Confessions of a Fast Food Employee (Muffled Insanity)

Some people are just plain nasty sometimes. I really wish I could refuse service to those who just act noticeably mean, but I have to just smile and take it.

One day, this man drove up to the speaker box in the drive through. I said my customary greeting and waited for the order to start. When I didn’t immediately hear anything, I continued to help the customer at my window.

Sometimes there are too many cars, so the next car in line isn’t all the way to the speaker box. The headset will go off as if someone is there, but no one responds, so the best thing I’ve learned is to try again when the cars have pulled up.

So, I assumed something like that had happened. Just in case, I tried one more time because sometimes people are just slow to open their window and didn’t hear me the first time, but there was still no response. I went back to my work.

Very little time passed and the guy at the speaker box is obnoxiously honking his horn repeatedly. He yells at the speaker box, frustrated that no one had spoken up, when I had. I tried again. He yelled again.

One of my other co-workers tried and he managed to hear her and placed his order. As she tried to repeat his order back to confirm it was right, he sped up to my window and ignored her.

When I eventually opened my window to him, which I was not looking forward to at all, he promptly complained about how muffled our speaker box is. He demanded that we fix it and proceeded to complain at me. I just nodded and acted concerned, but I couldn’t wait till he shut up.

No one else has had problems. He was just one of those people that come through and have to find something to complain about. I don’t care how bad your day has been, there is no excuse to treat people poorly, especially when I am serving you. 

Confessions of a Fast Food Employee (Pet Peeve 1)

Working in the fast food business, I have many pet peeves. One such irritation is how people try to garner my attention when they are parked at my window in the drive thru…

I have given them their food with the ketchup they requested in the bag. The window shuts and I am preparing for the next customer to pull up, which means I have turned away from the window. The person at the window honks their car horn obnoxiously, but I can’t hear it through the building. Their impatience grows and I return to the window, after only about a minute, and expect to see my next customer. The window opens and I glimpse the upset face of the first customer.

All they wanted was more ketchup.

I find it just so rude when customers honk their horn or tap impatiently at the window. The first I can’t even hear, so it is extremely pointless for them to do, and the second just gives the appearance that I am a bad employee that isn’t trying to take care of their needs. Both options are just plain rude in my opinion and they make me so angry every time I see a customer do them. In my mind, I see those forms of trying to get my attention as impatience, or that the customer thinks the world revolves around them.

I know that sometimes they are just innocent acts that the customer thinks are the only way to get my attention, but if they just patiently waited for a small amount of time, I will eventually be back at the window and happy to help them.

A harmless, unthreatening way to get someone’s attention would just be to wave, which people rarely ever do, probably since they are already coming through a drive thru and want everything handed to them as quickly as possible.

-The Girl in the Fast Food Uniform

Confessions of a Fast Food Employee (Intro)

About a year and a half ago, I got my first job. I hated every minute of the searching and I loathed my first few weeks. The early days were brutal because I constantly made mistakes, which is natural. However, I have always despised myself when I mess up, so I desired for nothing more than to quit.

Now, a year and a half later, I am looking towards a promotion and I have quite a few stories to tell. To give some brief background, I work in fast food and I can say first-hand how much this job stinks.

A month or so ago, I rewatched the movie, The Help, and I was inspired to try to create something similar, but in the perspective of a fast food employee. Our society greatly needs this. So many people come through our restaurant and have no common decency. They will treat me like an annoying gnat they wish they could squash!

So, I’m no longer going to sit by silently as they run right over me.

-Girl in the Fast Food Uniform