The Woman with the Dinner Box and McChickens

I'M BAAAACCCCCKK!

For the summer, at least! I've been back for a couple weeks and I already have tons of tales for whomever happens to stumble across this blog.

So this afternoon I was in handout for the lunch shift. This one woman came through and ordered a dinner box, (if you haven't heard of the dinner box, look it up, it's like the worst thing to happen to McDonald's since they made the twenty piece chicken nugget.) and a McChicken and a double cheeseburger. Upon reaching the first window and paying for her order, she added on another McChicken as a new order, thus screwing up our system slightly. Luckily, our grill team was on a good streak so we didn't have to ask her to pull forward for anything. However, when she got to my window, I was greeted with an unpleasant experience.

I opened the window and said hello and handed her her drinks. I heard my co-worker say that the McChicken would be in the dinner box, and I assumed she meant both of them, so when the dinner box got to my window, I handed it to the customer. She asked me about the McChicken, and I said they were in the box. She looked at me and said "two McChicken are going to fit in this box with all the rest of this food?" Now, these boxes are pretty large. It might be a snug fit, but I could imagine two McChicken fitting into this box since they're not large sandwiches. So I said to her, "I believe they're all in the dinner box ma'am, but if they're not in there I can go have another one made." She gives me this look, huffs and goes to grab the box when my co-worker walks up with another McChicken in the bag that she had forgotten to box. I quickly handed the McChicken to the customer, who then looked at me and goes "I'm not checking the box, checking the food is your job." I didn't quite know what she wanted me to say to her, so I just smiled and said "have a nice day ma'am." I swear to god, no sass, nothing, I just wanted this woman out of my drive thru.

So for the next hour I'm brooding over this, because there's so much wrong with this scenario. First of all, yes, you're right, it's my job to count all of the McChickens and make sure your order is all set, but you know what? You could've just opened the freaking box and looked, and if something was out of order, I would've apologized profusely and then fixed your order. It would've taken you two seconds, and I had already handed you the box. If you want me to check, then by all means, hand me the god forsaken giant box that you HAD to order during the busiest time of our day back, and I'll check. On another note, it's your fault for adding a McChicken after your order was paid out. That completely screws up our monitors and slows everything down, so some confusion should've been expected.

So guess what happens next? About an hour after this woman comes through the line, we get a call to the store. My manager answers the phone, and it's this woman. Now, I don't know what exactly was said because my manager wasn't concerned about the complaint, but I do know that my name was mentioned as part of the complaint. This was the first time my name has ever been associated with a customer complaint, and I personally think it was incredibly unjustified. She received all of her food, and I tried to be as polite as possible even though this woman was just being lazy and was creating unnecessary problems.

So there's my crazy tale for the day - the dinner box woman who ruined my afternoon and gave me my first customer complaint. I'm incredibly thankful to have built up a good reputation with my manager, because he knew that the woman was full of crap.

If you work at McDonald's, tell me your worst customer horror stories! Come on, I know you have some!

Bridget

Back at the McCrib for break!

Hey everyone!

I'm back working at McDonald's over this January break because I'm home from school. This is about three weeks of part time labor for the Golden Arch's. It's amazing how much changes in four months. They remodeled the crew room at my store, and the menu has changed, so it's taken some adjusting. The other major thing that's changed since August is that IT'S FREAKING FREEZING.

I mean, I'd prance, but I can't feel my fingers. 

I don't know if most people realize this, but during the winter, drive thru staff stands in the freezing cold for upwards of four hours taking your orders, making your change, and handing you your food. It's ridiculously cold, and the McDonald's corporation only provides these run down, ripped jackets with broken velcro sleeves. Since the velcro has ripped on the sleeves, you can't keep the sleeves in place, so you have no choice but to roll them up so that you have a full range of motion. Plus, since the monitors are touch screen, you have to use these gloves that have the fingers cut off. So your hands are kind of warm, but the tips of your fingers go numb within an hour. If you haven't caught on, it's freaking cold. 

Catching my drift?

