Why Burger King isn’t the worst job ever

In the race for the most luxurious job in the world, Burger King is way behind pretty much everything else.  You go home smelling like the restaurant and it feels like the thermostat is permanently set to the fires of hell.  But all in all it working there wasn’t really all that bad.

Night shifts are really chill…

I worked from 5 to midnight most days and almost always stayed after to close up. The night shift isn’t nearly as fast paced as working during the day.  Everything is more relaxed and more fun.  The lobby closed at 10 or 11, and the only thing we had to worry about was the drive-thru.  Once we closed the lobby, we would always put on Spanish music.  It was great.

… Except on concert nights

We were about a mile away from one of the biggest concert venues in Northern Virginia and we were the closest fast food place. During the summer, there were two or three concerts a week and we would get flooded.  From happy people to drunk people to happy drunk people, everyone would come to the drive-thru.  The problem with drunk people is that they have five of their friends in the car and none of them know what they want.  Once they figure out what they want, you have to explain to them that Burger King does not sell tacos.  It’s a mess.

I learned Spanish (kind of)

I am probably the only Hispanic on the face of the earth who doesn’t know Spanish. None of my immediate family speaks the language and I took Latin during my tenure in high school.  Everyone at Burger King spoke Spanish fluently, so I picked up quite a bit on the job.  I know how to ask the kitchen to make more fries and I know how to yell random hamburger toppings to people.  So yeah, I would consider myself pretty fluent.

Drive-thru was the best

You got to stand by a window during your shift which was nice. The only thing you really had to do was punch the orders into the very sticky computer and fill drinks.  You didn’t have to shovel fries or assemble burgers.  Later at night, you had to do more because there were fewer people still working, but it was way better than working the kitchen.  And I managed to get drive-thru pretty much every day.

Free food

Technically, we got half off for meals on shift. But since I worked late night, I took home a lot.  Chicken nuggets can’t be kept overnight and served the next day.  Same thing goes for fries.  Taking home 50 chicken nuggets is one of the greatest things to ever happen to a human being.  Waking up to only 15 because your family ate the rest is horrible.

The other restaurants

There was a Taco Bell and a KFC down the street from our place. Most of our workers knew most of theirs and we had a good working relationship, especially with the KFC people.  One of our managers was actually married to one of theirs.  They would swing through the drive-thru and give us fried chicken and we would give them frappes.  There were times I would come home with a bucket of KFC, and it was awesome.

Yes it’s hot.  Yes, some people are rude.  Yes, it doesn’t pay well.  But I learned the value of hard work and overall it’s not that bad.  For shovelling fries and punching orders into a computer, I actually enjoyed it.  I had a lot of fun and met some great people and it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  It could always be worse.  You could work at McDonalds.