Working in the fast food service industry can get hectic really fast, especially when you’re learning the ropes. Imagine getting placed on a brand new station during a rush, with both hungry customers and a slew of intense co-workers asking you just where in the hell that tray of nuggets is?
That’s what happened to new McDonald’s hire and TikTok user Andrew Epps (@drewtalkss). He’s been chronicling what his experience working for the popular burger chain has been like and says that on his third day of being on the job, he was placed on the nugget station—despite not knowing how to properly make them in a timely fashion.
Judging from his viral story time which has accrued over 1.1 million views as of Sunday, it seems that his co-workers and management weren’t exactly thrilled with his performance on the station. His clip captures much of the frustration and stress of being thrust into the proverbial fire of food service, a number of TikTokers expressed.
He records himself walking on a sidewalk and says, “Day 3, why the f*ck y’all get me on the grill and the fryer? I don’t know how to fry sh*t. Then it’s like I’m over there trying to get the nuggets out. Why the f*ck they out stuck, why the f*ck they out stuck and I’m trying to, I’m struggling.”
Epps then says that after he was removed from nuggets duty, he was then given a dish-washing task instead, but was shocked to see just how many dishes there were to clean inside of a McDonald’s of all places. The TikToker said that there was so much work for him to do it was impossible to get through it all by the end of his shift.
“It’s 7:40, I got 20 minutes and I’m finna to go home,” Epps says. “And guess what I did? I went home. I went home and I clocked out and gave me a cookie and told them a six-piece nugget. Stop talking to me.”
@drewtalkss I then worked 9 hard hours
♬ original sound – My thing is
One commenter appeared to sympathize with new hires, acknowledging just how tough it can be to get thrown into the thick of it at work.
“New hires rly be getting the worst of it sometimes,” they wrote.
“You is going through ittttttt,” someone else agreed.
Another joked that they’re so conditioned by their work at McDonald’s that it even invades their dreams, writing, “I be hearing them fryer beeps in my sleep.”
It seems someone else went through a similar experience as Epps, stating that they had applied for a cashier position and then were immediately thrust into the world of food preparation.
“Istg I applied for cashier and they had me on grill first day,” they shared.
“McDonalds expect you to know everything but when you don’t they yell at you and tell you to move,” another wrote, echoing Epps’ experience.
While there are mentions and references online to McDonald’s training policies from folks who have worked there, it seems a number of employees were immediately expected to just go, go, go from day one without much preparation at all.
Redditor @DarkAngel401 posted to the site’s r/McDonalds sub asking if other workers for the burger franchise have also been expected to work without much training, writing, “How common is it that the training is literally non existent? I’ve seen almost no training going on in my store since I’ve been here. I’ve been thrown in basically completely blind and have to ask other workers for help. Including on the register. I watched one training video on my first day. That was on fries and I don’t even do fries very often.”
One response suggests that training is usually conducted on a store-by-store basis, highlighting different experiences between two different McDonald’s locations they were employed at.
“I started in a small store (it was losing money), so I was thrown in the deep end. It was hard learning line by myself, especially when no one else knew kitchen! Training was pretty non-existent in that franchise anyway. I changed franchises at the start of the year, and I must say training is better, but still not ideal.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to McDonald’s and Epps via email for further comment.
