Fast Food Employee Shares List Of Things Workers 'Secretly Hate' Customers For Doing
Miljan Zivkovic | Shutterstock Fast food has always been a popular option for anyone looking for a quick and easy meal that usually tastes pretty decent at the same time. With about one-third of American adults eating fast food each day, that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.
People typically choose fast food because of the convenience, but it's important to remember that there are real employees at those restaurants who care about more than how long it takes to get your order of fries. Andrew, a fast food worker with 15 years of experience, shared some things you're probably doing at a fast food place that the workers secretly hate you for. Unfortunately, the list was so long that he even had to make a second video.
Here is the list of things fast food workers secretly hate customers for doing:
Digging around in their wallets for money at the drive-thru
Cass Tippit | Shutterstock
According to Andrew, the first fast food cardinal sin is not getting your money out after they tell you your total at the speaker when you go through the drive-thru. "You have plenty of time from the point you take your order to the point where you go pay for your order for you to grab the money that you need to pay the person," he insisted.
Because fast food workers have to constantly multitask, he said, "nothing infuriates us more than standing at that window waiting for you to go grab your credit card or your bills or whatever it is.”
After several commenters expressed concern about getting their payment ready while they were actually driving from the speaker to the window, Andrew clarified in a follow-up video that this obviously only applies when you have to sit in line for a few minutes. Driving safely should always be your primary concern.
The national median average wage for a fast food worker is $14.20, so they're definitely not getting paid enough to stand around while you hunt for the right combination of coins. Even though they are considered service industry workers, we all have to remember that they don't exist to endlessly serve us.
Letting toddlers place their own orders
Kids have to learn restaurant etiquette somehow, but it's probably not the best time to force that on them when they're 2. This isn't necessarily because all workers hate children or something, but simply because they aren't quite yet able to explain what they want in their food.
"Your toddler has the brain capacity of a spastic puppy, OK?" Andrew joked. "Do you really think they can articulate the words to be like, 'I would like a number two, please. Extra onions, no pickles, extra of your secret sauce, and a big large coke to go with that?"
Etiquette generally dictates that there's no right age for kids to start ordering for themselves, but they should be old enough to communicate with the employee taking the order to do so. And, if there's ever any confusion, parents should step in.
Complaining about the food after eating most of it
Tim Samuel | Pexels
"If something is wrong with your food, you can usually tell by either looking at it, or maybe one, two bites tops," Andrew argued. He said that customers regularly eat over 75% of their food and then come to the counter to ask for a replacement, which makes the employees "start judging you for being the biggest freeloader."
Unfortunately for workers like Andrew, fast food restaurants usually stick to the maxim that "the customer is always right," so they don't really have a choice when remaking your food. But they will get revenge anyway they can and make it to the second round with only "the tiniest little difference."
If your food is quite literally inedible or it's the wrong order, it's fine to ask for a do-over, but you don't need to eat a lot of what you got to know that. And, no, thinking someone else's food looks better isn't a valid reason to ask for something else without paying for it.
Not supervising their children
Many fast-food places have some kind of kids' play area, but sometimes parents forget that the description doesn't apply to the whole restaurant. "Do you think we're running a daycare operation here?" Andrew asked.
Although fast food does come with a more casual environment, there are still other people there trying to eat and employees trying to do their jobs. It's not the right place to let your kids, in Andrew's words, be "running around, yelling, screaming, and jumping all over everything."
Anyone who expects kids to never misbehave in public is going to be disappointed, but parents still have to do what they can to take control of the situation. Sometimes this means taking their child to a quieter spot where it doesn't feel like everyone is watching.
Many people think of working at a fast food restaurant as some kind of job that young people take to earn some money while finishing up school, but there are people who actually depend on this for a living. They deserve just as much respect as anyone doing any other job, so it's best not to give them a reason to secretly hate you.
Maddie Haley is a writer and contributor to YourTango. She covers pop culture, celebrity news, and lifestyle stories.
