10 Horrifying Confessions of Fast Food Workers
Many of us often joke about restaurant employees spitting in our food, or giving us a product
that’ll lead to projectile vomiting and extended bathroom breaks, but we tend not
to think too much about it most of the time because it can be rather worrying.
However, it is important sometimes to know what may be done to your food, and how the
industry is dealing with the current issues they face from disgruntled employees, and
a culture of speed that makes following proper health procedures difficult.
If your New Year’s resolution is to drop a few pounds, maybe this list will help you
avoid ordering that next Big Mac.
10.
Starbucks Barista Admits to Giving Regular When People Ordered Decaf
Many people rely on their coffee to get them going in the morning, and always make a trip
to the coffee shop to start their day.
Sometimes these people are rude, and the baristas who work at the store decide to find some
petty way to get back at this person who made their life more difficult.
While it’s rare for someone to spit in a drink or perform unhygienic forms of tampering,
there are many less obvious things a barista can do.
Many baristas have admitted to giving decaf to people who are rude to them, and it’s
pretty much impossible to tell if they did.
For many addicts there’s a certain placebo affect involved and it’s not like there’s
a noticeable difference in taste, especially in a giant espresso drink full of milk and
sugared syrups.
Now, as mean as this is, it’s not going to cause anyone any health problems and at
worst someone might not be quite as alert.
While this is absolutely not something someone should do, there is a barista who has admitted
to worse, saying he has given caffeine to people who asked for decaf.
This can have very serious health implications, as some people have very valid health reasons
for being unable to drink caffeine.
While the barista claimed that he made sure they didn’t look visibly pregnant or anything,
most health issues caused by caffeine are not something you can so easily spot.
9.
Many Fast Food Workers Admit to Coming Into Work Sick
There are stringent rules in place in order to ensure that no food service worker is handling
the stuff you are going to eat while they’re sick.
There are laws that mandate that if an employer or employee thinks they are sick, they’re
to be sent home rather than continue working in a food service environment.
Unfortunately however, oftentimes things don’t work out how they are supposed to in practice.
Food service is incredibly high paced with quick turnover of employees, lots of call
outs and often very tight scheduling.
This means one person leaving can absolutely ruin a shift, and there is often a lot of
pressure on employees to forget the rules and come to work if humanly possible at all,
even if you are somewhat sick.
There is also the personal pressure in terms of wages – fast food workers do not get
paid sick leave for days like that, and already tend to get less than full time unless they
are management, and rely on hourly pay.
For a food service worker living paycheck to paycheck, calling in sick can be a life
ruining disaster.
In a survey reported by Fox News about the food service industry, a majority of fast
food workers have admitted that all or most of the time, they have found a way to go into
work when sick.
Clearly something in the industry needs to change – employees should not feel the need
to come to work sick, and never, ever should.
8.
Burger King Employee Posts Video of Himself Taking a Bath at Work
Lots of people do stupid things while bored at work, but one Burger King employee a few
years back went way too far, losing himself his job, and probably making it difficult
to find more jobs in the future.
The employee in question gave himself the nickname “Mr. Unstable” and posted a video
of himself on YouTube, doing something extremely disturbing in the store he worked in.
In the video, the Burger King employee appears to be naked, and is covered in soap bubbles
sitting in the store’s giant utility sink in the back.
This sink is the one where they was all their dishes, which then go on to contain all the
foods you eat at your favorite store.
Naturally, the employee was fired quickly by the company, which obviously doesn’t
condone people using their back sinks as an impromptu shower and then putting it online
for viral hits and attention.
Several other employees lost their jobs for their parts filming the incident – and not
putting a stop to it as well – and the health department was sent out to make sure the store
was in proper compliance.
Apart from the antics of Mr. Unstable, the store checked out just fine.
7.
Fast Food Employee Admits Lots of Drug Dealing Going On
A McDonald’s employee who wanted to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons – no company
wants an unofficial spokesman talking to the news – had some very interesting things
to say about his store.
He claimed to have worked at one of the top 500 McDonald’s restaurants in the entire
country, and actually had many positive things to say about his experience.
In fact, this particular employee can make us all feel good, saying that he is certain
no unhygienic tampering of food ever happened at his store.
While it certainly does happen at some places, it shows that there are always some restaurant
locations that will do their very best to put their foot down and make sure that kind
of thing never happens.
However, he did admit as well that many of his fellow employees have sold marijuana to
customers in the parking lot in order to make some extra bucks, and that they have actually
given free or extra food to people who come in high.
In fact, they call people who come to the place to get high in the parking lot after
eating “ents” and actually don’t mind them at all because they mind their own business
and just look like they are eating.
He points out that many customers who come in high are paranoid about getting caught,
but the employees would never report them for that alone, and are at worst amused by
the customers’ intoxicated confusion.
6.
Wendy’s Employee Admits to Smoking Blunt While Working
A couple years ago a customer went to a Wendy’s location for one of their famous square shaped
hamburgers.
At first, her order went off without a hitch.
However, it wasn’t until she had paid, got home and started eating that she realized
something was seriously amiss.
She was chewing through her sandwich, and noticed the taste was obviously not right,
nor was the consistency.
After inspecting it carefully, she realized there was a half-finished blunt in her sandwich.
She immediately got the store and the police involved, and the store location was quickly
investigated.
The employee on sandwiches who had made her food almost instantly admitted to having the
blunt and smoking while working.
In her confusion from being high, she accidentally misplaced her blunt inside the customer’s
sandwich.
The employee in question was not only fired, but was also arrested for the incident.
In the meantime, the customer had symptoms of food poisoning and actually ended up in
the hospital.
