I remember those early days at the fast-food chain like they were a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. I had started working there a couple of years ago, assigned as a line cook. The strangest part? There was zero training. It was as if they expected me to be a culinary prodigy from day one.
The management was something else, to put it mildly. The place was run like a boot camp, and nepotism was the unspoken rule. The offspring of the higher-ups seemed to have dominion over everything, turning teamwork into a distant dream and our workplace into a psychological horror film. They had this twisted good cop bad cop routine down to an art, systematically breaking down your psyche.
One day, I realized I hadn't received a copy of the schedule, and I'd already worked three days. I tried to reach out to my GM at 7:00 am, even called the store, but their new phone system was malfunctioning, and I couldn't get through. Several hours later, I finally received a message asking if I could work. Impoverished conditions left me with no choice but to oblige.
I showed up to cover someone's shift, and to my horror, it was business as usual – psychological torture disguised as normalcy. They would use subliminal buzzwords and reverse psychology to mess with your head, setting random timers to keep us on edge and perpetually confused. Breaking rules and health violations was their bread and butter.
The management never admitted to any wrongdoing. According to them, their methods were supposed to build a stronger team. We quickly learned that if we didn't want to be treated this way, we had to make sure the higher-ups were pleased with us.
On that fateful day when I covered a coworker's shift, I had to deal with a fry cook who couldn't handle the simplest tasks without getting confused, a burger dresser who talked to everyone as if they were children, and a manager who seemed to idolize the “Mean Girls” movie.
The final straw was when the fry cook neglected to keep track of time and abandoned his post. That spine-chilling sound of the fryer timer going off still haunts me. I rushed to pull his chicken patty, but five minutes later, the manager descended upon me like a wrathful deity. I had committed the unforgivable sin of pulling food that wasn't fully cooked, even though it hadn't left the kitchen. The venom she spewed was enough to break anyone's spirit. Those days were a test of not just our cooking abilities but our mental resilience.