Apparently, crap like the fact that Jessica Simpson's weight has fluctuated for the eight-hundred and twelfth time this week takes precedence over advances in medicine, local development, the status of our country's economy, and...well, any form of actual news. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't have the patience to hash out my feelings over the skewed agenda of television-based news, so naturally, I'll turn my focus to Facebook, the love child of bad grammar and unnecessary drama.
Recently, an almost two-year-old blog entitled "Confessions of a Chick-fil-A Employee" surfaced on the interwebs and began being "shared" like a fever. As a hard-working employee of the Chick, the title quickly caught my attention and, before long, I found myself reading one of the most honest and hilarious rants that I have ever had the pleasure of coming across. Should you ever find yourself contemplating life on the other side of that mysterious, crackling speaker box, that blog will bring you up to speed.
I was elated to see the comments section filled with current team members and CFA alumni from all across the country chiming in with their own, equally comical experiences. Truthfully, my excitement stemmed from the sheer fact that I wasn't the only one who'd been perplexed by the request for a milkshake to be placed in a bag or frustrated by the father of a Brady Bunch-sized family passing out food to all 17 of his children before exiting the drive-thru.
"This is so funny!" I said.
"This is so true and relatable!" I said.
"Everyone will love it!" I said.
But, as usual, my train of thought was derailed, set ablaze, and its ashes were peed upon by the hoarde of trolls plaguing social media.
Following the initial sympathetic comments from other employees was an honest to God book of hatred towards both the post and its author. Hardly any of the feedback actually pertained to the post itself. Instead, it was, for the most part, a massive slap to restaurant workers in general, particularly those in fast-food. The consensus, from what I read, is that those of us in fast-food, by society's standards, are an inferior breed of person. Beyond simply insulting our intelligence, some people were downright cruel in their criticism, and in light of this situation, I've decided to address a few of these assumptions, and they are indeed assumptions. And we all know what ass-uming does. *wink*
itoldyousoApril 6, 2014 at 8:30 AM
Arguing with someone who works at a fast food place for a living. Congrats. You're all idiots. For the record. You are employed there to cater to my needs. If you don't like the way I, or anyone else orders.... because we don't know what you can or can't do in your system. Find a real job. If you're out of high school and working in fast food.... you deserve to deal with douche customers. I'm just saying....
Using the correct form of "you're" on two occasions within the same body of text would typically score brownie points with me, but I'm making an exception for this comment. You, like many others, have made the implication that fast-food workers are naturally uneducated. You even go so far as to state, very matter-of-factly might I add, that entry-level restaurant positions should be filled by high school students as if, upon making physical contact with a diploma, students undergo a mental transformation in which they divine their future career path and their closet is suddenly stocked with Versace suits and penny loafers.
Unfortunately for those of us who don't poop money or have gold-plated resumes, like myself, high school did not leave me appealing enough to land a six-figure salary. The executive committee at Google was sadly not impressed enough with my membership in the French Club or the National Honor Society to offer me a job. You see, some of us have to work to build our futures, to pay for that college education that will actually make us marketable, and yes, while that work may be slaving away to cook food for ungrateful people like you, working at Chick-fil-A is, in fact, a real job...and for having to put up with the likes of you, it's not an easy one.
what else do you expect from people who eat at chic fil hate?
LOLROTFLBBQ. "Chic-fil-hate!" So rhyme! Such clever!
Seriously though? Drop it. It's bad enough that we fast-food workers are talked down to and treated like we're on the bottom rung of humanity's grimy ladder. I get it. You're ticked because Mr. Cathy said he didn't agree with wedding bells ringin' unless it was to hitch up a guy and a gal. You disagree with him. First amendment rights don't matter. Let freedom ring anyway. I understand.
What I don't understand is how you intend to demonstrate the superiority of your side of the argument by making insults and passing a blanket judgment over every individual associated with a multi-billion dollar, nationwide restaurant chain because of the statements made by one man. You're attempting to prove how heinous and wrong it is for people to hold unwarranted prejudicial attitudes towards others by holding unwarranted prejudicial attitudes towards others. Makes total sense.
And before you pull that overused "you don't know how it feels" card, don't think that I don't understand where you're coming from. I know how it feels to be cussed up one side and down the other and your emotions trampled publicly by someone who you've literally never even met because of what my CEO said. I know how it feels to be told by a friend of several years how ashamed they are of you simply because of my place of employment. Don't ever think that I don't know what hate and prejudice feel like.
You know what else is annoying? Whiny employees who complain about their jobs on the Internet. Yeah it's annoying, but what's whining over the Internet going to do? And over stupid things like this? "Oh, I'm mad because today at work, someone couldn't pronounce Polynesian sauce." Do you know how ridiculous and petty you sound? This is why people have such little respect for fast food workers, because you have no idea what real problems at work are, but you complain about the petty things.
Love your music, man. I made banana pancakes for breakfast for, like, a year straight after your album came out. And your work on the Curious George soundtrack? Pure lyrical brilliance.
In all seriousness though, thank you for proving just how mentally inept you and the other interweb trolls are for bashing this girl's blog. "What's whining over the internet going to do?" Well, Mr. Johnson, you seem to have stumbled across the question of the day...in the midst of your blind retaliatory rage no less. Kinda puts a damper on the whole, "Chick-fil-A business is going to suffer from this" argument. Because that totally affected sales when the traditional marriage stuff surfaced too, right? Oh, wait...no, they topped 5 billion in sales that year. My bad.
Also, to say that fast-food workers have "no idea what real problems are" is incredibly ignorant because I would bet all the ice dream in my store that it is far more mentally and physically demanding to serve people like you with a good attitude than any obstacle faced within the walls of a cubicle.
some of these are just outright rude... Uneducated for not recognizing the difference between a meal and an entree? Some would argue that working at a fast food restaurant would mean you're uneducated but that would be rather presumptuous wouldn't it...
No, sadly, that wouldn't be presumptuous in the slightest by the typical customer's standards. I feel that lacking the ability to read an aesthetically pleasing, exhaustive food menu that is itemized based on order number and enlarged for the elderly DOES indicate a lack of education...but I keep these thoughts to myself because they're "outright rude."
Then again, Miss Rum, look around you at all the hate. Look at all these comments, like your own, that attack our intelligence. You call us unmotivated and uneducated and words that I don't feel comfortable using and yet, we're still there waiting for you the next day. We're still smiling and saying "my pleasure" in response to your every whim even when life sucks and we're failing school and we don't know how we're going to afford rent next month.
And you know what else? We still have actual, working emotions meaning we still get frustrated, God forbid. And you know what else, else? We're still human freaking beings and deserve to be treated in the same manner we treat you when you enter those doors.
It's been a pleasure,
A Chick-fil-A Employee
