I’m a regular at a very well-known fast food place. One of the employees is a very nice, kind, and motivated young girl, although she seems to have some cognitive issues. I’m a bit worried for her when an elderly gentleman walks in with all kinds of weird questions, ordering seemingly random items.

Customer: “I’d like a hamburger, and a cheeseburger meal, and a burger, and some fries, and a cheeseburger.”

Employee: “Sure…”

Customer: “Do you have the kids’ meal?”

Employee: “Yes, we do!”

Customer: “Does it come with a toy watch?”

Employee: “No, it comes with a frisbee!”

Customer: “What’s that?”

Now I listen closely, because I really want to hear how she defines a frisbee; I know I would have a hard time explaining it to someone who doesn’t know what it is. She handles it with aplomb.

Employee: “Well, I throw it, and it flies away!”

Customer: “Great! I want one!”

Back when I was a teenager, a little while before home Internet was a thing, I worked at a popular fast food chain. I was the dining room cleaner and fry maker, and it was my second job.

One day, we got SLAMMED with six full buses of children from some field trip with no warning. We were all left hopping and working our butts off to make burgers and fries and chili for, as I said, six yellow buses full of children. Well… everyone except the managers who, when they saw the buses pull into the parking lot, disappeared into the office.

Two weeks later, we got word: corporate was so pleased with our professionalism! We handled the slam very well! Everyone who worked at the store would be rewarded!

I heard a manager tell his girlfriend that he’d gotten a $200 bonus. Said manager told us workers that corporate was thinking about a reward for us.

A week later, we got our reward: a bronze keychain of the company logo. That was it. Just an ugly, bronze, uncolored keychain no one would actually use. Everyone was rightfully pissed.

Management got all of us on shift together to talk about how the company could not afford to give us monetary bonuses, but the keychain showed how corporate felt about our hard work on their behalf.

I spoke loudly enough for the entire store to hear.

Me: “So, corporate could afford to give management — who did nothing that day — money. But they can’t afford to pay the people who actually did the work?”

I whipped that keychain across the dining room and walked out.

That was the job where I learned that no one above “fry cook” actually cares about the people in the position. It still ticks me off to remember to this day.

A customer gets a cup for the soda fountain. I see him fill the cup with ice and soda as normal. Then, he walks up to his table and suddenly turns the cup upside down, spilling its contents on the floor. He looks confused for a moment and then looks at me as if I could offer an explanation.

Me: “Sir, why did you do that?”

Customer: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Okay, well… please don’t do that again.”

Customer: “Okay.”

I cleaned up the spill and he refilled his drink. I eyed him closely as he returned to his table, looked decidedly at his cup, at his table again, at me, at the cup, and at the table again, and then slooooooowly placed the cup down on the table, right way up. 

He beamed a smile at me at his accomplishment. I smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. I don’t have an explanation.

My coworker is taking drive-thru orders when a woman pulls up.

Customer: “I’d like a crunchy taco. But what kind of meat comes with it?”

Coworker: “The crunchy taco typically comes with beef, but it could be substituted for a different sort of meat.”

Customer: “Okay. I want hamburger meat on my taco.”

So, my coworker rang the taco up as normal, but when the customer saw the word “beef” on the screen, she got mad.

Customer: “NO! I DON’T WANT BEEF IN MY TACO; I WANT HAMBURGER MEAT!”

My coworker looked extremely dead inside.

My husband and I are driving home, and we decide to drive through [Fast Food Chain] for lunch. Important to know is they are selling quesaritos at this time. We have a little trouble ordering, but we attribute that to bad speakers.

When we pull up to the window, it is clear the guy at the window is high. After we finally pay for our food and get the bag, my husband asks me to check we got our food. We are missing a quesadilla.

Husband: “Excuse me.”

Worker: “Yeah, man.”

Husband: “We’re missing a quesadilla.”

Worker: “Oh! I thought you wanted a quesarito.”

Then, he just smiles at us, hanging out the window, completely amused by the mistake. After a minute or so goes by, my husband speaks again.

Husband: “So, can we have our quesadilla?”

Worker: “Oh! Oh, sure. Yeah, man, you can have a quesadilla.”

Then, he just stands there again, looking at us.

Husband: “So, do you want to get it for us, or should we come inside?”

Worker: “Yeah! Yeah, I can get it for you.”

He closes the window and hopefully asks someone else to make the food. He opens the window to give it to us.

Husband: “Do you want us to give you back the quesarito?”

Worker: “I mean, like, why?”

Husband: “Because we’re getting our quesadilla?”

Worker: “Nah, man, you should eat it! It’s good. We’re all good.”

The window closed and we drove off.