People in Fast Food work hard

[Jason76]

This one might annoy people as so many works in it, but I'm wondering if the job is actually difficult. I don't think it is for the mind, but the problem is your on your feet all day and unless you know mental games to combat boredom - can make for a long day (or night etc.).

Myself, most of my work was in dishwashing and also grocery store bagging, so I know the boredom is a challenge and you are on your feet. It's not desk job like at a motel lobby.

 

[Corzhens]

I have a niece who works as a fastfood cashier. She said that working 8 hours is very stressful because the work is fast that sometimes she develops a headache particularly at noontime when the queue of customers are so long. I had advised her to move to another job but she has no time to apply because of her hectic work schedule.

 

[MrHorror]

My life motto is ANY job where you have to deal with the general public face to face, every hour of the day? Is a TOUGH job. Especially fast food. People don't tip their servers at fast food restaurants. While at the other fast food places like Burger King, McDonald's, etc... you have people who constantly complain about the prices to the cashiers. Like they actually have the power to do something about it.

 

[Jason76]

My life motto is ANY job where you have to deal with the general public face to face, every hour of the day? Is a TOUGH job. Especially fast food. People don't tip their servers at fast food restaurants. While at the other fast food places like Burger King, McDonald's, etc... you have people who constantly complain about the prices to the cashiers. Like they actually have the power to do something about it.

I think some of the customers are complainers (well, I would use another word). They're just people with a rotten attitude. However, there could be legit cases, though, where workers are simply not doing their job well - and those people might try to use the excuse, "Why should I work hard for peanuts?". Is that an excuse? I mean, what if they didn't even want to wash their hands after using the restroom?

 

[MrHorror]

It's always ok, sure - to constructively knock workers at restaurants who prepare the food terribly (burned or not properly dressed or put together food items, forgotten ingredients, etc.) My biggest gripe is when sometimes they forget to give me napkins with my food. So I politely ask for a stack of napkins. But most of the customer behavior I've seen involves the customers complaining about menu pricing. For example: "this meal was 3 bucks cheaper last month, what happened?" I think those complaints particularly are asinine because corporate sets the menu item prices, not the employees.

 

[VirusZero]

Is being a cashier difficult? Yes and no. If you're good at handling money and counting then it isn't too bad. But if you have troubles there then it's going to be a tough job. You also have to be able to multitask (keep track of multiple things) and be able to work in a busy/loud environment. Plus you co-workers and whatever they bring to bear. And then, of course, are the people you get to deal with.
Dealing with customers is always the worst part. People are often incredibly rude. And the poor cashier ends up taking the brunt of whatever grievance that particular person has that moment. The issue doesn't even have to do with the company either. It could be something like someone dinged their car door. (Which, sure, that sucks... but don't blame and then take out anger on everyone for it.)

I've seen customers scream and yell at cashiers over very little. Stuff that the cashier has no power over. (Like how the company makes billions of dollars or how it treats trees.) That gets kinda disheartening because they're only trying to do their job and yet they get treated like trash, yelled at and abused over it. Very rarely will other customers step in to help, most times if another customer steps in it's to dogpile the cashier. Management can be very hit or miss. Sometimes they side with the customer to appease them (and thus crap all over the cashier). In a few rare cases I've seen them side with the cashier and basically tell the customer to get lost. But, and I stress this, it's rare. Most managers don't want to turn people away even if they're acting terribly.

Don't get me wrong, there are also good customers too. But they can be few and far between. And the good ones often get drowned out by the nasty ones. Plus even when good customers do come by, it doesn't take much for things to go sour at times.

Doing such a job is pretty stressful, to the point most people have no idea how stressful. And yes, I do think that cashiers aren't paid well enough for the crap they have to put up with.

People think getting another job is the answer. But it's not always that simple. Getting another job takes time and effort. You have to take time to update your resume, then hunt out the various jobs you can apply for (which itself is no easy task since the job market isn't as good as it used to be and many jobs now require specialized degrees/training) then actually go apply for them. After that it can take weeks for them to get back to you (if they even bother to). In many cases that means you have to follow up with them (calling to ask if they've got the resume and if they've had a chance to review/if they have any questions). And even through that a lot of getting a job now involves who you know. You might have perfect qualifications but if someone in management's child is looking for a job (even though they might have few to no qualifications) they're more likely to end up employed instead.

