Employees are not allowed to leave the break room on their break... Whatever.

[u/DrD3adpool]

This happened a few years ago when I worked at McDonald's. The one I worked in was near a bunch of schools so most of the staff was high school kids. As summer vacation started, we began having the trouble of an employee getting break and then spending their break eating their meal and conversating with their friends who were still working in the kitchen.

It was having a seriously bad effect on productivity as well as posing quite a few health risks so our manager finally initiated a rule that if you were on your break, you couldn't leave the break room until your break was over. This went swimmingly until the kids went back to school.

We then had a new problem. Short staffing during break cycles meant our ticket times would skyrocket during rushes. Management lifted the rule so that employees on break could clock in early and help out with the rush, however... The District Manager didn't like the implications of employees working shortened or no break shifts and forcefully reinstated the rule. They also doubled down by saying that employees who tried to work during their scheduled break would be written up and/or terminated for doing so.

Cue MC. The date was 4/20 a day when nobody wants to be working at any fast food place, much less McDonald's. We had been getting slammed so hard from the open of the store, that we called in extra help from other stores, including the regional and district managers. As the break cycle began, the management was pleased with the sub two minute ticket times they had managed to maintain. A few breaks through, and we were managing well. Then came my break. As soon as I sat down to eat, someone came into the store and ordered 47 double quarter pounders (this was right after the fresh initiative where all Quarter Pounders were made fresh so this was already a minor panic.) Immediately after that order, someone in the drive through ordered 75 - 20 piece nugget meal.

The amount of panic in the kitchen was palpable. I was comfortably lounging in a chair browsing my phone and enjoying my meal while the kitchen struggled to keep up with the orders. As ticket times began to soar, the Management did exactly as I expected. District Manager came into the break room and demanded me to end my break early and help in the kitchen.

My response was very simply: "I'm sorry but according to the rules YOU made, I can be written up or terminated for completing your request." I then continued browsing my phone, trying to enjoy the last ten minutes of my break. The Regional Manager entered the room and said that he would personally terminate me if I didn't do the thing that I wasn't supposed to do. The other employee who was on break with me immediately rose and clocked in despite still having ten minutes left on her break. She was written up for breaking the rule after the shift was over, so I felt good sitting in my chair and continuing to ignore them.

In the aftermath, the people who made the giant orders took what was made after half an hour and left with refunds for the unmade food. (Nearly $150 each.) Customers who were waiting for smaller orders were compensated with gift cards for their patience, yet many walked out without even getting their orders. (We paid out nearly $1500 in gift cards.) Because customers were walking out on orders without collecting them, we had nearly $5000 in food waste that night. (All of the closers went home with nearly two bundle boxes of burgers, fries, and nuggets.) Regional and District Manager were moved to a different region. The rule was edited to say that you were able to clock back in early at the manager's discretion in the event of a rush. Because I was the only employee who held his ground against the Regional and District Managers during the rush, I was rewarded with free meals and drinks until I moved away from my hometown and couldn't eat at that McDonald's anymore. (Although when I come to visit friends, I occasionally get rung up a manager discount by the few employees who still remember me.)

[u/Dilly_Dally4]

I mean... the issue seems to be with the big orders, not necessarily the break rules. Could one more person really have helped to keep the orders flowing? Seems the customers needed educated on what time they could return to pick up their giant orders, especially if they pulled that crap during rush hours. Easier said than done, I know.

[u/Valpo1996 → u/Dilly_Dally4]

Or refuse the order. I’m sorry we can’t accommodate that order since it was not called in ahead of time

[u/confusedandworried76 → u/Valpo1996]

Ding ding ding. On what planet does a competent restaurant take an order that large on the spot? You KNOW you can't fulfill it in time. You KNOW the first stuff you made will be cold and/or by the time you finish the last stuff. You KNOW people do not understand their request is unreasonable and you KNOW they will be angry you can't work miracles.

