Why Is There A Stigma About Working In McDonalds

I don’t ever rant/post work-related material, however…

As a McDonald’s employee, one would expect to go through the regular stresses of dealing with the public. Today, five minutes into my shift, a woman calls me and begins to swear and scream at me because her order was messed up, two days ago (when the power had gone out and everyone was coming for supper). She asked me If I had put my “listening ears on” this morning, and if she were to come through this morning would she receive a f***ed up order

or any attitude, and I did my best to be as polite as I could, and welcomed her to come through the drive-thru once more.

She did come through. I didn’t know it was her until I was fronted with “what part of add McChicken sauce do you not f***ing understand?” She began to belittle my team, calling one of them a 12-year-old for wearing braces. I looked at both of her sandwiches, and they were, in fact, made correctly. This did not go well with her, and she told me that I was an idiot, and “good luck working at McDonald’s for the rest of your life”.

I would like to get something straight here- the fact that she was taking out her anger on some teenagers working part-time was not the issue, this (unfortunately) happens daily. But there is a serious stigma involved with working at a fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s. McDonald’s is an incredibly difficult job, that doesn’t allow for “idiots” to excel or move up the ladder. Even if my plan WAS to work at McDonald’s for the rest of my life, I would WELCOME that challenge. When I come home from work, I am ALWAYS tired, and ALWAYS feel the reward of pushing myself to work with a team. I have gained more character through my years working at McDonald’s than any other opportunity in my life, and though you may belittle me when we get your order wrong (even though it was right this time ;p), you are only helping me become stronger. I am a proud McDonald’s worker.

(look at all those held orders)

Dec 18 Addition: Thank you so much for the respect and support! I never expected such a beautiful response! To those in the comments saying negative things about working at McDonald’s, you are living proof of the stigma associated with working here that I had previously mentioned. Thanks all!

Elle levesque