only temporary.

Sometimes, you will get pulled ahead.

Everyone dreads getting asked to pull forward, but sometimes, it has to be done. If you order 20 cheeseburgers and three large fries, odds are, we won't have it ready in the 100 seconds between ordering and when you get to the window. Sometimes, you get pulled for smaller orders, but I promise, we won't pull you unless we HAVE to. We know how upset you get, and we want to avoid that too. Bear with us when you're pulled ahead, it really will be right out.

We are people, too.

Fast food workers are often labeled lowest of the low, and that's really not fair. We work just like anyone else, and the location is irrelevant. People often assume we are the ones who aren't capable of getting a job somewhere else or that we're too lazy to get a "real job." Many of us have further goals, but they are just not attainable right now. Some of us are teenagers, working to have some extra money. Some of us work just for something to do in our spare time. We are college students, parents, friends, and people just like anyone else. We just want to be treated with the same respect that you give to everyone else.

Once again, thank you for your business, I really do appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Your local fast food employee