Once at a Waffle House in Florida I had a waitress that said she gets to work whatever shift she wants now because she did overnights for more than twenty years.
overnights at a Waffle House in Florida for twenty years
Jesus Christ I bet she saw some shit.
At that point is it some shit, or all the shit?
Woman's had to have seen things that would make the dark corners of the internet shiver
If you do the waffle house night shift for 20 years you deserve to be retired on a full pension.
Did five years in the Starbucks mines and another year on a pizza freighter. I'll serve burgers before I fold a graphic tee. The solidarity during/after a rush forges comrades
I think the opposite for me mostly because rushes are really bad for ND people (at least for me anyway, dont want to speak for all of us, but Ive read that this is often true). Like I worked Burger King and it was constantly hell on me mentally.
Though I will say, I never worked the truly hellish retail jobs like Kohl's or something. My retail job experience was two years at Hollywood Video, which had its badness but was a relatively chill job other than having to push the rental subscriptions. (Also a brief stint at a nonfranchise local toy store but I hardly count that).
Also worth noting though that the BK I worked at was a failing location with releativly few customers and even that was hell on me. I absolutely fucking hated it. It stressed me out so fucking much. Having to clean the dining room while the boss was counting down the drawer and there was only one person i kitchen and me out front. And then DING the drive through thingh goes off when im in the middle of wiping a table and it murdered my fucking head every time. Absolutely hellish environment for me.
Also worth noting though that the BK I worked at was a failing location with releativly few customers and even that was hell on me. I absolutely fucking hated it. It stressed me out so fucking much. Having to clean the dining room while the boss was counting down the drawer and there was only one person i kitchen and me out front. And then DING the drive through thingh goes off when im in the middle of wiping a table and it murdered my fucking head every time. Absolutely hellish environment for me.
My worst manager knew I hated drive-thru so they deliberately put me there even though I was the fastest and most error-free food prepper they had, by that manager's own charts. They just hated me that much because I called out health and safety code violations.
FUCK I hated the drive thru DING.
"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH"
"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH"
maybe an awkward minute later
"ARE YOU THERE? HELLO HELLO?!"
And don't get me started how hellish it got when a bunch of giggling WASPy teenage girls were packed into one vehicle and keep squealing over each other and contradicting each other's orders and probably changing their minds after driving up and wanting to split the bill across 3-4 credit cards and maybe trying to speed off without paying.
I never had the option to work kitchen instead because the roles were strictly divided and I wasnt trained in it anyway. I probably would have preferred it.
Honestly if I could have just stood in ONE PLACE and just focused on JUST up front orders or JUST drive through it wouldnt be so bad. Drive through sucked for many reasons and you touched on some but it wouldnt have been so bad if i could have just focused on JUST that but i had to at MINIMUM run back and forth between drive through and front and bag all the orders, and thats when I didnt have to do extra stuff like cleaning dining room or trays. It was the juggling tasks that killed me more than anything.
Honestly if I could have just stood in ONE PLACE and just focused on JUST up front orders or JUST drive through it wouldnt be so bad.
Me too, me too. Even if it was a nonstop hectic pace all day, I'd have preferred that. I think people working at In-N-Out are a bit like that.
Having an asshole boss expecting the floors and tables cleaned while "UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH"
is building up the timer which faults me (and risks getting me a write-up) if the transaction takes too long when there's nothing I can do to speed the up and attempts to do so may also be a write-up if the complains really fucking sucked. Also the floor not getting cleaned might be a write-up and there's also nothing I could do about that if there was a chain of "UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH" waiting behind the first one. 
Yeah the absolute fucking deathtrap the drivethrough timer had you in when you had to multitask was absolute hell.
The solidarity during/after a rush forges comrades
It actually does. I've made lifelong friends from such experiences.
Second this. Making and serving food is good honest work, even if it's capitalist slop
Yeah with commissions in the retail work I did it really pits the workers against each other. I was much happier on register shifts than floor shifts.
Working retail is 1000% easier than working food service. Especially if the food service is anything that runs at night/weekends/holidays.
You will never ever get me to work food service ever again.
I have been physically assaulted and shot at working retail.
It's not a competition
Feel like the average retail worker does not experience that though
Average food service is probably way more intense than average retail
Edit: actually, I'm Canadian so the average American retail worker probably does have a way worse experience than up here, I'm so sorry💀
the average retail worker does not experience that though
I've never been shot at but knives are common as is people shoving you out of the way for liquor.
