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.

The Woman Who Wanted a Clean Nickel

I get asked all the time what some of the most aggravating things are that happen at McDonald's, and usually it happens in Drive Thru. It's like Drive Thru opens up your eyes to people and just how desperately they want their Quarter Pounder meals. One day I was both taking orders and giving change in back booth. Back booth usually what customers refer to as the first window, where you pay for your food. Usually, theirs two people back there, one taking orders and one giving change, especially when it's busy. However, when we're short staffed or when we can afford to during less busy hours, one person does both jobs, and that takes a LOT of practice. On this frightful day, that person happened to be me....of course.

So the whole point of Drive Thru is that it's fast, right? You're in and out in a matter of about two-three minutes depending on your order. I had a super good system going that day, and customers orders were taken quickly, orders were paid out on time. I was feeling pretty good, and we were meeting our targets for the hour. Im feeling good because being able to do both jobs and still beat targets says a lot to my managers, and shows how capable i am. Then the spawn of Satan comes through, and I could literally feel my high being pulverized.

First, she makes me go through every single salad in full detail, and then asks about the chicken and whether it would be better grilled or crispy and it literally takes her about five minutes to decide she doesn't want a salad, but a chicken sandwich. The guy at my window starts banging on the glass with his credit card like I don't know he's there, but I'm too preoccupied with this woman at my speaker to be able to take his card and answer her questions at the same time. Finally, she makes up her mind and I think "thank god, that was starting to go badly but it could've been worse." and trust me, it did.

Then this woman gets up to the first window and I open the window, throw my casual greeting, and wait for her to stop fumbling with her purse to give me her form of payment. At this point, I think this woman's just disorganized and inconsiderate, but this IS McDonald's and that's not out of the ordinary.

She hands me a twenty and I start grabbing her change. I hand it to her, and I could literally feel a change in the air. For a split second, it was like the universe was screaming at me to slam the window closed and run while I still could. She looks at me, and then down at the change. Then she hands me back one of the nickels I gave her without saying a word. I look at it, and I said "Ma'am, is there a problem with this nickel?"

Before I give you her reply, I'd like to inform you over the state of said nickel. It was clearly from America, so the whole "Its Canadian I can't use it!" idea wouldn't work. It's also a pretty standard nickel, no obvious blemishes or staining or anything that would turn any ORDINARY mind to think that there was a problem. So she gives me this dirty glare and goes "It's dirty."

Now I stand there for a second because I'm not sure how to respond. Then I say "Did you want a new one?" she nods, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. I closed the window to go get my manager and once I did, let's call her Sally for now, and explained the predicament, her response was "you have GOT to be kidding me." the woman gets her clean nickel and before she can protest I finally slam the window closed and walk away.

Now, there's a fair chance the woman was either OCD, or was having an extremely bad day, in which I'd feel bad trash talking her. However, she ruined my times for the day, the target for the hour and made an entire line of people behind her angry for waiting, which I also had to deal with. I haven't seen this woman come through since this incident, and thank god, because I don't know if I could handle that a second time.

Things aggravate me at work. People aggravate me. But this? Bitch please, take up your dirty nickel issues with the person who originally gave it to me. And for God's sake, ALL MONEY IS DIRTY. One nickel isn't entirely less dirty than another, and you have NO. Idea where it's been.

I guess you never really know about some people. Especially not this woman, because either way, she's crazy. That's the only answer.

Working the Front Counter

There is more than a likely chance that you have purchased something at McDonalds by walking inside the store and ordering, rather than Drive Thru service. More often than not, someone like me is taking your order. There are a couple scenarios that go down when working front counter, and perhaps by the end of this post you'll understand why no one ever wants to work front counter.

First of all, front counter is the basic training for new recruits. It's the first place when working in service that you'll go. It's where you learn how to take orders, and all that McDonalds has to offer in it's vastly greasy menu.  9 times out of 10 the person taking your order on front counter hasn't been working there very long, or the restaurant is short staffed and an experienced person is forced to take orders on front counter while multi tasking with something else. There are a few common stereotypes that I've noticed over the years of people that come in threw front counter alongside all you normal people who just want a Big Mac meal and a Coke to go.

1) The Elderly Couple. These people are either the nicest people you've ever met, or the meanest people ever who cannot hear a blessed thing and don't understand why the menu and prices aren't the same as they were forty years ago. The nice people come in all the time and get just about the same thing, they're what we call regulars. One of my regulars is named Bill. He and his wife come threw and order two medium sized Filet-O-Fish meals and diet cokes, and occasionally an apple pie here and there. In all good fun, they brighten my day a little bit. The other extreme being the mean old people who yell at me for just about everything. The price went up by ten cents? No senior discount on anything but small drinks? It is obviously my fault, the part-time, minimum wage employee at the front counter. In all actuality, they're probably just upset with something in their life, and the constant change around them. However, yelling at me and arguing with me over every little thing is not going to change anything.

2) 19 Kids and Counting comes thru McDonalds! Not really, but it feels like it! Stressed moms bring five million kids in for happy meals galore, and what happens? He actually wants his cheeseburger plain, and is their any way we could get a different toy? Kids are all over the counters yelling and screaming and I can't hear a blessed thing this poor mother is saying. I actually feel pretty bad for her, because once I tell her what she, deep down, already knows, that that IS the only toy in the store and yes, we ARE out of milkshakes, all hell breaks loose. Kids are serious about their happy meals, let me tell you!

3) The Quiet Ones. This could be anyone, and it's horrible. This is easily a form of torture. Usually I have to coax their order out of them like this, "Sir, was that a Big Mac you wanted? Or perhaps some chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce and a coke?" I feel like I'm ordering for them. To top it off, when they do choose to speak, it's so quietly that with all the noise going on behind me, I have to keep asking them to repeat their order. And then they start yelling at me like I'm deaf and all I want to say to them is "You know what? I may just screw up your order on purpose just so you learn to speak up next time. Oh, you actually wanted Sweet and Sour sauce? Here's hot mustard instead, that's what your incoherent mumbling sounded like." Next time you go to a fast food restaurant, assess whether YOU are the quiet one. Silent but annoying, I tell you!

Normal people do come in as well, and some sympathetic people. The McDonalds I work at tends to be the busiest one in the area for both Drive Thru and front counter. We run out of food and products like crazy, and things break left and right. In actuality, there's nothing we can do about it. Everything's so automated that when something breaks, we're screwed. You normal, kind people out there, you're our favorite people and make this job bearable.

That's all for today, folks! Thanks for stopping to get your daily dose of the fast food business.

Ground Rules

I realized this afternoon that I talk about my job way too much. When a person has this realization, the usual response would be, "gee, I should really fix that, and probably get a hobby." My reaction went something more like, "I should write a blog!"

I believe some introductions are in order. No doubt you found this page through some mishap and are probably wondering who I am and what exactly I do for a living...okay, probably not, but I'm going to tell you anyways.

My name is Bridget, I'm 18 years old (and I don't need a governess! Just kidding. Props to anyone who can name that movie!) and I am currently employed at McDonald's.

A couple side notes before any real posts begin:

1) All of the names of other workers will be changed for security sake and as to not offend anyone.

2) I do actually like my job sometimes.

3) I do not bear any grudges against any customers, fellow employees, or the McDonald's corporation.

And there you have it! As my friend says, every beginning must start with an introduction. The next post will be way cooler, I promise!