It’s all too common to maintain an uppity stigma toward employees in fast food establishments. Too many people think that working in fast food isn’t honorable because it’s “easy to get a job” in fast food. It wasn’t easy for me. I still had to abide by the working age requirements and I wasn’t met with a paying job until the summer before my first semester of college.

I collected a series of take away lessons from working at Chipotle and these are not-so-surprisingly connected to real life. All the lessons were unexpectedly gained from my experience working in a fast food establishment.

1. Accidents are OK. They’re also embarrassing, but that’s OK. If we lived our lives fearing embarrassment, then we would never understand humility. We need to mess up sometimes to account for the fact that we’re an imperfect species. Accidents are forgiving. If a bottle of beer (or four) smash all over the ground at work because you thought that you’d be able to carry all of them from the back of the house to the front, you’ll still see another day at work. I make a lot of mistakes. I resolve them by loudly yelling, “Whoops, I did something wrong again!” My cheeks glow a noticeably bright shade of red and then I move on. It’s the circle of life.
2. Mumbling is not okay. There’s a lot of movement that goes on behind the counter at Chipotle, especially during a lunch or dinner rush. I would usually be the one rolling the burrito at the end of the line, but there could be four or five more platters to the left of me waiting to be completed and there could simultaneously be a linebacker cleaning the area around me. It gets tight. For obvious reasons, people need to hear you when you talk to them. Communication is what makes things happen. Without communication a burrito cannot be made, money cannot be transferred, and space cannot be shared. Therefore, stop mumbling and speak up. Incoherence will only contribute to inefficiency.
3. Politeness always matters. My fourth grade teacher told a story about how a colleague was constantly rude to her. Mrs. Steinmetz, my teacher, told us that she went up to her colleague and said, “Look, you don’t have to like me, but you do have to respect me.” I remember that verbatim because 9-year-old nerdy me thought that it was a noble gesture. I still agree with this at 18. There is no reason to ever be a jerk to anyone. When I'm behind the counter I assume that every customer might be having a bad day, so I smile and give out genuine compliments and laugh at jokes. It creates a positive atmosphere and makes people feel more comfortable. After all, it can be difficult to go up to a stranger and dictate exactly how you want your food made. It’s always nice to make the experience easier for someone.
4. Cultural exposure is always an asset. There are some people who come into Chipotle who don’t know a word of English. Even someone who doesn’t speak English very well appreciates it if you know how to communicate in their language. There’s a reason that Spanish is the language that is usually offered taught in most educational institutes. I am eternally grateful to the eight years of Spanish classes that have been pushed my way in both middle school and high school. I have reached fluency in Spanish, the second most widely-spoken language in America. I have been able to create an exceedingly satisfactory customer experience because of that ability.

Working in fast food is a uniquely humbling experience, especially for the developing college student. Chipotle reinforced these life lessons in me at a young age and if this job hadn’t been my very first, I might not have realized these truths until after college.