In my first month of working in a fast food restaurant, here are some things I have learned that I will use for any job I have in the future. I’ve picked up good work ethics, patience, the ability to quickly multitask, work with others with a wide age ranges, and also good communication skills with my boss, my managers, coworkers, and most importantly, the customers.

Pay attention to what you say, and how loud you say it. First, you are representing a company, whether it’s McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s, just to name a few. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of what you’re saying that could be heard by customers. If you yell “Ew!” or “That was really gross,” be careful, because the customer may hear and think it could be something “gross” in the kitchen area, specifically near the food that they are spending their money on.

I've learned some things about customers, consumers, and my coworkers.

I’ve honestly learned a lot about people. With the fast food pick-up/drive-thru window, communication over the headset and intercom system is very important. If you as the worker do not understand what the customer is saying, nicely ask them to repeat what they said. (“I’m sorry, what did you say?”) Sometimes the tone of your or their voice sounds mean, and customers sometimes get offended and annoyed. Don't be mean in response to the customer being mean. You never know if that customer regrets being mean to you or what their reason is for being mean. Just accept that the customer is probably being mean because they had a long rough day/week, they’re cranky just because they’re hungry, or they get annoyed when they didn’t clearly communicate what they were trying to order.

I've learned some valuable customer service skills.

When a customer has a complaint, I’ve learned to apologize, ask them to tell me what I can do to fix the sandwich or other problem, and just go fix the problem. I’ve learned that the customer does not care who made the problem, so don’t blame your coworker or anyone else for making the mistake, just fix it and move on. I find it easy to just apologize, fake a smile, and just correct the problem. I’ve really learned that the people who make complaints are really just asking for the best of what they just paid for.

It's very important to clearly communicate with each other and the customer.

Was I supposed to make a sandwich without mayonnaise? Did the customer communicate clearly to say he/she does not want mayonnaise, if he/she even knew that there was mayonnaise on it, or was I informed when reading the sandwich screen that there is no mayonnaise? What if the customer is allergic to mayonnaise—then you better just ask to be safe!

Working with and getting along with others is an important life skill, especially in any job environment.

In fast food, we all work as a team to bring all of the products together to create the order that the customer is paying for. For example, first a worker communicates with the customer to find out that he/she wants a No. 5 Combo, so that means a beverage, sandwich, and fries/side in a bag all completed under two minutes. To get this done, we must work together to each do our part and job to complete the overall job.

Believe it or not, there is a lot of competition and pressure at any job you encounter.

Working in fast food honestly is not a job for everyone, but still giving it a chance, even if it is lasting for one week, really opens your eyes to the pressure of preparing food in a fast manner. Specifically in the fast food business, you learn some good work ethics, like the general showing-up-on-time, cleaning jobs, memorizing, multitasking, and serving food to many unique customers. Often, fast food stores have competitions between other fast food stores to see who sells the most of an item in a week. Also, did you know above the drive-thru window is a timer that if it goes over 150-300 seconds, it beeps to alert the workers that they are too slow? At some fast food stores, if the timer beeps more than five times in a shift, it gets reported to the upper boss.

So, why is there a bad reputation about working at fast food?

“All that grease will make your face break out (with acne) so badly!”

“You will be stuck working there forever!”

“If I don’t make it in life, I’ll just go flip burgers at some place.”

I’m tired of hearing these type of negative messages from people, even if they are joking. When I first told some of my friends that I got finally got a job, these are some things I was told and have heard on social media or other places. The truth is everyone’s face breaks out especially from being surrounded by so much grease from the fries and chicken, so a possible solution may be to wash your face and use moisturizer. As far as the flipping burgers for a career, there is a lot of pressure to make sure that there is a sufficient amount of meat on the grill cooking and ready—if the meat isn’t cooked, the customers get annoyed that they have to wait awhile for their food. When it there are busy lines, you don’t want to be that one who is holding up the whole long line just because there isn’t enough meat ready on the grill. Also, usually the person who flips burgers has to make sure their hands and station is clean, have enough chicken and meat for the sandwich makers—it’s a lot of fast-paced multitasking, which not everyone can easily do.

It's not fair that some people have to deal with, like some of the unnecessary attitudes that customers have, the unkind reputations that fast food workers are associated with, and the underestimated skills that fast food workers and other minimum wage workers have.