Hey! This story is a bit old but I thought may as well share it and show just why fast food sucks.
If any of you are thinking about taking that fast food job for experience let this be a cautionary tale.
I used to live in a small town in northern Arkansas and worked in a McDonalds in the state nearby and immediately things went to hell the first day, but I was young and very desperate for a job where I wasn't working over twelve hours a day and where I thought my physical health will be considered. (my former work refused to let me call in the day after a small car accident that has left my back not being the same, but that's a different story.)
Long story short, the workplace was abusive and turnover was very high. The store manager would yell at us to work faster during rush and only jump on the line to make herself food before eating in the lobby with her family. At one point I was working the grill and fryer at the same time with no air conditioning or break for a two hour rush and only got a break when I almost passed out on the floor.
Then the place had a golden boy who could do no wrong, he was held in such a high regard he was able to comment on girls bodies and nothing was said. Eventually he was forced to be 'relocated' to a different store owned by the same person because he said a sexual joke near a minor and the minor got uncomfortable and told her dad who complained. The store owner refused to fire him and the girl who reported this was forced to quit because management made her life a living hell at work over getting him relocated. I was personally happy he was relocated, because he was an abusive asshole to me as well and I disliked him.
But what was the straw that broke the camels back was when I moved to nightshift, I got tired of the favouritism of dayshift and believed nightshift may be better suited for me. Boy was I wrong, I even wish I could jump back in time and smack my past self for that decision.
The night manager was a horrendous 40 year old woman, she would constantly call this poor 16 year old girl a sl*t (a girl who I later learned was a victim of consistent s***al a***alts at home and used work to try to get out of that situation.) and when I reported the night manager to the store manager I got told they couldn't control what people said but they would talk to the woman. Then they told that woman I reported her and so she tells this poor kid I was the one saying that about her to get the kid to help bully me off nightshift. I don't regret reporting the night manager though because that woman was forced to stop insulting the kid at least.
But because that manager now hated me this crew trainer decided he was going to jump on the bully train. He would insult me on table and then he would go in the back for two hours forcing me to do his work. I figured if I continued and just bared with it and do his job as well since talking to management was obviously pointless, I thought at least I will get the yearly raise for all this work I'm doing.
I was wrong about that too.
See, the issue is the minimum wage was going from 7.65 an hour to over 8.00 an hour and so that meant the owners had to pay more than what they wanted to pay people for. I got pulled aside by the owner and got told I was being passed up for a raise and that the raise was going to (insert abusive crew trainer and manager) and that I was oh so lucky minimum wage was being raised, that the franchise owner decided to start paying it before January 1st and that I should be thankful.
I just looked at her for a good minute. I worked my ass off for a year, I put up with the constant abuse from her crappy favorite employees, I even got seriously sick while on the job and continued to work, and I picked up the slack from that one guy who bullied me. Deciding I would rather salvage what little dignity I had left at that point, I refused to thank her and put in my two weeks notice.
Now I hate fast food with a passion and would rather take a long walk off a short pier than work in fast food again and I highly suggest if other options are available take those options. Don't do fast food unless it's absolutely necessary. Don't destroy your mental and physical health for only minimum wage and a potential 50 cent raise. It's not worth it and because of how management likes to throw their weight around. I could write a longer thread on the crap that went on with that job, but in the end fast food places need to unionize. Employees need to be represented by something that is going to stick up for their rights and not allow them to endure constant abuse from their workplace.