I’m Hatin’ It: 4 Reasons Why I Hate Working at McDonald’s

I'm sure this is what you think of when I say I work at McDonald's:

It is not easy being a fast food worker. You need patience and you need to know how to push your emotions back down (something I'm still struggling to learn). You need to smile and apologize like you mean it when customers scream at you for standing at the cash register not doing anything, only to scream again about your dirty money-soiled hands touching their food. I am a firm believer of never using violence for anything, but nowadays I just feel the real urge to break people's nose, not just the customer's but some employees' too.

Here are 4 reasons why I hate working at McDonald's:

Disclaimer: All opinions on this article are my own. Also, there are some perks of working at McDonald's too; eg. the food for employees are all half priced. And most of my co-workers are nice to me. In this article, however, I'm going to focus on what I don't like. Bare with me.

1. Being a Newbie

    When I first started working at McDonald’s, it’s awkward as fuck. I’m a slow learner, but damn did they expect me to know everything on the first day?  Most of the managers are nice enough, and I’m sure my co-workers don’t mean any harm. But I couldn’t help noticing that sometimes when I ask them a question, they seem annoyed. I can almost hear them think “how could you not know this?” The answer to that question is “because you never taught me.”  

I’m sorry I didn’t graduate from “Hamburger University”…why does this place exist?

2. The Nerve of Some Managers

    Actually, it’s one particular manager. Where I work at, there’s this manager who’s still a high school student (he only works on weekends it seems). He’s younger than me, but since he’s the “manager”, he gets to be the big guy (though he’s not the only manager there). On the first day I started working with him, he seems to enjoy bossing me around. Which I don’t mind, the work of a manager at McDonald’s is to order the employees on where they should be and what they should do. But the tone he uses, you’d think he’s my boss or something.

One day I was standing at the cash register, doing nothing since there are no customers at the crack of dawn and I’d already wiped the counter and shit. The manager came over and said “if there are no customers, start wiping the counters. Don’t just stand there spacing out. Also, if there aren’t a lot of customers, you need to help make the drinks. I ain’t got the time to do everything for you. Did you hear what I said?”

It wasn’t until one of my co-workers told him that despite my height, I’m actually a sophomore college student, that he treated me a tad bit nicer. But he still never hesitated to show his frustrations at me, something I realize he never does to other employees, not even to other newbies.

I guess you think you’re cool shit just cause you worked here longer than me and graduated from “Hamburger University”. I repeat: Hamburger University. Put that on your resume once you want to start working for real.

3. You Have to Apologize for Doing the Right Thing

    There’s one thing I really hate, and that’s when people don’t believe me when I’m telling the truth. Basically, they’re wrongly accusing me of being a liar. I don’t know if this is normal for other restaurants, but where I work at it’s a very frequent thing. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been wrongly accused of doing something wrong when I didn’t. For example: accused of putting the trays in the wrong order when it’s my co-worker who did. I was accused of being slow when it’s the customers who paid me a $1000 bill for an $18 ice cream cone. I was accused of taking the wrong orders when it’s the customers who decide to change their orders at the last minute after I’ve already printed the God damn receipt; the customers who confirmed that the orders I repeated back to them are correct, only to start nit-picking after the receipt is out.

Worst of all, I can’t defend for myself and say “it’s not my fault”, or else they’d say that I’m “pushing the blame” or “sass mouthing”. All I can do, which I really fucking hate, is to hold back my retorts and say “I’m sorry, yes ma’am/ sir I understand.” If this goes on, I won’t have any dignity left (not that working at McDonald’s grants you any dignity). I don’t know what’s worse; defending for myself and being called a sass mouthing blame pusher, or apologizing for everything and being called a dumb ass bitch who keeps making mistakes. Speaking of which:

4. The Customer Is Always Wrong

    Who ever invented the term “the customer is always right” is the one responsible for all the rude ass customers who treats us employees like dirt. 

Customers are NOT always right. In fact, most customers are very wrong. I’ve been working in McDonald’s for, I dunno, a month now? And I have to admit, most of the customers are nice. About 90% of the customers I interact with during my shift are nice enough. But the remaining 10%, the rude ass customers, they are so powerful they wipe away the 90% with their mother fuckery. It’s amazing. I would like to affectionately refer to them as “bitches” from now on.

During one of my morning shifts, a bitch came stomping her elephant feet into our Mac, clutching her burger and coffee.

Bitch: “I ordered Sausage McMuffin WITH eggs!!! You charged me $63!! What is the meaning of this?!” She was yelling so loud the whole restaurant was looking at us.

Me: *asked to see her receipt* “yes ma’am, you ordered a Sausage McMuffin with eggs and a cup of hot coffee. That’s $63.”

I pulled the menu out for her to see the price.   

Bitch: “Alright then, look at this!!! Does it look like there’s eggs to you?! Look at it!! Are there eggs?!?!” she practically thrusts her eggless burger at my face.

At that moment I was ready to tell her “I’m just a cashier. It ain’t my problem if you got no eggs in your burger.”

 But the manager hurried over to apologize before I could say anything, so I closed my mouth. He said he’d make a new burger with eggs for her, and turned to me and told me to go to the back and wait for him. I saw the bitch glaring at me before walking to the back.

Of course, I was nagged and accused of taking the wrong order and almost starting a fight with a customer. I tried to fight back my tears while taking other customer’s orders, so pissed of the injustice I got teary.

Just because you’re a customer doesn’t mean you can treat me like dirt. It’s called respect, and it’s a basic human rule. The same rule applies when you're in a fast food restaurant too. It is our responsibility to give you the right orders. So you don’t have to yell your lungs out, spitting all over my face with every word you spat. Tell us nicely, treat us like humans; we will gladly make a new burger for you.

I’ve had to take it all in and apologize through gritted teeth to lots of bitches. Bitches who only know how to bitch about us taking 2 minutes longer than expected. Bitches who threaten to call customer service and tell on us because we missed a slice of pickle in their burgers. Bitches who blame us for every single thing, even for having too many customers during lunch time. 

Most of the “advice” customers throw at us are idiotic and bat shit crazy. For example, a customer actually told us to only allow “regular customers” like him into our McDonald’s to cut down the line and time and give “The VIPs” a better service. I tried to hide my laughter so hard I was hyperventilating, he was dead serious about that idea. 

I used to dream of being an air hostess. Now, my only dream is to one day turn to my manager, tell him/her I quit, take off my uniform right on the spot and start yelling at the customers all about what they need to know (of course, that won’t work because you need to work for another month after you quit before you are officially not an employee. But it’s just a dream.)

We cry in the staff room during breaks, because you’ve been mean to us. I might be a McDonald’s employee; but I’m also a college student, a part-timer working to earn my own money and be independent, a daughter, a sister, a best friend, a girl friend, a human being just like you. I am not lower than you.

So please, treat your fast food workers nicely.