What Would Jesus Enriquez-Hernandez Do?

Can+I+take+your+order%3F

Can I take your order?

Jesus Enriquez-Hernandez '14, Staff Writer

Work a fast food job for some money.

Do you know anyone who hates their job? Have you ever felt like you’re doing too much work for a low salary? If you do, then you have worked in the fast food industry. I started working at a fast food place during winter break. Let me tell you something, working at a fast food restaurant isn’t the most creative way to pass the time; and it doesn’t really pay the bills.

It really bothers me when some look down on people that work at fast food restaurants. It is not easy. The pay is not good, you have to work fast, and be on your feet all of the time. It is even harder when you have 10 people waiting for food in the lobby, six people waiting at the drive thru, while there are 12 others waiting for delivery. Yeah, delivery. You have to make a burger in less than 35 seconds. You are told that the customer is always right, but sometimes the customer is not. They don’t know how to order something, or they want something, then don’t want it, then want it again. Some people want their food fast (It is fast food, isn’t it?) without realizing all the work the people making the food have to do to get it to them. A lot of costumers also never clean after themselves, then that becomes another thing the workers do.

I personally don’t know what it is like working in the kitchen because I work in the front of the restaurant. The noises from the kitchen don’t make the experience sound pleasant. Even though everything that goes wrong comes down on the workers in the front, that still seems like a better place to be. If the food is given out to the wrong people, if the order is taken wrong, if the kitchen puts it together wrong, it is all on me, the cashier. Which shows how undesirable the kitchen must be if I prefer cleaning the front and taking orders.

Most of the staff don’t like working there either. They have families that they have to take care of, and this is the only job they can get. This is something that not everyone thinks about. Anyone that has worked at a fast food restaurant can tell you this; the people work much harder than everyone else realizes, and deserve more than the minimum wage they get. Maybe everyone should remember to respect fast food workers, without them you wouldn’t have your lunch every day.