A former McDonald’s worker went viral after they told a story about being assaulted during a weekend night rush and said customers didn’t step in to help them
TikToker (@soybeanshowdown) discussed how widespread mistreatment of fast food workers is after stitching a clip of an angry woman yelling at a McDonald’s worker. The creator’s video has gained over 64,000 views as of Tuesday.
“I worked at two different McDonald’s both franchised in two different states. I also filled in at neighboring cities. I’m a seasoned fast-food veteran. A good percentage of your customers are going to be [rude]. Almost everyone is rude. Almost every interaction is negative.”
@soybeanshowdown continued to describe how the general public views fast food workers.
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“When you work at McDonald’s people assume that you’re uneducated, that you’re unintelligent, that you’re going nowhere, because people view fast food as shameful. Even the nicest customer is usually going to be condescending.”
They then shared a story to emphasize this belief.
“Once we had a line wrapped around the store like into the street,” they said. “There was an unhoused man that I was familiar with. I gave him free stuff when we had extras. This time we had no extra made food.”
@soybeanshowdown said they gave the homeless man some fries told him to come back later to see if they have anything else. The man did not take this well.
“He hid until I was unsuspecting and tried to pull me through the window by my arm,” the creator said..
The assault occurred in front of a line of cars with multiple people watching.
“I was effectively assaulted by this man in front of a crowd of people. Not a single customer asked if I was okay. When that happened there were three of us running the entire store during a night rush,” they explained.
The Daily Dot reached out to A via TikTok comments. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there seems to have been an uptick in confrontational customers based on anecdotal accounts from food workers.
A concluded his story with a message to fast food customers: “You need to not only be kind to service workers but recognize their humanity. A lot of you don’t do that and it shows.”
Many users agreed with their opinion.
“I think people don’t view fast food workers as service workers, but a step below… which is so sad,” a user said.
“I feel like the only people who treat fast food workers like [actual] people are those of us who’ve worked fast food,” one user added.
“This is so accurate! I’m finally leaving fast food after two years and it’s been SOMETHING!” a user agreed.
