A McDonald’s worker has gone viral after asking customers for respect.
In a video with over 147,000 views, user Aleeza (@aleezalowery) recounts a story in which she told a customer she could not accept his fake $50 bill. The customer did not take this well.
“Dude started throwing pennies at me, calling me out my name, talking about ‘don’t forget you work at McDonald’s,’” she recalls. “So what? What’s that supposed to mean? Yeah, I work at McDonald’s!”
“Just because I work at McDonald’s does not make me less of a person,” she says at the video’s onset.
@aleezalowery ATTENTION ‼️‼️‼️‼️
♬ original sound – HeyPooh 🙈
In the comments section, viewers supported Aleeza.
“You’re intelligent, hard-working, quick to solve problems, punctual, and don’t let anyone take that away from you,” wrote a commenter.
“You should’ve told him ‘at least I got real money,’” laughed another.
While many have marred fast food work as “unskilled labor,” the on-the-ground reality is much different.
“Not only does this ignore the fact that this work requires skills—from managing inventory to training and supervising other employees—it also disregards the day-to-day challenges workers navigate on the job,” author Michelle Chen notes for the Washington Post. “According to a slew of complaints filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, workers often suffer injuries such as hot-oil burns and are sometimes denied proper medical care…Violence is also common at fast-food restaurants; according to a recent survey, roughly one in eight workers reported being assaulted at work in the past year.”
Knowledge like this led many commenters to stress the importance of service industry work.
“A job is a job,” offered a commenter. “My aunt was a manager at McDonald’s & raised several children off of a McDonald’s paycheck.”
“I feel you, it’s like at least I have a job? Who cares if you work at McDonalds or any fast food joint,” agreed a second. “If it pays the bills then your doing well.”
“Same here,” echoed a further user. “I work at subway and I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Aleeza via Facebook direct message.