I'm not competing, sorry if it came off that way! I mean this for me obviously, I'm comparing my experience with my experience. They're both shit but oh my god I will take going back to retail over food service, I genuinely think I would do something to myself.
...I did not like food service
Yeah I have worked food service too, and yes it's a different kind of horrible.
I have been physically assaulted and shot at working retail.
I've worked a convenience store during late shift for a few years. That shit happened to me to and also happened outside in the parking lot. You just have to keep going, remembering why that window was replaced. Again. And remembering details of the robbers for when a badge is flashed at you. Again.
Especially if the food service is anything that runs at night/weekends/holidays.
Psychological horror is slow burn. The jump scares of Sunday lunch rushes still fuck me up when I remember them.
At least with a chunk of retail positions, you can just walk away. If you're in a kitchen... you've got nowhere to go.
Retail is infinitely worse. At least I get to feel good about myself and what I do working in food service. Getting called chef ain't bad
yea the food is overpriced (what isn't these days?) but at least i'm feeding people (for money)
I feed literally hundreds of people every day. Me! That's kinda cool
True. You work when everyone else goes out the most. Weekends and holidays, and meal times
me either unless i was unemployed at the time. Thank you for your service
Depends on boss and your own temperament. I've had shitty bosses as a line cook and as retail store manager - out of the two I'd pick a shitty retail boss. Shitty kitchen bosses get in your face and shit too much.
Solidarity on the line is way stronger and if bosses push too hard we can just do a line smoke break until they cool off. That was always cool
Working in kitchens was probably the most degrading shit I’ve ever done. Couldn’t cope without cigs and alcohol, and my anxiety was still dialed up to 11 pretty much constantly. Pay was absolutely abysmal too. Bad times.
certain departments in grocery stores combine the worst of both. with a little warehouse work tacked on as well.
I will never understand why Deli gets payed so much less when it's so much harder
My best guesses:
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You're more likely to be working more hours than you're scheduled. Sometimes you'll be staying later than your scheduled hours and other times you'll be called in to cover for somebody that didn't show up for their shift. IF you're going to get overtime pay, the boss wants your over time to cost as little as possible.
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Keeps turnover high for most of the positions.
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When I worked retail one time a woman, probably in her 50s, started yelling at me because we were out of something. She demanded to know my name and I told her (it's a Biblical name) and suddenly she calmed down. She thought that I was sent by God because of my name. I actually ended up being able to find a suitable replacement and she cried tears of joy. It was a package of bedsheets.
I worked at a pizza place for 3 years and couldn't last 4 months in a Ralph Lauren store.
Worse thing I remember is a guy completely out of his mind and SCREAMING at me because, his words: "how is it possible that I can't try these underwears in the fitting rooms?!!??!"
He reported me to my manager when I said he just can't due to sanitary reasons, then told me "at least you could have one pair of underwear on some sort of hanger so people can try it and it's not unsanitary because it's just one pair and nothing can spread"
Never again I will work in retail.
Worse thing I remember is a guy completely out of his mind and SCREAMING at me because, his words: "how is it possible that I can't try these underwears in the fitting rooms?!!??!"
He reported me to my manager when I said he just can't due to sanitary reasons, then told me "at least you could have one pair of underwear on some sort of hanger so people can try it and it's not unsanitary because it's just one pair and nothing can spread"
Dare ye enter his magical realm?
Godspeed to you retail workers. My brand of ADHD makes foodservice chaos click with me, but simultaneously keeps me from focusing enough to ever be a chef. Coffee is my strong suit, but some of the customers (the briefest taste of retail) had me looking up the Unalive Hotline in the bathroom on particularly bad days.
I never went into retail, but my wife did and now works at a grocery. I did work sales, then Starbucks followed by a brief stint at a French cafe before moving more into academia. While both suck, I think the main takeaway for me has been that the things people do to bathrooms will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Would rather continue to live off disability than work either ever again lol. Unless I can get back into working with kids or maybe some sort of like entry level office thing I'm probably just going to keep subsisting on the government's teat. Maybe theres some other low impact thing that ND people can actually do out there. But only working with kids gets my passion and drive going anyway so.
Would rather continue to live off disability than work either ever again lol.
same, even though I haven't managed to get on disability yet (will find out by early next year). I am never working a dog-shit job again. I would rather be completely homeless and destitute.
I worked at Sports Authority for a year before they imploded
Was decent going for the most part
Only problem was people thinking that I liked sports enough to follow them
The only sports I pay attention to are my beloved Green Bay Packers and even then, I'm not the sort of weirdo who pays attention to things like rosters and games and seasons
