Working in fast-food restaurants is challenge. It's physically demanding and extremely fast-paced, which can cause exhaustion. It's been a year since I've been in the kitchen of one of these establishments, but returning has made me realize how much it truly affects me, emotionally and physically.

1. Stress

This kind of environment is extremely stressful, especially on busy days. I work breakfast shifts, which are always busy. It baffles me how so many people eat fast-food for breakfast during the week. I understand that it's convienent for them because of drive-thrus, but why fast-food? I really don't understand people that come on the weekends either. If you're going to get up in time to come eat at a fast-food place (at like 7:30am) why not just fix something at home? Having to continuously work without a break for periods of time in a fast-paced environment is horrible. There are so many factors that can contribute to stress and it takes a toll on those working there.

2. Exhaustion

You'll be on your feet the entire shift because breaks are non-existent in these places. You will have blisters on your feet and you'll take naps immediately when you get home. Lifting heavy trash bags and scraping a grill make the arms cringe if you don't have a lot of muscle. My first week, I had to lift trash that weighed half my weight and it was difficult.

3. Anger and Restraint

This will be caused by multiple factors. There will be things that will make you contemplate quitting during a shift. The only thing that keeps you from doing so is the paycheck that you need. When all of the anger is boiling inside, you just have to take a deep breath and keep doing your job without murdering people because it's the only option sometimes. Now, there are other circumstances that warrant quitting, but you have to judge the situation. Make sure whatever you're quitting over is worth quitting.

4. Burns

If you work in the kitchen, you will burn yourself everyday. I've burned myself multiple times during the 4 hours that I work. The only thing that sucks is that you can't stop working to tend to that burn that almost seared your flesh off your hand. You have to keep working because it's so busy and stopping will mess up the flow in the kitchen.

5. Grease

There's a lot of grease when you're working in the kitchen, especially the grill. When your shift is over, you will leave smelling like grease and sweat, which is a smell that doesn't come out of clothing, so make sure that the pants you wear to this job are ones you don't care about because they're going to smell like grease forever.

6. Customers

This is the one aspect that you can't do anything about because you're the lowly fast-food worker that needs a job. Customers will look down on you because you're working in fast-food and they can be some of the meanest people in the world. You just have to let the criticism and meanest roll off of you because it's not worth quitting over.

7. The Boss

You can never predict how your boss will be in fast-food. The first boss I had was horrible. She would work people do death and treat employees like shit, then act like nothing happened. If you're lucky, you'll be working for someone who is nice and cares about you while working in a place where you can get hurt easily.

8. Co-Workers

The key aspect of working in fast-food is communication; you have to talk to the people you're working with to get things done efficiently. If you don't talk, then things get screwed up quickly. My first experience in fast-food was decent because my co-workers would talk to me when we were working. The restaurant I'm at currently does not have the same opinion that I do about communication. I make breakfast with a woman who refuses to talk to her other cooks, which causes chaos and frustration. I need her to talk to me so that I don't go off on her.

9. Eating Habits

When you work in fast-food, you begin to eat better because you don't want to eat food that you make everyday. There are only a few places that I will eat at after working in fast-food.

10. Respect

Working in fast-food gives you perspective regarding others that work in the same industry. When you go to other establishments, you know to have patience and be nice because many employees don't get that on a regular basis from customers.