Amy from Rainy Saturday, talked about her stint at McDonald’s as a fast food server.
I have to say, I did something similar as a kid too. I worked at a fast food joint slopping food on a plate and charging people for the combo.
I loved my job because of my boss and her attitude towards us, but I hated the job because.. well, it SUCKED. Having to deal with weird, rude, strange customers because not everyone is as polite or civil as you’d imagine them to be, and I was stripped of that illusion early on.
I thought it was normal to say Please, Thank You, Have a Good Day or You’re Welcome when people did nice things for you, or thanked you. In fact, it was the opposite. I became so jaded at my job, I just lost all sense of love for my community.
What I learned at the worst job I ever had
Small incentives make a big difference
One summer, we pulled in a lot of cash. I don’t know how much, but it was enough for my boss to give everyone 2 tickets to the movies and a gold necklace or a gold something if you were a guy.
I have never forgotten that. What she bought for us, may have been a small, SMALL amount of money compared to what we raked in that weekend, but it was the gesture that touched us. None of our friends were ever talking about how cool their boss was, or that they got a gold necklace at work!
Our boss would sometimes spend hours chatting with us, trying to help some poor teenagers figure out their life goals and ambitions.
In many ways, I really miss working there. The camaraderie and the way my boss handled everything was something that has really stuck with me.
With the incentives given to us, I can see now that if companies would just do employee appreciation days, or maybe give a gift out of the blue just to tell everyone that they did a fantastic job, it means a lot to everyone in the office. Even if it isn’t money. Even if it’s just a day where everyone got free Pizza.
You CANNOT please everyone
You just can’t.I forgot that lesson when I first started the blog. I tried to please everyone. But then my personality was bleached from my posts, for lack of a better word.
And even when I tried my hardest, I just couldn’t make everyone happy. So I gave up and just started posting about what I really felt, and that’s when the blog started to have more meaning to me, because it is now an outlet for everything — what I’ve learned, what I know, what I think, what I feel, and of course.. what I want.
To make everyone happy, you lose a bit of yourself in the process because you’re compromising and giving up a piece of yourself. That’s not to say to NEVER agree or compromise with anyone ever again, but when you give too much and don’t get anything back, you go into a kind of emotional overdraft.
Everyone just thinks differently. Has different opinions and different backgrounds.
I get a lot of comments talking about how I should just let things go and people just don’t see the need for me to respond to any comments or to get bitchy on the blog… but to that, I say:
Get a blog and write about what you really think and feel and open the comments to all kinds of people to offer up anything they want.
Only then, will you really understand what it means and what it feels like when I read those kinds of comments, and I’ll be damned if you don’t ever say ONCE to yourself: UGH! Why do these people persist in commenting if they hate me so much!?
Then we’ll talk.
People don’t pay attention to details
This was pretty annoying at my job. People didn’t pay attention to the signs, so were surprised when we charged for a drink, because they didn’t choose the combo that came with a drink.Or if it said a certain price, but if you wanted to add something it was an extra charge.
I got it however — no one can read the entire menu and carefully decipher the info. They just order what they want and they’ll pay what it takes (after bitching) when they get to the register.
But it made me even more paranoid when I go to a restaurant to ask if things were included, or if I was going to pay more for an extra addition of rice.
And this is even more useful when reading papers you are about to sign for contracts or about getting a new shiny credit card in the mail tempted by a free frisbee.
Long hours of doing nothing sucks
Everyone wants money to do nothing. It’s a fact. If I offered you $100/hour to sit there and do nothing, you’d take it.
But LITERALLY NOTHING. You cannot talk, straighten papers, surf the net, nothing. Just sit there with your hands folded, 8 hours a day, each week.
You would probably die of boredom.
(And no sleeping or electronic devices either)
Some week nights were slow. I had hours of doing nothing. So much nothing that I started straightening up the bottles even when they were perfectly fine (I mean, we’re talking facing the bottles in a little fridge that not even the customer sees).
Or I’d start wiping down everything meticulously. Or eating. That was the worst. The eating when you’re bored.
So now that I know literally doing nothing for money is impossible, I am a bit relieved. And if I have to work for the money anyway, I might as well be the best I can be at it, right? At least I’ll get stuck with more interesting jobs or higher pay if I’m better at it than Callie Co-Worker.
Don’t ever hit on a girl while she’s working
Getting hit on while sweaty, schlepping food on a plate and wearing a polyester uniform under bright lights is not the best situation to be asking a girl out on a date.
She is more than likely to give you an Evil Eye and think you’re the the biggest loser, ever.
I … don’t have anything really philosophical with this one.
Just let that be a lesson for all guys out there thinking of hitting on girls half or a quarter your age, while she’s working in a fast food chain, feeling like you’re the biggest perv she’s ever met.
- You’re right. I am a bitch.
- Cutting back on things you love
- What is your lifetime income?
- Am having a great time…!
- 2008 in Review
