Everyone loves McDonald's french fries — but nearly every McDonald's employee
hates making them. And that's not the only thing they despise! These are the
jobs McDonald's employees just can't stand.
Dealing with customers isn't for everyone.
While some workers might find it easier being out of the hectic kitchen and speaking with customers,
others absolutely hate it. McDonald's crew members tasked with the front counter are
"the face of McDonald's," according to the job description. They need to serve
customers with "good food, fast," while ensuring they always walk away smiling.
But not all crew members share the same enthusiasm. One Redditor said
his least favorite station is the front counter, writing,
"You end up with a huge pile of responsibilities,
and if anything goes wrong, guess who ends up being the punching bag."
The Redditor went on to insinuate that management bugs you every five seconds if you aren't keeping
up the pace they want. But most workers that hate the front counter are more concerned with
customers. One McDonald's employee shared a TikTok listing the worst kinds of customers,
including those that don't know what they want. This included customers
who order so-called "hacked" menu items that don't exist, and of course, rude customers.
Some workers might claim the front counter is nice because you don't have to deal with burns
in the kitchen. However, one Reddit user disagrees with this assessment, writing,
"The only burns I get on front counter are emotional ones."
"You deserve a great lunch, come on bring in the bunch."
Presenting consists of handing out food to customers in the drive-thru lane. Although
it may sound simple from the outside, it is far from it. Besides dealing with customers,
people in this position need to make teas, put lids on sodas, hand out finished bags of food,
and more. Several ex-employees on Reddit hate presenting. One poster wrote,
"Worst is Drive Thru Present. Do I try and count the amount of BS complaints? [...] Casual verbal
abuse. Drunk morons. Moron morons. The list is never ending, and it's the bane of my existence."
Others in the same post seem to agree with him. Another user wrote,
"Present is awkward when you're waiting on food
[and] it's easy to get annoyed at customers at the window."
"But you don't know what kind of day a person is having and you don't know
what they're going through at the same time."
Needless to say, presenting for the drive-thru window is a pretty tough gig.
Making golden, crispy french fries that are loved by just about every McDonald's customer
is also one job that most of its employees hate. Dropping large servings of food into
boiling hot vats of oil is understandably not the most comfortable position to be in. All
across McDonaldland, employees have vented about their experiences at the fry station.
"You want fries with that?"
One former crew member wrote about his experience working at the fry
station on Quora. This person said in their post:
"You're always busy, you get splashed with hot oil, the temperature is horrible,
if you have any cuts or anything on your hands they get full of salt."
The former crew member went on to say the fry grind is never ending,
with customers' specific orders always putting you behind schedule. For instance,
when customers ask for fries without salt, workers have to throw away an entire batch,
clean all of the salt off of the equipment, then cook a fresh batch.
Several TikTokers have gone viral showing what it's like at the fry station at McDonald's,
and how it makes them want to quit. In one particular video, a commenter said,
"I was working fries for my first day [on] the job and long story short I only worked one day."
Ah, the grill. These absolute legends are responsible for cooking up all of
the world-famous McDonald's items we have come to know and love. Unfortunately,
not all grillers are passionate about the job. One Redditor hates the gig, writing,
"I really can't stand the grill. It gets so hot after working 8 hours on it. Literally,
my hands are covered in sweat [...] I didn't expect to be working the grills
for 8 hours where I'm dying of thirst and heat."
If the heat doesn't kill you, it'll definitely leave a scar
or two. Another McDonald's employee wrote on Reddit:
"Any chance I had of being a hand model [...] went out
the window when I learned grill. Scars for miles."
The grill station is also one of the centers of communication in a McDonald's kitchen. Without
good communication, the job can be a nightmare. Several grill veterans have gone on record saying
the job can be especially hard when other team members don't communicate effectively. Another
manager said he constantly had to mediate fights between the grill team over miscommunications.
Yelling at your coworkers while dealing with burns doesn't sound like too much fun.
After food gets cooked up on the grill, the ingredients get sent over to the
assembly table. The first person at this station, also known as the table initiator,
is in charge of putting all of the ingredients together and making sure everything is perfectly
timed so that the order is hot and fresh. They need to pull out the right packages,
attach receipts to orders, toast the buns, add sauces, and more. The
assemblers finish putting the burgers and meals together and into the right boxes.
Some people really enjoy putting together these
fast-paced puzzles. One Reddit user said they loved assembling during a rush.
But not everyone who does the job agrees. According to several different McDonald's
employees, initiating is reserved for the most experienced workers
because they need to move incredibly fast. If you're not up to speed,
the assembly line can turn into a nightmare. One Reddit user wrote,
"I also hate initiating because if I don't have a
good person with me on table, I'm doing [three times] more work."
