When working a fast-paced job, finding time to eat and drink is difficult. While many jobs claim to offer breaks for meals, actually taking them isn’t as easy as it might seem. For example, a 2022 survey found that “1 in 10 employees never take a break from their desks,” and “seventy percent of workers also eat while they work at least once a week.”
The reasons for the lack of breaks vary. “Twenty-one percent of Gen Z’ers told ezCater they don’t have enough time in their day to get their work done if they take a break,” writes Ashton Jackson for CNBC. “Nineteen percent of Gen Z professionals say they have too many meetings during the lunch hour.”
Additionally, working for somewhere that serves food doesn’t always mean an employee gets it for free. Several TikTokers have noted this in the past, often sharing their methods for scoring free meals from the places they work. Now, another TikTok user has sparked discussion after voicing a similar complaint.
@ch10eep0st throwback to when i worked at target and my coworker scolding me for taking a $2.19 drink on the busiest saturday of the month #retail #target ♬ original sound – Kinross uwu
In a video with over 402,000 views as of Sunday, TikTok user Chloë (@ch10eep0st) imitates their former manager. The text overlaying the video reads, “‘When did you pay for that dr.pepper?? We’ve been slammed all morning.’”
In the caption, Chloë adds, “Throwback to when I worked at Target and my coworker scolding me for taking a $2.19 drink on the busiest saturday of the month.”
Commenters were quick to share their stories of not getting free food from their employer.
“When i worked at WENDYS we weren’t even allowed free sodas, only water and we had to ask permission,” a user recalled. “it literally costs them pennies.”
“A friend of mine got fired for not paying for a water bottle that he drunk,” shared another. “The waters were in the break room, but were apparently not for employees.”
“If they put me on a register instead of customer service desk, i’d snag the occasional water from the cooler bc i wasn’t hired for the registers,” a third user shared.
“When I worked in a grocery store starbucks i warmed up my own sandwich AFTER paying for it and i literally got fired within 30 minutes,” alleged an additional commenter.
The Daily Dot reached out to Chloë via Instagram direct message.
