Who has worked fast food?

[superpatriotman]

When and where?

I'll start. McDonald's, Detroit. Ages 16-17. I worked, diligently and hard, both open and closing shifts, any day, for 364 days. I was fired (without cause) on my 364th day because the next day the franchisee would have had to pay me one week's paid vacation per MI labor law.

[onecaliberal]

1. A&W aged 16-18

I was a car hop. It was fun!

[Tree Lady]

39. Me too age 17 in 1973

It was a blast!!

[onecaliberal]

42. For me too!

[Demovictory9]

2. Arbys.. age 17-18

[cinematicdiversions]

3. Burger King age 15. Still remember the grease and polyester.

[Demovictory9]

5. lol. yes, had orange/brown/reddish polyester smock blouse with brown pants.

[Bettie]

13. I had the one with yellow and brown plaid

insets in polyester faux corduroy. Ugh.

[Demovictory9]

16. which one?

[Bettie]

19. The bottom one

OH I hated that thing.

[SYFROYH]

4. Roy Rogers in NJ; 16 - 18. I did everything

Griller, chicken fryer, roast beef sandwich makers, fries, cashier, drive-thru, hosed down parking lot, etc.

[Karadeniz]

6. Illegal action. Should be easier to avail oneself of legal protections in this country.

[beaglelover]

7. Was my 1st job. McDonalds in Morristown, NJ.

I was part of the closing crew mainly. Came in after the dinner rush and was there until an hour after closing, cleaning up. My manager hated me and always put me on dish duties. We got to eat all the left over food if we wanted to. To this day, I very rarely eat at McDonalds. Had my fill of that food back at the age of 16!

[Haggard Celine]

8. I did. I was the same age you were

and I didn't quit until I went off to college. I worked at Hardee's, which I think is owned by Carl's Jr. now. Hardee's was a southern company and they used to be all over, but you don't see them much anymore. I had a good time there, a little bit too good of a time to suit my managers. They had to get me focused on my work after I was going off on a tangent about something. I was a lot different then.

[PCIntern]

9. Me

Carroll’s, McD, lunch counters, many restaurants.

[Aristus]

10. I worked at McDonald's for a couple of years.

I made the food look (almost) as good in real life as it did on the commercials. I was good at the grills. I kept the place neat and clean, well-stocked with the burger fixins, and took great care to make what is essentially assembly-line food look good and appetizing.

Most of my fellow workers didn't care. I'd come on shift to a chaotic nightmare of crap everywhere, unstocked bins, hastily thrown-together burgers, and have it going like clockwork within 15-20 minutes.

The shit one does for minimum wage...

[SilverDawg]

11. Wendy's

Early '80s. I made it to Assistant Manager. I did everything in the store - floors, dishes, food prep, front line, cashier, etc. A very valuable experience for learning about serving the general public and managing employees.

[Bettie]

12. Burger King, Madison, WI

A block off of State Street.

1985, I think. Worked there until I found a job where I didn't have to spend the day after Halloween removing pickles from the ceiling tiles.

Working there on Halloween was hellish. Most other days it was OK.

[GusBob]

43. I ate there all the time!

1984~1986. You may have served me!

I was so poor I sold my plasma twice a week at the place just down from BK there

10$ for first draw, 15$ for second. The visits would leave me famished so I would hustle to BK where you could get 2 double cheeseburgers for 3$

The remaining $ was for beer

[NBachers]

14. Domino's Pizza in Kalamazoo- early '70's- worst bosses of my entire life. And believe me, I've had

some doozies.

[superpatriotman]

15. Did Tom Monaghan ever visit your store?

That was still early in Domino's history.

[NBachers]

37. No, not that I'm aware of. I know the name, and the owners had four locations in town,

but they were notoriously abusive. Of course, that may have earned them gold stars in the Dominoes hierarchy. I still refuse to buy a Dominos pizza.

[JHB]

30. My Dominos time was in the early 90s, mid-high-income residential area with a big college campus.

The location, location, location was profitable enough that it was a corporate store, not a franchise like the surrounding areas.

Managers (about 3 over about 5 years) weren't awful, but they did have certain qualities that grated. Some of that was their situation (corporate machine, them looking for an avenue up the ladder, making us drivers, etc. just stepping stones), but some was their own personalities.

