Everyone has to enter the job market somewhere, and unfortunately, for many teenagers, this means being a food service worker for a first job. While the jobs can have many benefits and teach life lessons, they also suck. These are the top nine worst things about working in the fast food industry:
1. When customers give you $15 worth of money in small change
We've all done it before; you have to get rid of your extra change somehow. But paying for your three meals and four ice creams with all dimes and nickels, really? I can physically feel my stress levels spike when someone drops 50 random coins on the counter and stands impatiently as I try to count it out to make sure they have enough to cover their order.
2. Working weird hours
It's smart to say a short prayer before looking at your weekly schedule. You may be working from three in the morning to noon or four in the afternoon until 2:00 A.M. You'll either be dealing with crabby businessmen on the way to their morning meetings or stoned teenagers looking for a late night snack. On the bright-side, you'll have the most interesting stories after every shift.
3. Always smelling like a greasy burger
Even if you work the whole shift without working the grill or fryer, you somehow smell like you bathed in greasy hamburgers and fries by the end of your shift. Even after showering and washing your uniform, the scent still lingers. You've gotten used to just spraying perfume on and hoping no one stands to close.
4. Customers in the Drive-Thru with loud music or loud engines
Taking orders in the drive-thru can be a painful job when it's near impossible to hear what the customers are saying. The microphone that you talk into to order not only picks up your voice, but also your music, your car's engine, and any other noise coming from your car. The half-broken headset that employees are using to listen to you aren't advanced enough to make your voice clearer, so please, just turn down the noise and speak loudly.
5. Customers who don't know what they want
After standing in line for five minutes, you still aren't sure what you want? Fast food restaurants have a pretty limited number of options, it can't be that big of a decision. Once you get to the register to order, you either have to know what you want or you should leave the line. The customers waiting behind you will get frustrated, and the mangers will get mad that we are taking too long to finish your order.
6. Running out of food during the rush
Four minutes ago, there were two people in the restaurant. Now, there are suddenly 30 cars in the drive-thru and 20 people in the lobby and you have no food. The grill is frantically dropping 50 nuggets into the fryer and throwing 20 burgers down, but it somehow seems like you're constantly running out of what customers order. Having customers standing there, watching me as I run around the kitchen trying to assemble a chicken sandwich is not going to one of my life's highlights, to be honest.
7. Cleaning the bathrooms
Do I really need to explain? I don't want to know what people do in there, but they always manage to make a gigantic mess. It's every employee's goal to look busy enough that the manager can't send him or her out to clean the bathrooms.
8. Somehow being short-handed on every shift
No matter how many times the boss says that they will schedule a few extra workers for the rush hours, they never will. All of a sudden, you're taking orders, working the fryer, mopping the floor, talking to an angry customer, and questioning how you ended up in this situation all at the same time.
9. Customers asking for items not even on the menu
Whenever the restaurant decides to discontinue an item or a seasonal item goes away for the year, it takes about 6 months for customers to catch on. Yes, I understand that it's upsetting that you can't get your Shamrock Shake in August. However, questioning the employee why the food chain decided to discontinue this item for 10 minutes straight won't make the food or drink come back. Next time, just accept your losses and order something else.
I could continue, but I think these are the top nine most annoying things about working in a fast food restaurant. If you read this and related to what was written, I'm sorry, and I'm here for you.
