I worked there as a teen, and when the pandemic interrupted my normal line of work I returned out of desperation. Holy hell what a mistake.
The store I worked at had a “locally owned” sticker on their door- they own over 100 franchises over two states. They have their own website. Technically, sure, locally owned, but they’re getting rich off the labor of masses of underpaid employees.
The pay was $10 an hour, so of course they’re short staffed (wealthy area, my rent was $800 in an old house with 2 roommates and that was pretty much the only place available). If you call out there’s no one available to replace you. It makes you feel guilty- you know you’re making life tougher for everyone else there. I unfortunately was a closer, and the one time I called out the manager had to pick up my shift- she worked from about 4:30 am to 9 pm that day. She usually worked 60 hour weeks, the assistant managers worked 50+ hours, and I believe as they’re salaried they didn’t see additional pay.
Sexism and racism run rampant, people are stressed AF and bring their personal baggage to work. I eventually quit after walking through unplowed sidewalks of 6-8 inches of snow only to overhear my assistant manager talking shit about me because she had some weird hang ups with me- I resemble her deceased stepson and it bugged her. I have sympathy, but she’d also bemoan those getting government money, like everyone should work 12 hour days like she did just to scrape by and be miserable.
The company was constantly introducing new products, new procedures, making the job more and more difficult. Every month there was some new bullshit promo product we were supposed to suggestive sell. Asking customers to donate to charity, asking them if they’d like to add X to their order, etc., while also being friendly and working as quickly as possible.
They toss dozens upon dozens of perfectly good doughnuts and bagels every night. My assistant manager said they can’t be donated to charity in case someone gets sick- I’d heard that lie at two locations now, so it’d seem to come from the top. It’s simply untrue, the Good Samaritan food act protects food donations made in good faith.
The regional manager was a sexist ass, there’s pretty much nothing in the way of sensitivity training. Lots of sexist and racist jokes, it was just kinda standard in the location I worked at.
There’s a timer making sure you get as many cars through the line as possible- doesn’t matter the order size or the customer’s competence, average speed is a source of pride for a store, it’s like the days of exploited factory workers from the gilded age. There are cameras everywhere, phones aren’t allowed, and the manager might get an email from some nameless automaton watching through the eye-in-the-sky if they see a single phone.
That’s the reality for your run-of-the-mill fast food worker. That’s what life is working for a store like that. Don’t shop there, don’t support them, I don’t care how damn tasty the coffee is.