McDonald's is a multi BILLION dollar corporation. Not million. BILLION. With the amount of money McDonald's makes per minute, and the amount of people it employs, some jackets and mittens shouldn't be too difficult to provide. You can buy your own jackets, but that's kind of an investment and most people don't know if it's worth paying for because they don't know how long they'll be working there. Plus, if you outgrow it or if it gets damaged, you have to buy a whole new one. These employees just aren't willing to do that. All I'm saying is, I shouldn't have to worry about frostbite when working a normal shift at McDonald's. 

So that pretty much lines up my winter season at McDonald's. You all are going to have to pray for me. 

Until next time, 

Bridget

Managerial Staff

McDonald's is a corporation like any other, and with that corporation comes shift managers, restaurant managers and owners, maintenance managers, etc. I think everyone can agree with me when I say that some managers are good, and some managers are not so good. Here's what I think a good manager looks like, and I think this can be transferred into any business, whether it be a restaurant or a major corporation.

1) If something isn't going correctly, it's okay to jump in and fix the problem yourself. Everything at McDonald's is time sensitive, since it's a fast food establishment. So when problems arise or things break, some managers will yell at the crew members and tell them to fix it instead of fixing the problem first, then explaining the process to them. A good manager actively helps instead of yelling at other people that don't actually know what they're doing.

2) Yelling doesn't solve anything. You want something changed? Be calm, cool and collected about it. More people will respect you if you talk with them, not at them.

3) Make it a priority to build relationships with your employees. People don't want to work for a manager that doesn't want to get to know them. Make small talk, learn about their lives outside of work. Making connections like these build good relationships and make people want to come to work.

4) You're a manager, not the second coming of Christ. You may have more power than others, but you are just as replaceable as the crew members you are harassing. Just a little something to remember!

Of course, there's more that goes into being a good manager, in both the McDonald's workplace and any other establishment. These are just some of the attributes that stick out in my mind as I work at the McCrib. Let me know what you think, does this work for the managers you have met?

Perspective.

Life's all about disappointments.

Yesterday I worked a five hour shift. No complaining, it was pretty uneventful. Nothing too extreme or out of the norm for the standard McDonald's shift.

Today, Boston was bombed.

No one knows why, and two people have died so far, with 141 others injured.

Like I said, life's full of disappointments.

A friend of mine was actually at the bombing in Boston, not in the middle of it, but a close enough witness to this horrible tragedy.

Today, my fellow McDonald's employee said a woman yelled at her because their wasn't a sufficient amount of whipped cream on her shamrock shake. Is it disappointing? Maybe, for a moment.

In the grand scheme of things, none of this matters. McDonald's, and your experience dining at one of the millions of fast food locations, doesn't matter. Your life can be taken away in a moment, are you going to spend it yelling at the part time teenage workers at a fast food chain?

Food for thought.

Madness and Mayhem

It's never fun to work at McDonalds.

Never.

After the first hour or two of your shift, it's like you're a zombie. You just start going through the motions of what you've always learned. Hi, how are you? Would you like barbecue sauce with those chicken mcnuggets? No sir, I can't replace a mcflurry in a drink in any value meal. I'm sorry. Have a great day.

The time starts going by so slowly, and you start getting excited when a minute has passed and you can say to your coworker, "ONLY THREE HOURS 46 MINUTES AND 7 SECONDS UNTIL I CAN GO HOME!"

I realized today that I am always on the register when the crazy customers come in. ALWAYS.

Last week, my friend was on register and I was taking orders, and right before I was taking over register and orders and she was going home, she got the nicest lady ever who bought my friend a cup of coffee for "great service." Then I got on the register.

The next customer to come in while I'm on register is this cranky old man who can't hear anything and insists that it's my fault that his day is going horribly. He changes his order five times, holds the entire line up, and then when he's finally gone, I'm left to deal with the ten angry customers behind him.

It's like I'm some crazy person magnet, like the universe suddenly says, "oh, is Bridget working today? Excellent. Lets send every cranky insane person to her window. This'll be fun!"

A little McDonald's tip: if the line is taking forever, it's usually the person at the second windows fault, the one who hands you their food, not the person at the first window, because it's usually because your food isn't ready. Unless someone truly stupid is taking your order, or is clearly a new employee, seldom is it their fault.

Also, if your crazy, I request that you come inside to get your food. A girl can only take so much.

Vanilla Milkshake Woman.

I couldn't even think of a freaking title to describe how my shift made me feel today.

