Fast-Food Workers Can’t Stand These 14 ‘Polite’ Customer Habits
Fast food is a ubiquitous part of American life smothered in nostalgia. It defined much of the youth culture in the ’50s and ’60s. Today, its romantic appeal has dwindled. Places like California have implemented their first fully automated restaurant.
What used to be a pleasant environment for families and young couples to enjoy a Saturday night looks different today. A cursory search will show that modern-day fast food staff members have to contend with takeout ‘Karens,’ drive-thru influencers, and mass brawls. Nobody signed up for this!
However, even polite customers are beyond reproach. Workers experience many gestures from customers that are just irritating. This information might be useful for those presently seeking a fast-food fix.
1. Idle Hands
Fast food workers wish the roaming hand clan would keep to themselves. Next time you venture into Subway for your weekly foot-long combo, avoid touching the glass cabinet.
All errant hands do is make extra work for the team, not to mention smearing the glass for others. Worse still, people do this as they move down the line, leaving an oily stain all the way down the cabinet. Hunger makes people do funny things; what is wrong with just pointing?
2. Holding up the Line
Fast food restaurant operatives generally only have one job. Regardless, they expect the same of customers who regularly fail to hold up their end of the deal. Instead, some patrons just slow the line, deciding their order on the spot.
“I can’t tell you how many times a car pulls up to the drive-through containing five people, none of whom know what they want,” says Marisol, quoted in a Fox News interview. “It takes forever and holds up the entire line, angering the cars behind them who take it out on me.”
3. Giving Insider Advice
Inevitably, restaurant cashiers have to serve customers who might have once worked for the same chain. One can imagine how frustrating it must be hearing former burger technicians asking for their two-dollar meal a certain way.
Of course, they are pre-empting potential disappointment, having already eaten their burger this way for many years. A Reader’s Digest post interviews workers who recommend taking your order and bringing any discrepancies up afterward.
4. Paying It Backward
A new member of society’s accepted gestures (at least, that is what social media tells us) is paying it forward at the drive-thru. Some philanthropic customers feel they would like to start a chain whereby they pay for the next customer’s meal or coffee order.
While this is admirable, it causes problems for the window server, who must now juggle orders without knowing who has ordered what. Moreover, many complain they would just prefer a tip themselves — times are hard.
Jason Feifer of Fast Company calls leaving money at the window for the next person, the “world’s smallest escrow account.”
5. Using the Exact Coins
God bless those who like to help the store clerk with the exact change, though they must realize it isn’t 1990 anymore. Most fast food cashiers prefer a card transaction, if anything, to keep the line moving.
The dear customer rooting through their purse for that last, tricky dime may think they are doing the world a service. Sadly, workers have little time to waste with a herd of hungry people standing behind them. If one wishes to pay with cash, at least have it counted out.
6. Speaking Clearly on the Microphone
Workers can lose their patience when a customer’s voice isn’t clear on the outdoor drive-thru microphone, which can also lead to client frustration.
During my time in the United States, my Southern English accent led to many misunderstandings at the drive-thru. I resorted to using an American accent, reverting to my English voice at the next window — this caused some furrowed brows.
The drive-thru speaker can be a frustrating device, though one remarkable new video shows how some restaurants now use AI order bots. A Daily Dose of Internet clip shows a hilariously sassy fast food AI responding to orders, leaving the driver in stitches.
7. Tipping
It may sound illogical, but trying to offer a monetary gift to fast food workers is not allowed in some chains. While it is a generous move, it might embarrass workers who have their boss, coworkers, or a camera watching them.
There is an odd imbalance between tipping restaurant waiting staff and fast food workers, who are doing the same job. We may believe waiting staff have a lower base pay, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fast food workers make less yearly.
8. Being Overly Empathetic
Like Uber drivers who wish not to chat, some fast food workers feel they are not at their best socially at work. For some, getting through the shift is all they wish for, but customers feel the need to “cheer them up.”
One example might be observing their working conditions or trying to “sympathize” with older workers who must be struggling. Comments like this might be intended to ease the poor worker’s pain; they only sound patronizing.
9. Being Overly Apologetic
Occasionally, guilt overtakes people. Some fast food workers speak of regular customers apologizing for their culinary misadventures. The team member on duty might hear excuses, such as “This isn’t just for me,” on their shift.
This concession seems like an admission of guilt, though an entirely unnecessary one. Nobody cares if you don’t feel like cooking that day, and no fast food employee will judge you for being a loyal customer or for your weight.
10. Coaching the Order
We all know someone who never accepts what the menu tells them and lives by the Backstreet Boys lyric, “I want it that way.”
These people might try this in fast-food establishments, where workers have little interest in their preferences, though they think they are helping.
Of course, avoiding the food ‘Karens’ means finding a balance between setting expectations, keeping the line moving, and avoiding confrontation. For those with social awareness, asking cashiers to edit their order doesn’t usually happen.
11. Joking Around
Popular culture loves a fast food trope. TV Tropes lists the “Burger Fool” as a common choice in movies and series. Who can forget Marty McFly’s brother transforming from fast food worker to office executive in Back to the Future (1985)?
This scenario also goes the other way for fast-food employees. The customer who thinks they brighten up public sector workers’ days with a dry quip might be making it worse. Hearing the words, “What can I get you?” and responding with “Anything that comes free!” is somewhere between lame and cringeworthy.
12. Offering Career Advice
The Washington Post wrote in 2015 how it was a myth that fast food workers were all teenagers and students. Many families now rely on a fast food employee as a breadwinner; having a career with medical and dental insurance is a lifeline to many.
Therefore, customers who feel a Samaritan calling when they meet fast-food employees can overstep the mark with their career wisdom. Telling a single parent of two they should return to school is less than helpful.
13. Asking for Recommendations
Asking cashiers “What’s good?” is a somewhat redundant question. They will most likely offer the first thing that comes to mind, or at least an expensive new offer.
Burger joints and fried chicken houses have a remarkable invention — a giant LED screen listing the entire menu. Besides, this is Chick-fil-A, not the French Laundry, and recommending your dinner is above everyone’s pay grade.
14. Influencer Good Deeds
Mr. Beast has broken Internet records in many ways, donating money or prizes to unsuspecting people; sometimes, he helps public workers. However, the inverse is influencers causing problems for online clout, such as trying to serve themselves behind the counter.
There are influencers around every corner, many of whom use fast food chains as their playground. One curious example of influencer behavior comes from a TikTok user named _the_clean_girl, who cleaned a Burger King toilet — a kind gesture but unwelcome in the world of litigation.
