Working in fast food... experiences?

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I worked in a rental shop and i had exactly the same experience.

I had a coworker, much younger than me who tried to bully and nag and acting condescending to me for no reason, she acted as if I was a 14 yr old. She (because she was a she) was unresponsive to my friendly attitude or attempt to make the task agreable.

The place was full of fluorescent red, blue and yellow lights, I had sensory overload and melted down. I quit the job overnight.

Well, just because things get busy doesn't mean you have to respond all topsy-turvy upset.

And if you can figure out a way to make the job fun, it'll be fun. And by focusing on fulfilling customer orders, you won't worry so much about screwing up.

And the more you do something, the easier it becomes to do. So the more you do the pickup window, the less you'll find yourself frazzled.

Repetition -- it's the one sure way to become less fearful of doing a specific task. Think of it as a form of behavior modification that also teaches you to cope better under stress.

And as a near conservation biologist, aren't there summer jobs or internships you can apply for and do? That kind of work would better serve you in furthering your career, networking, and getting field experience. I'm pretty sure I've seen those kinds of jobs and internships with city, county, state, federal and private companies (environmental, engineering, etc.) online listings. Might mean you'd have to relocate temporarily for a few months though.

I worked in Burger King for a month when I was 17-18. I can honestly say that was a month from hell. I was mainly confined to the kitchen, which I guess was a blessing because customer service really isn't my strong point. I also had one main station in the kitchen, which again was a blessing in some ways. My duties in order of how much I was doing them were: making chicken royales, cleaning the kitchen and dining areas, and grilling the burger meat. The environment was very hot, although this was the least of my worries. I vastly preferred cleaning the upstairs dining area after the stairs had been closed in the evening. No people, just me, a mop, some cloths and what resembled a bomb site on most days. Being such a mess was a good thing, because it meant if I was going to enjoy the peace, I'd be enjoying it for a good long time.

Another upside to cleaning upstairs, that I didn't know about at the time, was that it gave the floor plenty of time to dry, as I later found out I'm terrible at using a mop, and managed to injure one of my colleagues by leaving the kitchen area too slippery one day. I had no problem making royales, apart from the fact that my brain wasn't designed for that sort of thing. Within 5 minutes of that, I'd be thinking about everything but work in an effort to keep myself awake and not depressed. Within half an hour, I'd be losing both battles and desperately needing something else to do. Grilling meat wasn't too bad, in general, unless the place was busy. I was very familiar with the instructions on how to use the grill, and knew what capacity it had. Therefore, I knew that burgers could only be cooked at a certain rate, and if the rate of orders exceeded the rate of grilled meat produced, people would have to wait. Which is an important factor in my eventual departure.

It was a particularly warm day, and substantially warmer in the kitchen. I had put up with 2 weeks of massively reduced shifts (4 hours a day, 2 day a week) and the pay cut that comes with that. I had been told in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to take a week off (the 2 days were my 18th birthday and the following day), I was rather hung over (because I had my birthday 'party' anyway \o/ ), and it was busy. I was personally put in charge of not only keeping up with the demand for chicken royales, but also trying to churn out enough meat for the others to make whoppers and stuff out of. I was keeping up fine with royales, but I was putting out maximum output on the grill, and demand was exceeding that by quite a long way. Rather than accepting my sincere explanation that the grill's guidelines (presumably there to prevent undercooked meat) prevented me from grilling any faster than I was, the manager instead chose to yell at me. This was breaking point for me, and I threw the crew member hat at him, swore loudly and stormed out (or tried to). I got halfway through the packed dining area before I tripped over my own feet and spreadeagled on the floor in front of about 60 customers. After picking myself up and leaving, I never returned.

I worked at McDonalds during school holidays and later, when I was unemployed and searched for a better job.

What I really liked, was that there was a rule and system for absolute everything, so how to handle the orders, what to do first, what next step had to be done...

I was able to manage dirve through, but I wouldnt bother myself if you couldnt, so only half of my coworkers were able to handle drive through. So I always was pretty done after handling drive through in the main time, when you always had to handle more cars at once. But as said, even from the NT´s only about 50% could deal with it, so the managers tried with all people after some weeks, when they got used with the normal job, and simply accepted if it didnt worked for someone. I dont know, how much of the customers use the drive through at your place, but at our place maybe 20% of the customers used the drive through, so it was no big deal for the manager if someone "only" could work at the normal job, because they needed anyway four time more people for regular customer handling.

Ugh, I've only ever had two jobs in my life, and working at my town's local A&W was the only "official" one (the other was freelance paperwork for my therapist after she stopped being my therapist; I loved it, but she ra out of work for me after a couple of months.) Anyway, I spent nine months there washing dishes (something that seriously irritates my olfactory and tactile hypersensitivity and makes me want to gag) and taking drink orders. On rush days I would get flustered ad forget how to make certain drinks, muddle up the receipts, or get the orders wrong. After a while my manager (who, while mostly friendly, inexplicably made me so anxious I almost had a panic attack every time I had to work with him) took me off the drinks and I got to just wash dishes and wipe down tables. It was a grim job and I didn't enjoy it, but it was solitary, and kept me from having to interact with other people, not to mention there were no specific rules I had to remember while doing it, the way there was with taking drink orders. Apparently they didn't have much use for a kid who could do nothing but bus tables though, and I was let go shortly after being taken off drinks. I really hated working there and hope I never find myself in a position where fast food is my only job option again.