I worked a 7 hour shift today, and during my last two hours we were understaffed by at least four people. We were scrambling to get things done, customers were waiting insanely long amounts of time for food and it felt like everything was going wrong. We weren't well stocked, everything was taking a long time to cook and we couldn't get back on top of things. I was in back booth for the entirety of my shift, alone, doing orders and giving change by myself. I was doing the best I could under the circumstances. My manager was asking me to perform several tasks at once, and I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed. I was trying to save the shift.

This woman pulls up to my window, she ordered a large vanilla shake with no cherry on top. She had waited about 8 minutes at point in drive thru, and I agree that she shouldn't have had to wait that long. However, her reaction disturbed me greatly.

She immediately begins screaming before I could even say "hi, how are you?"

And I quote her words, "what the hell is going on here? Pull the damn cars forward if you don't have their food ready! I have a screaming baby in the backseat, and you're making the customer suffer because you can't figure out how to pull the cars forward?!"

At this point all I've said is, "I'm sorry ma'am." but finally she stops for a moment to let me speak, so I said, "we're very understaffed today, I'm sorry," and before I even finish my sentence she interrupts me and screams, "it's not my fault nobody wants to work at Mcdonalds, is it?" I just kept saying I'm sorry, and finally she screams, "Fuck you." and drives haphazardly out of the Parking lot, almost hitting a customer on her way out.

I understand where she was coming from. She's tired, she has a screaming child in her backseat, and all she wanted was a vanilla milkshake because she was having a bad day. I get it, everyone has shit going on. Everyone has bad days. You just need one thing to go right in your day and when the one thing you thought would go right doesnt, you take it out on someone else. I GET IT.

This literally broke my heart. My heart aches for this woman and more than anything else I just want her to come through again so I can give her a hug and a free vanilla milkshake and know that she's okay and made it home safely and didnt kill her child or something absolutely crazy. I forgive her for her horrible actions towards me, and even though at the time all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry and scream right back that IM 17 YEARS OLD AND I CANT DO EVERYTHING IM SORRY YOURE ANGRY I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

You can choose your attitude day to day. You can choose how you can react to something. You can choose to make a negative situation positive. Although you can't do that with everything, you can certainly do that in the McDonald's drive thru line.

If you're reading this, I went home and prayed for you. I hope everything is good tomorrow. It gets better.

I Don't Make the Prices.

Fact: I don't make the prices.

Another fact: I don't really care if you end up buying this food or not.

Example:

A woman comes through drive thru yesterday while I'm in back booth alone and asks for a Vanilla Ice Cream Cone, which at our store is 1.29. I tell her the total, and she goes "no no, the vanilla cone is 1.08." now, I'm standing there staring at my screen that clearly says vanilla cone, 1.29 and I suddenly think "Great. Now she's going to argue about the price."

And true to my predictions, she sits at that window and tries to correct me on the price. She's saying stuff like "dear, the price is 1.08. I was at McDonalds last night." now I'm getting really annoyed. I absolutely hate when adults call me dear. If you don't want to pay the extra 21 cents for your damn vanilla cone, I don't care, just don't call me dear while your at it.

The woman keeps insisting that it's 1.08, and my other coworkers with headsets on that are listening in are all rolling their eyes with me, and all I keep saying is, "Ma'am. The Vanilla Cone is 1.29, not 1.08. I'm sorry."

Finally this woman pulls up to my window and goes "I was just at McDonald's last night, how come they only charged me 1.08 then?" I finally ask the woman if she came to our McDonald's last night, and she goes "no! No I most certainly did not!" and I said "that's why, because different locations can charge what they want within a certain range depending on the demand in the area." well didnt that just blow her mind.

All in all, the woman spent like 10 minutes holding up the line over 21 cents. Had it been anything over 75 cents, I probably would've understood where she was coming from. Money is money, but come on guys, we're talking about 21 cents.

Fact: you can come to McDonalds, or you could drive away and choose to spend your money elsewhere. I really do not care whatsoever.

Fact: Arguing over 21 cents with an 18 year old who has been standing in that window for 5 hours isn't a good idea.

Fact: no amount of haggling will make me give you your ice cream for 21 cents less. Nice try, lady.

People be crazy. I think there's a full moon out, or something.