Recently I got a new job at a fast food restaurant and I have experienced many things within the few weeks of having this job. This is my first job, so I had a feeling I would experience a lot of new things. I always heard the struggles and complications of working at fast food restaurants from many of my friends, family, and even strangers. From this, I was expecting most of what they said to be true, but actually experiencing some of these things in person is pretty mind boggling. I have had many unpleasant situations that deal with customers, co-workers, and even day to day life. Not every experience I have is a bad one, but sometimes the bad ones do stand out quite a lot.

A popular complaint coming from people that work at fast food restaurants is that some of the customers can be rude and very picky.

I have had a few times where customers would get easily upset over small mistakes that I have made or someone else has made and be annoyed throughout the rest of your interaction with them. There are even some that will give you an attitude because of what another employee did even though you didn’t have anything to do with it. What’s even more frustrating is when a customer gets mad at you for a policy the company has that you have no control over.

I understand that “the customer is always right”, however, some customers need to learn to be more reasonable, respectful, and understanding. We fast food workers are humans too, so it is normal for us to make mistakes. However, regardless of what negativity some customers may throw at me, I will always handle these situations with a smile and remain polite. A rude customer is not worth me losing my job.

Rude customers aren’t the only people that might drive you crazy while you are working at a fast food restaurant.

Sometimes even your co-workers will get on your last nerve.

There have been plenty of times where I have had co-workers try to treat me like I didn’t know what I was doing or made it seem like I was doing everything wrong. Situations like this are frustrating because in most cases, I do know what I am doing and I am doing it the right way. It is even worse when they seem annoyed with you and try to rush you or get you out of the way.

Some co-workers even slack off, which can be frustrating because it could even affect what you are doing or hold you back from doing something. There will even be times where there will be a co-worker who seems to complain about every little thing that we have to do in the particular job position. This baffles me because it is part of the job and you are getting paid, so what do you expect? No matter where you work, you might have to deal with people like this. It honestly sucks, but at least the majority of my co-workers are awesome and very supportive and understanding of me considering I am a new employee.

A major part of my problems with working fast food is that it affected my day to day life.

I have been working a lot because it is summer time and I am currently not in school. I would work between six to eight hours depending on the day and I know that doesn’t seem like much, but when you are always up on your feet and being fast paced because of how busy it is, it can seriously wear me out. I will come home with my body aching and then I will find it very hard to get out of bed the next morning. This made me want to stay home as much as I could because I was physically and mentally tired all the time.

This job took a major toll on my energy and sometimes even my mental health.

There have been many times where I would feel genuinely depressed about working because of how hard it was sometimes due to the pressure, constant pace, and the low energy I always had after work. On top of that, having anxiety problems in an environment like this constantly had my mind racing, so I would be so emotionally and mentally worn out. No matter what though, I always try the best I can at my job and try to keep a smile even if I have to hide how I feel.

Although working fast food may seem like a nightmare, I feel like it should be something everyone should experience at least once in their life.

It will teach you how to deal with people, social situations, being in a fast pace environment, and how to deal with stress. Of course, due to the problems I face with this job, it makes me wish I could get paid a lot of money to just sit around and do something I actually like, but I am still thankful for this job. Some customers, co-workers, and life changes may be challenging, but at the end of the day I am getting paid and I am adding more experience on to my resume.