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10 Struggles Only Fast Food Workers Understand

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10 Struggles Only Fast Food Workers Understand

Working in the fast food industry is a world of its own. Being constantly surrounded by burgers, shakes, and every kind of fried goodness you can imagine isn’t nearly as glamorous as it sounds. If you’ve ever worked in fast food, you’ll know the amount of self-control it takes to deal with these struggles (among many others) during every single shift.

You smell like french fries (and not in a good way).

The smell of fried food is something that seeps into every fiber of your being—and it can’t be washed off, no matter how many showers you take - probably due to being covered in a fresh layer of sweat, grease, and some random unidentifiable sticky substance every night when you leave.

Everything hurts all the time.

Your drive home from work will be the first time you’ve sat down in 8+ hours. Your back aches, the bottom of your feet feel like they're bruised, and you start to see spots. It hurts. Everything hurts.

Sometimes you have to stay late.

There will come a time when someone orders a box of 20 chicken nuggets three minutes before close….and there’s only 17 left. And you find yourself wondering what you did to deserve the universe’s wrath in this way.

Everything is your fault.

Ice cream machine broken? Your fault. Ten-minute wait on a chicken sandwich? Your fault. Out of tater tots? Your fault. Of course, everything is your fault simply because you’re the easiest and most convenient person to yell at.

Some customers are just the worst.

Expect to have crazy regulars you’ll love to hate just as much as you genuinely love them. You know, the ones who order fries without salt just so you’ll cook a fresh batch and then ask for their own salt packets.

Sometimes you have to do gross things.

On closing nights, you’ll often find yourself playing rock paper scissors with your co-workers to decide who has to clean the bathrooms. If you’ve never found yourself scrubbing public toilets after 10 p.m. when you’d give anything to be in bed—just know, it’s a fate worse than death.

If you're not good at math, your life is going to suck.

There’s always that one person who pays for their $15 order by scraping together every single coin they can find in their vehicle (and hold up the drive thru line while they’re at it). Because between taking orders, making milkshakes, and smiling until your cheeks hurt, you totally have time to spend five minutes counting change.

You'll never see chicken nuggets the same way again.

You can never eat there again. No matter how much you may have loved the food before, after working in a fast food restaurant for any length of time, your taste buds become permanently disgusted by the thought of it. You simply know too much.

You're required to wear an ugly uniform.

Because it’s not enough that you’re a fast food worker; you have to sacrifice every last scrap of your dignity while you’re at it.

...with matching accessories.

Can’t forget that baseball cap that matches your hiddeous khaki pants (or worse—visor). Going out after work? Forget it. There’s no saving that hat hair, no matter how hard you try.

Author Alot Careers Team Last Updated: October 15, 2020