Tip your waitresses and the delivery boy. . .and the guy at the counter
Here in the USA (And the UK, I think) we tip people for service. We tip our waiters and waitresses for good service. We tip our delivery men and women for making sure we get our food on time and because we didn't have to go get it ourselves. But there is a very under appreciated group of men and women that for some reason we don't tip, or even give a second thought to. I'm talking about the people at the counter of our fast food restaurants, that work unforgiving hours for minimum wage and with very little chance of ever getting a raise, promotion, or respect.
I'm here to tell you that this is a very big problem, for several reasons. Consider the following:
Management is Trying to Kill You
I work at a pizza chain, and a friend of mine works at a burger chain. So I can safely say that this holds true for most places. The management is trying to kill you.
I remember just a few days ago that a family of spiders had taken up residence in the flour.
Sure it looks nice, but think of the location!
After bringing this to the managers attention, he scooped the spiders out, and put me back to work. I argued that the flour was contaminated and we should throw it out. We had plenty of good flour in the back and it wouldn't hurt. I was told that the flour was fine, and just get back to work. But me and my fellow crew members took a stand. We refused to use the pizza dough rolled in that flour and forced in doing so, saved the townspeople from from ingesting dozens of spider babies. I was able to use different flour.
My friend has less success at his workplace. The oil that they fry the chicken and fries in is home to the corpses of silverfish and cockroaches, and the management will only have that oil changed out every other week. People are eating decaying bugs. However, his place of work has very little job security. The last time the crew spoke up against the management there because of this, the whole crew was fired.
The regular crew members behind the counter actually care what you are eating. If it were up to us, the whole place would be fumigated every time someone sneezed. But the management is only concerned with meeting the profit targets that the owners set. It's not their fault though. They will lose there job immediately if they allow profits to become losses, so you have to understand that they would hesitate to do anything that might cause this. That bag of flour and that oil are small costs, but these add up. Management wants the owners happy, so that the store gets the things it needs so they can continue to work. Which brings me to my next point. . .
Everything Behind the Counter is Probably Broken, Breaking, or Useless
My workplace has the following issues:
There is no hot water
Two out of three sinks cause flooding when used.
The oven door does not shut
The sheeter (which flattens pizza dough so that it is that circle shape we all love our pizza to be) breaks, without fail, every ten minutes.
We can't use the mop or use the soap to clean dishes because without hot water it causes a slimy film to develop on the dishes and floor.
Now before anyone says, "You are just whining", understand that there are certain things that need to happen before a workplace is considered safe, and there are certain things that need to happen before anyone should eat food.
If there is no hot water, dishes can not be sanitized. That means dishes are not safe to use. We are forced to cook bread and pizza in half washed dishes because management can not get anything fixed because our profit margin is not high enough. The only time the hot water heater is fixed is the week before a health inspection. (Did I mention that in Tennessee, health inspections are not random?) This fix is never permanent because the parts are taken from a working heater at another location, and immediately transferred back at the inspections conclusion. It's like an insider trading scam, but people get dysentery.
Now the sinks. They flood the store. So we can't use them. We have to wash our hands every thirty minutes, or when we switch from task to task. That's okay though, because we want you not to eat our feces. But this causes an issue when you have to wait for five minutes because there is a line for the sink. So that is five minutes that you aren't working, because you CAN'T. Did I mention that this counts as a break at many places? Standing around, waiting to be able to get back to work counts as a break.
The oven door is a safety hazard. The actual oven has two openings by design, which is useful because the pizza travels on a track and is cooked when it goes out the opposite end you put it end. But there are things that require being placed halfway in the oven, otherwise they are very, very burnt, which is were the door comes in to place.
They said "well done", in my defense.
But when you walk by that door, which does not close, the heat burns you. That oven is six hundred degrees. And if you aren't paying attention to where you are walking, you will brush against it, burning you. I and my coworkers have dozens of burns. Did I mention that this is labeled an acceptable hazard? Because we have burn gel in the first aid kit. Unless we don't, in which case it's still an acceptable hazard because you can avoid it.
The sheeter is also a safety hazard. Lots of moving gears and parts that must be fixed very quickly, otherwise the whole operation slows to a crawl. So if it is not fixed immediately, no one gets a pizza for twenty minutes, instead of right when you come in. And we sell about twenty pizzas in one minute, so you can see how this would be a problem.
I've personally gotten a hand caught in the roller. Luckily, I'm a skinny guy and was able to get it out without horribly disfiguring myself. But I do this so my job is easier, so people don't freak out and start trying to kill whoever is working the register.
We Have To Deal With You People
Look. I know several customers personally. I met them through work, and I love to take their order, and I even put extra toppings on because I like them. But these are the exceptions. Usually, I deal with very demanding people wanting many, many things, who then complain because we either don't have enough, or because the last guy did the same thing and we haven't caught up yet.
We know what the ad said. No, it isn't false advertising. And yes, I will give you a refund because your cheese pizza isn't ready, but I will hate you for it because by the time I do, your pizza will be ready and you'll buy it anyway. I do this several times a day.
It's okay to be upset because your order is wrong, but realize that the person at the register did not do this. It was the guy in the back, making twenty other orders and hating his life because the oven or frier burns him every ten minutes and if he doesn't keep up his boss will yell at him which makes him feel even worse.
Also, you make these people smoke. And drink. Our small restitution for our stressful jobs usually first goes to cigarettes, so that we can smoke whenever we can when we are at work. What I'm saying is, by being a terrible customer, you are causing lung cancer. You bastards.
So What Can You Do to Help?
You can be nice, for starters. The guy behind the counter loves dealing with people that order their food, make a joke or two about how the boss is a hard ass, and slip him a dollar. You don't have to do it every time. But every one behind that counter is working hard so you don't have to. If you really want to make sure your food isn't laced with rat poison because management has declared it a safe alternative to sugar additives, have the crew break a ten amongst themselves. Do it just once. Your experience every time you come in from then on will be, without a doubt, the best you have ever had.
Another Big Mac, sir?
TL;DR
TIP DAMMIT. Tip everyone.
Do you tip? Who do you tip? Do you agree that we should tip the guys behind the counter?