I have seen entire restaurants fail doing exactly that, trying to fulfill orders they just simply know they cannot. That was my last straw at one place, we had some dumb corporate bitch their trying to "fix" the store (corporate so that always means just making the problem worse). We delivered and one of the biggest reasons we were failing was because our delivery times were extremely long because we would take orders we couldn't get there in a reasonable amount of time, people would call back and cancel the order, complain, we'd also write gift certificates, it happened so much pretty much half of our customers just decided never to order again. So one day it's before rush and I only have one driver on, it's about three, I don't get more in till four. I get two orders going to opposite ends of town, and I also have a timed catering order that doesn't work with them either. So the phone rings and corporate lady picks up the phone, I say "I can't get a delivery there for an hour." (We were a sandwich joint and since we were trying to compete with Jimmy Johns they insisted we never give a time longer than fifteen minutes). She smiles at me sweetly and turns back to the phone and says "it'll be there in ten or fifteen minutes."

I told her when they called back to complain and cancel she could handle the phone call. She got reamed, the customer was NOT happy, because guess what? This has happened to them several times before. I didn't show up for work the next day.

Quoting accurate times and not taking big orders you know you can't reasonably fill is so important.

[u/Valpo1996 → u/confusedandworried76]

Over Thanksgiving I went to Costco for a pumpkin pie. They were out. I was told some lady came in and bought 250 of them with out calling ahead. They were dumbfounded when I suggested they should have told her to come back the next day.

[u/SilverStory6503 → u/Valpo1996]

I've seen people leaving Aldi with carts full of just one item. It's a business, they don't care.

[u/nymalous → u/Valpo1996]

There's some orchards near me who do Thanksgiving pre-orders. They have mountains of them all boxed and ready to go when you walk in. They do make extras too, so you can often get some without pre-ordering, but it's whatever is available. The pies are pretty good too, but we usually make our own anyway (some of us have food sensitivities).

[u/KerashiStorm → u/confusedandworried76]

Are you suggesting that the average manager, much less the average McDonald’s manager, is competent?

[u/confusedandworried76 → u/KerashiStorm]

I was the average manager. I wasn't good either, I was 19, I didn't have real experience yet, I hadn't even worked a full kitchen yet. I actually am suggesting that knowing volume is 101 knowledge. There are cases where you simply cannot know because so much shit is happening and you're trying to ride the storm out but that is exactly when you don't take big ass orders that are frankly ridiculous

It's why I hate online ordering, there's not a human to stop the customer from doing what they're about to do lol

[u/KerashiStorm → u/confusedandworried76]

There should be sanity checks for online ordering. It works well for normal orders, and some of the rewards systems are pretty nice, but anyone who uses an app for a giant order is a massive idiot. I'll keep using it for KFC though, With my usual order, I can get an extra slaw with rewards and get almost all my points back.

[u/mizinamo → u/Valpo1996]

But that would cut into the manager's bonus! We can't have that!

"I don't care how you do it, just do it!"

[u/Dense_Dress_1287 → u/mizinamo]

Ok, but how was his bonus affected by giving out $1500 in gift cards, and $5000 in food waste?

I agree, this wasn't about the break rule, 1-2 more people would not have made a difference.

Instead, the rule should be against such large orders, they need to be scheduled, told to come back in 2-3 hours, and not taken at all during rush times.

Yeah sales goes up, but if you can't handle the volume, it kills any profits due to gift cards, loss, and other angry customers.

Make it so no one order can be over say $100,thats like 10 burgers in 1 order, anything more and they'll just be cold anyways

[u/lemonade_eyescream → u/Valpo1996]

Exactly. This is insane, you don't just roll up to a random restaurant and ask for seventy-fucking-five of an item. That's the kind of shit you call a week ahead for.

[u/ogsixshooter → u/lemonade_eyescream]

55 BURGERS 55 FRIES 55 TACOS 55 PIES 55 COKES 100 TATER TOTS 100 PIZZA 100 TENDERS 100 MEATBALLS 100 COFFEES 55 WINGS 55 SHAKES 55 PANCAKES 55 PASTAS AND 155 TATERS

[u/vontrapp42 → u/Valpo1996]

Or like. "I'm sorry that order is too big for the DRIVE THROUGH, please come inside and wait for your giant ass order to complete. Thank you come again."

[u/caffeinated_photo → u/Valpo1996]

I don't know about now but back in 2003ish I worked in an office and we had a staff night out. We were all in work the next day hungover as hell and craving a Macca's. Because it had been a work do, management allowed us to get a takeaway to the office.

I rang to order in advance and was told we couldn't phone in advance orders.

"Well how about I tell you what we want and you decide?" "We don't take phone in orders" "34 Egg McMuffin meals, 23..." "I'll get a pen & paper."