Our respect goes out to the hardworking initiators and assemblers that put our meals together
even when it makes them want to cry.
"Hello, welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, please?"
We've seen how hectic the kitchen gets and how crazy dealing with customers can be,
so cleaning the lobby must be better, right? Wrong. The lobby attendant is in charge of keeping
both the interior and exterior of the restaurant clean, which is no easy task. In a post on Quora,
one crew member explained why lobby is the worst job at McDonald's, writing,
"Lobby sucks because you have to clean bathrooms, [...] take out trash and carry tea
urns that have to weigh at least 50 pounds full. Plus sweep and mop, and if there are kids around,
god have mercy on their souls. I dread whenever I hear a cup go PLOP on the ground."
One shift manager confirmed how brutal cleaning the bathrooms can get. She wrote on Quora:
"It's horrible. People act like they're animals."
Other lobby workers shared other pains of the job, like backbreaking cleaning tasks,
dealing with headache-inducing cleaning chemicals, or cleaning the parking lot in the freezing cold.
As you can probably imagine, the heavily used appliances that grill up to 550 million Big
Macs every year need to be cleaned frequently. So that means it's someone's job to do it.
On Quora, one McDonald's shift manager lists "cleaning the grills" as the top job no one
wants to do. She goes on to explain that when workers clean the grills,
they turn them off. She also notes that they don't let the grills cool down because it
would take too long. As you can probably guess, cleaning the grill can lead to plenty of burns.
In a viral TikTok, an employee showed how they clean the grills at the end of the day. The
amount of gunk that builds up on the grill left people horrified. But what's more noticeable is
the amount of elbow grease and energy the worker has to use to scrub the burning hot grill clean.
The fryers are no joke, either. In a viral Reddit post, a new McDonald's
worker deep cleaned the fryers for three hours. Although he was applauded by the community,
it's apparent that it's not an easy job whatsoever.
Yes, we've all heard the jokes about the ice cream machine always being broken. If you're a
McFlurry lover, you've most likely been turned away at one point or another after being told
the machine isn't working. But the truth is, most of the time the ice cream machines at McDonald's
aren't actually broken — they just need to be cleaned. And if you knew what it takes to clean
one of these machines, you might not complain so much about not getting your Oreo McFlurry.
According to a former McDonald's employee on Reddit, the process takes hours to complete.
To do the job, employees first have to empty all of the ice cream mixture into buckets. From there,
they have to take out the moving parts and sanitize them individually. The final task for
cleaning the ice cream machine involves rinsing out the inside with several buckets of hot water.
So it's not surprising that most McDonald's employees aren't too happy when they have
to endure the painstaking process of cleaning the ice cream machine.
Just about every business that operates machines, bathrooms,
and other appliances needs team members whose jobs are solely focused on maintenance.
For the McDonald's maintenance crew, the job doesn't take place during the hectic
business hours. Instead, it takes place during the graveyard shift.
According to a current employee writing on Indeed,
the typical day for a maintenance person at McDonald's includes replacing and cleaning bins,
wiping down all of the chairs and tables, as well as sweeping and mopping. A McDonald's
maintenance worker also has to clean the bathrooms and kitchen and wipe the windows.
"Well get a shine on the floor. We'll even polish the door."
Although it might not seem so hectic,
the checklist is incredibly long for a single shift. The McDonald's employee wrote on Indeed:
"I still struggle to do all the tasks given to me at a quick pace."
Another Redditor said the job can get pretty high pressure once it's time for inspections. But the
Redditor went on to add that if you can handle that, as well as some occasional heavy lifting,
it's not as bad as other stations at McDonald's.
It's pretty typical to hear complaints about
how hard it is to be a normal shift worker at McDonald's. But what about the managers? According
to Mega Interview, shift managers have a ton of responsibilities. The responsibilities include
managing crew members, overseeing day-to-day operations, managing budgets and finances,
maintaining health and safety standards, and handling administrative tasks. Did
we mention never-ending customer complaints? Because managers have to listen to those, too.
According to Tough Nickel, managers at McDonald's work incredibly hard. They are required to work
on both weekends and holidays, as well as late nights. They are on their feet for incredibly
long periods of time in an environment that can be "physically, mentally, and emotionally draining
at times." In a Reddit post, one aspiring manager asked the question straight up:
"Is it worth being a manager?"
One McDonald's manager replied with a simple answer of "no." Others backed up the commenter,
saying the extra dollar per hour really isn't worth the extra stress that comes
with being a McDonald's manager. Over on Quora, a chef named Sherin Kennedy said,
"I have managed many restaurants from fine dining to fast food.
[McDonald's] was the absolute worst for me."
Although the crew member stations at McDonald's seem tough,
being a manager doesn't seem like a walk in the park, either.