A fast food worker’s TikTok about breaks being unevenly distributed throughout a shift is resonating all too well with people.
Megan (@megzy210803) recently shared a short clip on the platform with a text overlay that reads, “When your manager tells you to go on break an hour into your 9-hour shift,” as she used an audio clip from Breaking Bad of Skyler (Anna Gun) desperately begging, “Please! Please, just hear me out, please!”
@megzy210803 This doesnt happen often but it’s heartbreaking when it does, whats the earliest you’ve been put on break #fastfood #fyp ♬ if you use this sound you are racist
The five-second video was clearly intended to strike up a conversation, as Megan also wrote in the caption that she finds it to be “heartbreaking” on the rare times this happens to her at her job. She also asked viewers what’s the earliest they’ve been asked to go on break.
“I just left [McDonald’s]. I was getting my break 2 hours into a 8 or 9 hour shift every day,” user @miaasmith.xx wrote in response to the video.
This prompted another McDonald’s worker to admit they work from 4am to 1pm and are regularly asked to take a break at 5am.
“I got sent on break 30 minutes into a shift once,” said user @zer0_ultra. “And when I tried to say no they said I either go then or not at all.”
But TikToker @aayeprolll may have had them all beat, writing that she once was told to go on break “2 mins after I clocked in!!”
In the U.K., where the TikToker lives, workers are entitled to a 20-minute break anytime they work more than six hours a day, whereas, in the United States, the requirements vary state by state. However, in most instances, the laws remain vague enough on when the breaks must be given so that employers have flexibility in scheduling—clearly, it doesn’t always work out too well for employees.
But while having a break poorly distributed throughout the workday doesn’t feel like it conforms to the spirit of requiring breaks for workers, as some pointed out, it can be the only choice when rights aren’t protected.
“I tell the kids at work if you don’t take one when it’s offered you’re risking not getting one at all,” @larrybird2017 wrote. “Missouri doesn’t require breaks to be given.”
Another viewer admitted to once considering “taking up smoking because the smokers got [breaks] all the time,” whereas he did not.
Understanding your rights to both paid and unpaid breaks as a worker is important, to avoid getting taken advantage of by shady employers. But in some cases, that still means getting stuck with an egregiously early (or late) break is perfectly legal.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @megzy210803 via TikTok comment.
