Ashley Jones just finished a long day at school but instead of going home for the day she commutes to starbucks to start her shift. Instead of having a snack when she gets home she makes drinks for people who all think they are the top priority. Instead of doing homework Ashley cleans the store and preps for close. After a day of getting yelled at and cooking up drinks Ashley finally gets to go home and finish up any homework. Fast food is a common destination for highschoolers looking for a job. But for anyone who has never worked in fast food it can be hard to believe how stressful it can get. Long lines in the drive through or in the lobby, customers yelling at you because the line isn’t moving as fast as they want it to. These are just a few things that fast food workers must deal with. Some people, however, know this and still decide to go into fast food. Senior Ashley Jones explains why she decided to start working in fast food.
“Currently, I work at starbucks. I chose to work there because I liked the idea of becoming a Barista and it was so close to school.” Jones said.
In some instances the thought of getting money or as stated before becoming a barista is enough to outweigh the stressful shifts at work. It’s a common thought that people would be considerate while ordering and waiting for their food, but it can be surprising how ruthless some of these people can get when it comes to fast food. While most people are considerate there are quite a few who will ignore you or be kind of rude if they think they have waited too long. On top of that there are a few who think they are top of your priorities and will get extremely upset at any inconvenience. Junior Amelia Kitsmiller works at Dairy Queen and relates a story about a customer.
“One time this old lady started screaming at us through our drive through window Because we ‘forgot her sundaes’ but in reality she had never ordered any and she was trying to get over on teenagers.” Kitsmiller said.
“The craziest thing I’ve had to work through was probably mothers day. I was working cold bar and was bombarded with orders, the drive through was wrapped around the panera and even went into the Petco parking lot plus we were understaffed. Even with all this happening the people in the lobby were still yelling at us about how long it was taking.” Jones said.
This type of stuff happens extremely often. Which can be really surprising but the more it happens the more you become used to it and just shrug it off. As to be expected these conditions can be difficult at times to deal with, and not just for you personally, sometimes they can have an effect on the morale of the store. Kitsmiller explains how long lines and crazy customers affect her and her coworkers.
“You can tell it stresses the staff out, you can just feel the high tension in the air, everyones moving as fast as possible, and you’re not just doing one thing at a time either.” Kitsmiller said.
With the stressful situation and the angry customers things can get crazy fast, However that doesn’t mean that all of the effects that these wild situations have are bad. They can help build some great qualities that can help you later on in life. Sophomore Andrew Hoefle explains how these chaotic moments affect him personally.
“We have people come in and argue about stuff that is completely out of our control and they can get extremely upset, but this does help build customer service skills and you learn stress management really fast.” Hoefle said.
Just as Hoefle expressed, not everything about working in fast food is bad. You tend to build friendships with coworkers fast due to being put in stressful situations together. On top of that it can build helpful traits. Hoefle expresses how these difficulties actually helped him.
“These crazy conditions that we can get put into really helped me deal with high levels of stress, when people start yelling at me and my coworkers you learn how to deal with that high level of stress pretty quickly and you learn a ton of valuable customer service skills.” Hoelfe said.