While we don’t know if the customer actually got seriously ill from the blunt or not, we
do know the franchisee readily agreed to pay any necessary medical expenses for the customer.
Frankly, this is the kind of behavior you’d expect from Jack in the Box, not Wendy’s.
5.
Drug Abuse is Shockingly Common in Food Service
A study back in July of 2007 found that among all profession categories, the largest percentage
of employees who abuse illegal drugs actually worked in the food service industry.
This can seem counter intuitive, as many people might expect that it would be something more
like long haul truckers or perhaps medical personnel who have to stay alert for incredibly
long hours at a time.
However, the fact of the matter is that food service is an incredibly fast paced and stressful
profession that can easily burn people out, so they turn to drugs to get through the day
– just ask celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who has talked and written extensively about
this phenomenon.
To make matters worse, many restaurants and bars that serve alcohol have relaxed policies
in terms of when their employees are allowed to drink on shift.
This can create a culture where many of the employees are at least partially intoxicated
during their shifts, which leads to more stupid mistakes, and all kinds of potential liability
issues.
Some restaurants see what this is doing to their business, and are trying to take steps
to prevent rampant drug abuse, but it’s an uphill battle.
In a world with that kind of fast paced pressure, people will take whatever they can to cope.
4.
A Shocking Number of Fast Food Workers Have Knowingly Stolen
Many people suspect that fast food and other food service employees are taking food or
other things when they get the chance.
Of course, we all know there are some honest people who would never consider such a thing,
but there are always those who are desperate enough, or just enjoy the thrill of the game.
And while we know from popular culture that theft happens, and that oftentimes employees
will give free stuff to people they like – a different kind of theft, but theft all the
same – many people don’t realize just how much this kind of behavior actually goes
down in these establishments.
A random survey conducted from hundreds of random fast food chains from two different
major companies – kept unnamed – concluded that an absolutely shocking number of employees
admitted to stealing from their employer.
Well over half of employees surveyed admitted to taking money, or to taking food or other
items without paying for them.
Stealing company time was also incredibly common, especially those in managerial positions
with salary, who could abuse the system very easily that way.
Even employees who didn’t steal were often surveyed as admitting taking part by watching
and not saying anything when someone else was stealing.
Probably the most common theft item by far is simply employees eating food without paying
for it, a form of theft that can still cost the company countless amounts of money over
the years.
3.
A Former McDonald’s Manager Shares Some Choice Secrets
While it is impossible to verify, as the manager remained anonymous, a former longtime McDonald’s
manager shared some choice secrets online about what he experienced over the years.
While some employees will tell you they don’t see food tampering at their stores, this particular
manager says he saw all kinds of horrible things.
He’s seen people spit on food when they were angry, but he’s also seen them stomp
on it and do all kinds of other horrible things.
If someone asks them to make sure they make them a fresh burger, he says that sometimes
the employees will get angry with the request, and will instead dunk a dry old burger in
grease to make it seem fresh.
The manager has also claimed that he once had another manager threaten to fire him because
he didn’t want to use old lettuce that had gone brown.
Of course, he kept his job despite putting his foot down, but other employees might not
have had the guts to say no.
He also claims that if people ask for special order fries, an employee would often find
a way to mess them up, generally by undercooking them if they couldn’t think of anything
more clever.
In terms of all the evil things he’s seen people do to food, he simply asks us to “use
our imagination”, which is quite a horrifying thought.
2.
Norovirus Spreads Mostly Because of Relaxed Food Safety Standards From Workers
Norovirus is a virus that can cause all kinds of lovely symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting,
and other stomach issues – which are also the pain symptoms people tend to report when
they say they got “food poisoning”.
In a study last year, perhaps unsurprisingly to some, the Center for Disease Control found
that the majority of norovirus outbreaks were due to food service workers who were not following
proper hygienic practices and procedures.
An alarming number of the cases they traced led back to employees who did not wear gloves
on their hands at all.
In response to these issues over the years, the federal standards, as well as those at
a state level, have been targeted towards ensuring food service workers are staying
home while sick, and wearing gloves properly while working.
Unfortunately, sometimes gloves are not enough.
If gloves are not changed out often, and proper practices are not followed while wearing them,
they aren’t really helping.
The McDonald’s manager in the above entry admits to seeing employees go to the restroom,
take out trash, and do all kinds of other things while they were wearing their food
service gloves, making them less than useless.
Another employee from a sushi restaurant explains that he dislikes the glove standards, because
it makes it harder for him to properly feel the rice as he is crafting the food and creating
a work of art.
1.
Workers Admit Sexual Harassment is Rampant in Restaurant Industry
When many of us think of fast food workers and sex, we think of rather young employees
who decide to go take a quick “break” with another coworker in the walk in.
However, the truth is that while sexually natured comments and other issues are common
at food service workplaces, it is rarely a truly reciprocal or fair relationship.
Many employees who work in the industry say that sexual innuendo and other inappropriate
comments are pretty much normal, and that they really don’t expect much to be done
about it.
For some employees, playing along and joking back is about the only real defense that they
feel they can use.
Perhaps this is because, according to a recent survey done of food service workers and their
relationship with the issue of sexual harassment, the comments are often coming from those in
a position of authority.
According to the survey, well over half of men in the industry and roughly two thirds
of the women have faced sexual harassment not just from their coworkers, but from members
of the actual management team.
While employees face even more harassment from their normal coworkers, and often a sizeable
amount from customers as well, the manager harassment is by far the worst.
Some employees report it being a weekly ordeal, and with their tormentor being in a position
of power over them, it can lead to terrible situations.