Also I think it important to recognise that we kinda depend on cashiers. I mean there aren't many places that could go fully cashier-less just yet. (Maybe in 5-10 years they might be closer to it, but not yet.) So if all of a sudden there were a lot less cashiers how do you thing things would go? (Not well, that's for certain.) So the next time you're in a store or fast food place... show the cashier a bit of respect/decency/patience. Especially with the holidays approaching (and thus the busiest retail time of the year). They don't need your crap to deal with.

 

[Rick Ace]

This one might annoy people as so many works in it, but I'm wondering if the job is actually difficult. I don't think it is for the mind, but the problem is your on your feet all day and unless you know mental games to combat boredom - can make for a long day (or night etc.).

Myself, most of my work was in dishwashing and also grocery store bagging, so I know the boredom is a challenge and you are on your feet. It's not desk job like at a motel lobby.

Recently, people have been putting down fast food restaurant workers, assuming that "flipping burgers" is easy. Yet, there's a lot more to working in a restaurant than most people would realize. Many have to attend shifts at a moment's notice and have to work for long stretches while standing.

 

[Jason76]

This one might annoy people as so many works in it, but I'm wondering if the job is actually difficult. I don't think it is for the mind, but the problem is your on your feet all day and unless you know mental games to combat boredom - can make for a long day (or night etc.).

Myself, most of my work was in dishwashing and also grocery store bagging, so I know the boredom is a challenge and you are on your feet. It's not desk job like at a motel lobby.

Recently, people have been putting down fast food restaurant workers, assuming that "flipping burgers" is easy. Yet, there's a lot more to working in a restaurant than most people would realize. Many have to attend shifts at a moment's notice and have to work for long stretches while standing.

Do you think robots can/will replace them?

 

[Hissae2]

This one might annoy people as so many works in it, but I'm wondering if the job is actually difficult. I don't think it is for the mind, but the problem is your on your feet all day and unless you know mental games to combat boredom - can make for a long day (or night etc.).

Myself, most of my work was in dishwashing and also grocery store bagging, so I know the boredom is a challenge and you are on your feet. It's not desk job like at a motel lobby.

Recently, people have been putting down fast food restaurant workers, assuming that "flipping burgers" is easy. Yet, there's a lot more to working in a restaurant than most people would realize. Many have to attend shifts at a moment's notice and have to work for long stretches while standing.

Do you think robots can/will replace them?

We are already moving in that direction. Most grocery stores around here now have self-serve checkouts, and the local McDonald's has self-serve machines to order, and now there's only one cash register, and sometimes there's not even a cashier there at all. With self-driving cars, I think the truck drivers will be next. I don't think all low-skilled jobs will be completely eliminated, but I do think a lot of them will become automated.

 

[MrHorror]

Automation is great for fast food restaurants imo. It takes a load off of the people behind the counter. Humans should be able to do for themselves when it comes to getting a soft drink to go with their meal or putting ice into a cup. Modest automation It allows the workers to focus on preparing the food, keeping the food area as sanitary as possible, and taking actual orders. The less stressed and overworked employees are at fast food restaurants - the more likely they are to stay on. Less turnover rate is always a good thing in business.

 

[Cosmic]

Someday, I hope we can automate away these jobs. It’s sad to think that people spend their whole lives doing jobs like this, not just as a temporary job to help someone through school.

Right now, most humans spend their time doing menial work, in jobs where they are highly expendable. Work is a huge part of everyone’s lives though, at least for those who do work, or want to work. Human life and time is precious, and should not be squandered in dull and menial tasks. People should instead be able to do fulfilling work, creating value, not just manning a cash register or a deep frier.

 

[Jason76]

The McDonalds in town has a machine where you can order - and then next, you just take the ticket to the cashier. But that saves needed time I think, and also eliminates human error in receiving orders.