The big beef, of course, was corporate. I really didn't care for when they re-jiggered their mileage compensation formula and it amounted to a 15% pay cut.

[SoonerPride]

17. I worked at Taco Bueno and Arby's as a teen

They were not fun jobs.

[tonedevil]

18. No other former Del Taco employees? /nt

[davsand]

20. Arby's in college.

I worked a lot of low wage jobs getting through college. Once I was old enough to bartend I never worked fast food again. My one claim to odd fast food experience was working slicer for a lunch shift and I cut off the end of a fingernail at some point during the rush. I never found that fingernail. Hopefully no customer found a perfectly painted chunk of "Tropic of Copper" colored fingernail in a sandwich. Pretty sure I'd have heard about it if that had happened.




Laura

[Freddie]

21. Dunkin Donuts summers in college

Back when they were mostly company owned. Mostly graveyard shift. The work and co-workers were ok but the customers at that hour were horrible. Talk about sexual harassment. Everyone working the counter was girls my age and we were constantly being hit on by guys who didn’t like to take no for an answer. The worst were the volunteer firemen. Called the cops on them once, they just wouldn’t let up. Sometimes I got to do “finishing” - fill, frost, sugar the donuts when the baker was done frying. Way preferable to dealing with drunks at 3 am.

[Elessar Zappa]

22. Sonic drive in.

2005-2007, ages 22-24.

[Sympthsical]

23. McDonald's 15-17

It was a lot of fun. My friend's older sister was a manager. A lot of my friends worked there. Usually closing shift as I had a lot of extra-cirricular things directly after school. I was usually in drive thru taking orders, so I'd stand there and do homework.

It was a blast. Always had money. Had my own car. My friends were pot heads and would often sneak a toke and exhale up the industrial exhaust over the grills. And that's when the nugget bin would get assaulted.

Not a bad gig for high school, honestly. I totally forget what I made though. Late 90s. I want to say $5.15. Boy howdy has that not gone very far in twenty years.

[Johnny2X2X]

24. Burger King

Age 15, was awesome. Had a lot of fun and the Burger King I worked had an amazingly diverse group of workers from the inner city. Met so many different people from all walks of life, it was a blast.

[MLAA]

25. My first job was Dunkin Donuts 6pm to midnight.

It was the summer before my first year in college.

[OriginalGeek]

26. Local snow cone stand was my first job

Near Dallas TX, I was 14 and made 2 bucks an hour (the minimum wage then). That probably doesn't count as fast food though.

Later in high school I worked across the street at a BBQ place that is still standing except under different owners. Better food but no drive through and probably still not fast. (Well, technically it was pretty fast for the customer - come in, get a plate of food and sit down. But it took us all night to smoke the brisket and I spent hours in the back making potato salad and BBQ sauce and beans and whatnot. Plus washing dishes as we went along the day.

I moved to Charlotte for a year when I was 18 and worked at a Wendy's for a week and that was a week too long. Over the years I have delivered pizza for various different companies but not in the last almost 30 years.

The BBQ place was MUCH harder work than I did at Wendy's but the owner was such a kind man and he fed us pretty good so I never minded the work there. He treated us such that we wanted to do the work and wanted to do it right and we were damn proud to be a part of it. I wish I had written down that sauce recipe at the BBQ place.

Wendy's was just gross from start to walk-out and the manager was an asshole.

[FakeNoose]

27. I was a driver for Domino's Pizza as a part-time job

Not that it was ever on my resume. It was a temporary, fill-in job when I transitioned into moving back home after a long time away.

[Skittles]

36. heh

when my English brother visited me in America, I had left money for a pizza by the door (I was on a work call)...after the pizza arrived, my brother gave me the pizza, AND the change.......I chased the Domino's driver barefoot down the street to give him his tip

[TlalocW]

28. McDonalds twice but not for very long, and of course I have fun stories

First was in college. I didn't need the job, but I wanted some extra money, but I quit after three weeks because I felt it was interfering with my studies. My manager there was kind of a control freak, a Caucasian like me, and she was very proud of the few Spanish phrases she knew as she had just married a Latino man and would loudly - annoyingly - shout them at us. So one day a construction worker came in, and I was taking his order with her standing right next to me. He was pointing to the picture menu and softly saying, "Numero 1. Numero 3," to order the different numbered meals. So I immediately started talking to him in Spanish. What drinks do you want with them? I don't want drinks. The price is included. Oh, okay. What size? etc. Got him taken care of, and I turned to my manager with a big smile and her eyes were as wide as saucers. She never spoke Spanish (one of my majors) around me again.

