The experience of working in the fast food restaurant industry is a fresh new hell for me, I’ve worked for three weeks and while I wasn’t expecting anything pleasant, I didn’t realize it would be this bad. I apologize if this comes off as whining, but I am not certain is my experience is just commonplace for the industry and I am not used to it or if I am being treated unfairly.
To start off, when I filled out my application I was under the impression that I would be hired for $15 dollars an hour (that’s what I wrote down). I was told during my interview that I would be making that much when factoring in tips so I was content. I live in a very high cost of living state, most fast food/retail places hiring advertise these wages. Now we do get tips here and then, but to be honest they’re few and not frequent and I am not meeting the expected pay. The wage I am stuck with is $13.25 an hour, and we are supposedly not allowed to discuss wages with our coworkers. I am not sure if the company I work for is taking advantage of me or if this is standard practice.
I was also under the impression that I was hired to work on the line, making food in the back. Instead, on my training week I ended up working drive thru, taking orders, packing up food, and checking out customers. I wasn’t told I would be interacting with customers whatsoever when going through the hiring process. The online training I received was the bare minimum legal requirements (brief introduction to company and sexual harassment/bias). On top of my drive thru work, I unofficially picked up on making food and working barista to simply manage, I perceive this to be a result of understaffing. These are all roles I should have technically received online training for (my other coworkers have), but I did not receive any training or certification.
It gets insanely busy during my usual scheduled hours (anywhere from 3:00 P.M. to 10:30 P.M.) and I often do not feel confident that the amount of people on deck are enough to handle the work. I have spent time on the line completely alone, running around the store grabbing quick checkout items while taking orders/cashing out and attempting to close. Since I am new, I am not entirely capable of closing on my own as there are certain procedures I was not trained for not instructed on. I feel guilty asking my more experienced coworkers for guidance as they are often just as overwhelmed as I am. I fear fucking over the morning crew because I did not adequately close, this is quite stressful for me.
Some miscellaneous complaints I have regard my hours. I believe it’s my fault for stating my availability to be open, I believed it would help me get the job. I listed availability as open because I got this job near the end of the school year and didn’t expect to start until summer, I made sure to mention there would be a period of time between school and summer where I would not be as available. I have ended up getting shifted for after school till closing multiple nights in a row. This schedule has left me absolutely exhausted and burnt out, as attempting to complete school, practice self care, and balance a social life and personal need with work had absolutely messed with my mental health.
I’m writing this out because I had an absolute breakdown last night. For context, I am not someone who cries much. I’ve experienced some intense emotional turmoil in the past and thus somewhat closed off to expressing emotion around others, so this is just unusual for me. I spent the last two hours of my shift uncontrollably crying, likely making customers and coworkers understandably uncomfortable. I was left completely alone to handle closing and handling drive thru at the same time and was so overwhelmed from exhaustion and stress that I could not help but have an absolute meltdown. It was very humiliating and I was unable to even locate the manager for nearly an hour to ask for 10 minutes to fix my make up and figure out my shit alone.
I genuinely love my coworkers though. I would hate to quit as many are my school friends and I feel like I would be giving up on them and myself. I think a lot of this stress has to do with me being a new hire and not accustomed to the work. I am wondering now if I should keep my mouth shut and try and hang on until I get the hang of things or if I should sit down and discuss these issues with my boss. I know fast food work isn’t easy but I didn’t realize I would be this miserable.