Why everyone should work at McDonald’s once
I held down a lot of odd jobs during my early years. Moving companies, warehouses, retail, restaurants, and the list goes on. One of my most memorable experiences was working at Mcdonald’s.
During a transition period of my life as I was getting things together, I decided to get an extra job to help out. When you go in to Mcdonald’s as a patron, you don’t really notice the others inside the store. Working there gave me the benefit of seeing the regulars and interacting with people at their hungriest.
The morning rush is not so bad, just people trying to get their coffee and Egg McMuffin before starting their day. After about 10am, the seniors wander in. This one dude, Bill, came in every single day with just enough change for a small coffee. He sat there until lunch just looking around. He ended up telling me how he had nowhere else to go and not much to spend. I mean, I’ve seen this guy at least twice a day (he also comes for dinner time, still just coffee), everyday I’ve worked there and never seen the dude eat food. I bought him a muffin a few times to go with his coffee and wished him the best.
Lunch time. Lunch time at McDonald’s is terrible when you come as a customer. It’s worse when you work there. You start to realize how crazy people can get over food. People totally freaking out over pickles in their Big Mac or ice in their drink. I remember one dude came in with his kid in the middle of the lunch rush. He placed his (large) order and waited patiently. When I finished serving his order, he outraged that his food was cold by now. Mind you, his order probably took under 2 minutes and it’s the lunch rush so his food wasn’t sitting around. I tried to explain with logic, but he just continued to go on about how his fries were cold and his kid is getting hungry. This is an adult man, with his kid, completely losing it over the temperature of his french fries.
You get the high school kids coming in after school finishes and they’re some of the most courteous customers all day. As it rolls into dinner time, you tend to see small families and single-parents with their kids. Again, these are some of the most friendly customers all day. They’re super understanding and express gratitude. This goes on until about 11pm.
I’m super happy that I had the chance to learn about people this way. Some people can be really gracious while others may express a sense of entitlement.People ask for what they want differently—either an “I earned it” attitude or an “I deserve it” one.
Everyone should see what it feels like to be on the other side of the register. It’s very humbling to observe people in the wild from an alternate perspective.