Second time was in summer between college Sophomore and Junior year in the small farming town my mom had moved to after I graduated high school. Grill this time. One day we got a big busload of people, and only a high school girl was taking orders, and I was the only one working the grill. The other 6 to 8 people were in the manager's office having a gabfest, and no one came out to help no matter how often I yelled. So I was scheduled to close with her that night, and I asked her why she didn't send anyone out to help when both the counter girl and I needed it, and she started yelling at me not to tell her how to do her job. As she was shouting, I reached over and clocked out and started walking away, and she demanded to know where I was going. "Home." If you leave now, you'll be written up. "You don't understand. Home and I'm not coming back. I quit." The place was filthy due to not being able to clean as we went along because no one did their jobs that night, and she realized it. "Wait a minute, let's talk about this!" No. I think you should understand what it feels like to be abandoned so you don't do it again.

When I went to pick up my final check from the franchise order, she tried to shame me by telling me, "You know, so-and-so had to stay until 4 am cleaning the night you quit." I replied, "You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help teach her a lesson on how to be a better manager," and left.

I was a self-righteous prick back in the day... maybe still am.

TlalocW

[TlalocW]

29. I have to tell a story from a friend, Jim, when he worked fast food

College buddy that I'm still friends with. One of the fastest, funniest guys I know. He was working Arby's one year in college, and there was a tent revival one weekend, and a bunch of people from it came in an hour before closing. He took all their orders and got their meals given to them. The last guy was the evangelist, and as Jim handed him his food, the preacher said, "Thank you, and by the way, Jesus is coming." My friend replied, totally dead-pan, "Do you know what he wants to eat? We'll be closing the kitchen soon." That got him a bunch of confused and/or angry stares from everyone in the restaurant until they left.

TlalocW

[Happy Hoosier]

33. HA!! Nice one! NT

[Happy Hoosier]

31. I did, all through college.

Tough work for shitty pay.

[JanMichael]

32. Do chain pizza and sub places count?

Oliverios Pizza (closed abruptly and the shithead owner didn't cut my last check for $175) and Chuck E Cheese and some sub place that went out of business.

[demtenjeep]

34. Sonic Drive IN

from Car-Hop to Manager

[Skittles]

35. wow, almost 50 years ago

burger joint, Danny-O's I think it was, in a mall in the Chicago burbs

[NBachers]

38. I applied to McDonald's once in Berkeley, CA. I was a long haired Telegraph Avenue spare-changing

hippie. The manager told me I'd have to cut my hair. I figured:

1. A steady supply of food to eat;

2. I'll get paid actual money instead of spare changing up on The Ave.

So I took my spare-change money and got me a real Establishment haircut. It was like an episode of The Furry Freak Brothers.

Went down to McDonald's to claim my new job. The manager told me, "I don't have a job for you. I just told you that to make you cut your hair, but I wasn't going to hire you."

So there I was, all uncomfortable in my new regulation haircut, and not even a job to show for it. Oh well, there was always hawking the Berkeley Barb on street corners.

[forthemiddle]

40. 1985 Window Person of the Year

McDonalds!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

41. Not fast food, but worked at Bob Evans starting at age 16.

Then did some other service industry jobs for awhile until I "swore them off". I preferred various physically exhausting factory jobs in comparison, since there was a lower chance of encountering random privileged whackos there.

[Bucky]

44. I worked at Whataburger in Houston in the 70s.

It was a high school job, didn't last long.

And the summer after my first year of teaching I worked a Taco Bell for a couple months to make some cheap scratch cause I was poor

[hunter]

45. I never worked fast food but I did deliver pizzas.

Damn, I saw some weird shit.

It made me much more appreciative of warehouse work and furniture moving jobs when I could get them.

One summer I worked in a machine shop and made little metal parts for airplanes all day on the lathe. I learned a little about statistics and quality control as well. Making thousands of identical parts is not a trivial task. Surprisingly some of those skills and patiences transferred to blood banking.

Another one of my go-to jobs was laboratory data entry. I was pretty fast and accurate on the numeric keypad.

Alas, these days I'm the rusty Tin Man, arthritis in every joint.