Dear That One Family Who Paid in the Drive Thru with a Container Full of Change,
It was a hot summer day at work, I had just started my shift, it was a little past noon one of the busiest times of the day for any McDonalds establishment. Today seemed like just any old ordinary day of people coming and going trying to fuel themselves for the rest of the sunny day. After two weeks of learning the Drive Thru I learned how to quickly help people and send them on their way. It felt effortless and completely absent of frustration. Until you guys came through. What seemed like an ordinary day evolved and broke my positive mentality of working in the Drive Thru not just for one day but until now. I’m not sure what gave you guys the thought that giving a container full of change mainly consisting of pennies and nickels was the best use of everyone’s time. It took me three minutes of counting the countless number of pennies and nickels until my manager decided to take your change and tell you to move forward so we could move the line. Maybe you should be more considerate of the not only the people in the Drive Thru but the workers there as well. Nobody ever should have to deal with something so ridiculous because you thought that it was a good idea to use the rest of your change as payment today. For me that experience shattered the idea that everyone wants to be quick and efficient in the Drive Thru.
For the last 8 months of working in the Drive Thru I have seen some things that I wished I hadn’t seen. I took notice of the small things like when people stop before the window, not moving forward when there’s space, and when people ask for a minute to ultimately get one thing. I’m not sure how I feel about this job but all I know is that it could’ve been better if I didn’t have to complain about the smallest details. I don’t think that it’s completely your fault because I think that I would’ve eventually got to my breaking point but you sped it up. As a worker, we should be treated like how you would want to be treated. Just because we work at McDonalds doesn’t mean were any less human than you are. We are equal but since you treat us like were not, we become less and less the people that we strive to be.
Alright now that we have that out of the way, you may somewhat know why sometimes it takes so long to get your food. It’s not that we take forever to cook fries, we take forever to make your Coffee, or we take forever to correct the order that we messed up on, which is usually the case, but it’s also the people ordering as well. Sometimes you guys are friendly, mean looking, annoyed, or just don’t want to be here which I understand you may have had a long day, heard bad or good news, or just want to get in and get out. I’m not saying that everyone is terrible because I feel like I have made some connections to some of the you in the Drive Thru whether you’re a regular or not.
I would say there are mixed experiences and although I would like to think about the positive ones, the negative ones always dictate my mentality. For instance, one night I had to take two separate orders for one car which can be annoying at times but it’s whatever. This guy ordered a Big Mac meal with a Coke and two McChickens on an Artisan Roll. Once I finished that order I asked what the other person wanted on his order and he said, “Can I get the exact same thing.” I didn’t think much of it but then I told them the total, I started giggling. Once they got to the window I repeated their order and we all started just laughing for no reason. I think for all of us it was that last order and how he phrased it. It was one of the funnier times that I’ve had in the Drive Thru and I’m sure they didn’t expect to really get a laugh out of their visit. But what I’m really trying to say is that sometimes we share positive experiences or negative experiences and that is dependent on you, the customer.
Out of my time working in the McDonalds Drive Thru there is nothing more important than the customer. Even though I have my issues with frustration when things don’t go my way, it really doesn’t matter about me in the end but rather you. I like to believe that your experience is dictated by you and only you. I can’t speak for everybody else but I like to help people by my first impression of them that day. Since every visit is different I try to send you on your way depending on what impression I get from you. That’s why I hope you all would consider other people when you come to the window not knowing what you want or stopping before the payment window or ordering screen when there’s no line, how would you like it if it was the other way around and you had to wait an extra couple minutes to finally be able to order. Please consider the others around you because we all would prefer to do anything else than to waste our precious time waiting for fast food when we can carry on spending it the way we want to rather than the way he have to.