I wonder where I really stand, in terms of work. In this country, there's a massive culture against people who aren't in work. I have worked in 1) a shoe shop 2) burger king, 3) a cinema, 4) a building/glazing company 5) a pub 6) a frozen foods store 7) a charity shop volunteer a stationery store 9) delivering mail via pushbike 10) a music store 11) as a long term volunteer with a poverty charity, 12) in a food shop and 12) as a traffic marshal/events steward......

13 cases of work in the past 13 years (since I left school) doesn't seem all that bad, yet I don't feel as though I have done much. Most of those jobs were very short term, and I've been fired a number of times, left twice, and mostly just reached the end of my contract. The long term voluntary stuff continues, as does the zero hours contract work with the event stewarding company, who haven't given me any work at all for a whole year..

@redrobin62: They will make a movie of your courage. I'll just be the little cartoon before the main attraction.

I worked at McDonalds when I was 19 for about 3 months. It was awful. I didn't understand the workplace politics and annoyed all the managers. I worked in the kitchen and seemed to always be too slow when making orders. They tried to get me to work front counter and do a traineeship but I refused because I didn't like all the customer exposure. Thankfully I found another job pretty quickly.

I worked at a Taco Bell for about 2 years. Near the end, it was only 1 day a week, so I had to look elsewhere--ended up at Walmart (I do that and teach online now).

Started working at the front counter registers: taking orders, wiping down tables, mopping, cleaning bathrooms. The hardest part was learning all of the item codes. Then, when I finally figured them out, they changed them to actually writing out the names of everything on the buttons.

Later, they put me on the first window drive through: taking orders and money. The second window is for filling drinks and handing over the orders. Apparently, I was pretty good at it, because they wanted me there the day the regional manager came to observe us. She gave me a happy face pin and a bag of M&M's.

The worst part of being on drive through was that I had to do dishes AT THE SAME TIME. I never got it done on time. Ever. That got on the managers' nerves, but I couldn't help it. How could I take orders and do dishes at the same time? I simply could not keep track of what people were ordering.

Hearing over the intercom became increasingly harder too--granted, that wasn't just my own hearing problems, my other coworkers often reported the same thing. On top of all that, the "chime" that would indicate a car was there didn't always go off--by the time I realized anyone was there, the person in the car was pretty annoyed.

It was hectic, and I didn't always get a lunch, and I had to shower immediately when I got home too. I like the food, but I don't like wearing it.

I was fairly lucky in that everyone was really nice, even when I took forever with the dishes, or couldn't hear right over the intercom. The "worst" one was the area coach, and I wasn't the only one who thought so. (She's no longer area coach.)

Every time I go there to eat, at least one of the managers will ask if I'd like to come back one or two days a week. I always decline--two jobs are quite enough. It was a decent stepping stone, but I don't think I'd go back. I don't think I could take the noise anymore, and my hearing has gotten progressively worse, so forget the drive through.

Not the worst job in the world, but not the best, either. I commend anyone who can do it, even for a few days: it is noisy, messy and often thankless. The repetition of the cash register was actually kind of nice, but...I'm glad I've moved on.

I worked at a Wendy's for a little over a month on drive-thru and washing dishes. I couldn't keep up with the fast pace of the drive-thru (not to mention I would always run out of change during the dinner rush and my manager wouldn't refill my drawer because he was busy... which got frustrating to say the least) and I didn't really get along with one of the managers there. I was absolutely thrilled when a better job opportunity came my way and didn't think twice about leaving.

I’ve been working at one for a little less than 2 weeks now. My manager gets at me for being “forgetful” and I do struggle with a lot of the small details. I have to be told exactly what to do step by step to understand. I just can’t infer. So far I’ve just done the register in the front. I’m fairly comfortable on the register. I don’t think my manager is going to move me to sandwich making or the drive thru anytime soon.

I've worked a lot of fast food jobs; McDonald's, Panda Express, Dunkin' Donuts (twice), and Dairy Queen. I never lasted very long. I tend to last longer in non-food retail, like my old job at Kmart or my current at Walgreens.

In fast food, the quick pace is something I found hard to keep up with and I always got yelled at, even though I was trying my best. The second Dunkin' I worked at, my manager HATED me and was about to fire me (probably) but I quit before she did. I also had trouble with the problematic customers. I liked making the food (especially at DQ), but not the cashiering. However, I now work in the photo lab part of Walgreens and I like it even though I'm feeling a little discouraged due to a few silly mistakes I made and a very bad day yesterday.