What initially started as a simple summer job way back in July of 2011 has grown into a nearly four-year-long career. I had never had another job before this and haven't really had anything else since my hiring; this job has remained a constant in my life for nearly four years. Given my extensive experience in the field, I'd just like to share with you a bit of a reflection; a quick look inside the lives of fast food workers.
Fast food gets an unfortunately bad rep. The field is all too often bashed as one where unhealthy food is served by college and high school drop-outs in filthy stores. People speak lowly of the quality of the establishments and crack jokes about the education of the workers, but almost always fail to see the situation from the other point of view. While I can't speak for all establishments, I can certainly speak for my specific restaurant in an attempt to show the other side of the story.
First and foremost, workers in the field understand that their job completely revolves around the satisfaction of others. The main goal of a fast food worker is to "provide a quality dining experience" for their customers, no matter what. Regardless of how rude or ungrateful customers may be with workers, they still give their all to ensure that they are satisfied with their experience. Whether they are treated poorly, yelled at, or left huge messes to clean up, good fast food workers will grit their teeth and take it with a smile.
While most may think that these workers are a motley group of uneducated slackers working lame jobs to feed their angsty Hot Topic addictions, this is actually very far from the truth. Where the common held belief is that these workers are school drop-outs, most often they are dedicated students working to make some money to further their education; that is exactly the situation I am personally in. More often than not, the majority workers in these establishments are high school aged kids looking to make some extra money and get some employment experience under their belt.
With all this said and done, one might question how exactly a worker, such as myself, would be able to put up with this thankless occupation for so long. The answer is really quite simple. As a fast food employee, one learns to seek out the positives and the nice, little things. Be it the polite and bubbly customers with exceptional manners, those who help out clean up after themselves, and even the few people that crack jokes with the workers, all of this is almost guaranteed to make a worker's day.
I've personally found the greatest factor that has kept me coming back to work everyday has been my co-workers. I've grown to know and love a lot of my long-term co workers over the many years and can even find myself enjoying my job when I get to work with people who I would consider close friends.
So I challenge anyone who reads this to just take a second to think next time they are in a fast food joint. Know that the people behind the counter have their own lives and aspirations outside of the four walls of the restaurant, and just try to go easy on them - they are people too.
