Life is pretty complex. It is full of uncertainties. I don’t know what to expect at any particular moment. I don’t know where I am going to go, what my plan is, or what my future will be composed of. However, I do know one thing. I am certain of one thing. I ABSOLUTELY HATE AND DESPISE MY JOB.
I work at a KFC location in the NorthEast quadrant of Calgary. Anyone who lives in this city knows about the NorthEast. We get the most amount of problems, arrests, crimes, accidents, and strange occurrences in the whole city. The strangest people live in this section of the city. The location I work at is one of the busiest ones in the province. Before I tell you how much I despise my position, let me tell you how lucky I was to get it. I went around one day dropping my resume off at different places. I decided to drop it at KFC. I left and started going to other places and all of a sudden, I get a call. I answer and the lady on the line asks me if I was the one who just dropped my resume. I said yes and she asked me to come right back for an interview. I went back and waited for an hour, just sitting there staring at the wall, for the main manger to come out and see me. Finally, she came out and we did my interview and I was hired on the spot. Luck? Yep. But I wasn’t that lucky.
I started working and realized how hard it was. It was busy and the customers were rude and unappreciative. At the end of every shift, I would feel drained. I was first positioned as a cashier, then got moved to the drive-thru, and finally got put into the sandwich, boxing, and bagging area. Every upgrade was actually a downgrade. The jobs got worse and worse. That is just the beginning.
I get my work schedule a day before the week starts. If I have a shift on Monday, I don’t find out till the Sunday right before. When I am scheduled, I get to work on time, but sometimes do not get to leave on time. If the employee replacing me does not come on time, I cannot leave until they are there. My bosses are all kind and caring which I appreciate, but the work experience is exhausting. When it comes to breaks, we are very weird. If I have a five-hour shift, most of the time I only get fifteen minutes break. If I work six hours or more, I get thirty minutes, but not even halfway through. I get my break when it is not that busy. And you must be wondering what happens if it is busy the whole entire shift. Yep, you guessed it. I don’t even get a break. And when I do, there is always a chance of getting called back early. This happens very often too. I am not saying that I do not appreciate my job, because I truly do. It is difficult for adults to find work and here I am working which I am grateful for. But my job is painful.
Let me tell you a little bit about some customers we had. I had one guy who threw a drink through the window. There was one guy who walked through our drive-thru, ordered, and then tried to get inside of our window. I had another who split his large gravy all over the floor and carpet because I would not accept his expired coupon. One person asked if we could put garlic and ginger on his burger. Another guy asked if we served fried fish. Someone asked for chicken pizza and another person asked for soy sauce for the chicken. I had one lady who came through the drive-thru. She told me her life story and focused on how COVID-19 is a myth. 5G cellular towers are the real cause and China put the virus into each tower. One person was shaving in our washroom. Another person brought a McDonald’s meal on a McDonald’s tray and ate it in our place. There were some kids who started a fight inside and we called the police. We had a homeless person sleeping in our washroom for four hours and nobody noticed until later.
The things that happened at the KFC I work at are unbelievable. My job and I; I’d say we have a love-hate relationship. I may dislike many aspects of my job but in the end, I am grateful that I have it.
Jump through window picture.- https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190628182950-chick-fil-a-drive-thru-manager-hero.jpg
Bucket image- https://origin.go.gq.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/KFC.jpg
Dear Kamran,
I love the way you wrote this piece as you presented your hatred and your emotions very well. The examples that you gave also made it so much better. My favourite being the lady that told you her life story. Your experience provides a lot of insight on what the working life is really like. You also presented how you felt in a very relatable way which hooked me, as the reader, very easily. I know exactly how you feel though working in a busy environment is a lot to handle. The one thing I wish you had touched up on was why you choose to stay, and why you choose to deal with this job everyday. I also wished you wrote about how you, as the worker, felt in those situations.
However, amazing post! I cannot wait to read more of your stories!
Sincerely, Jovan
Dear Jovan.
Thank you for the feedback. Working in that place is lots of work and I stay because it will be good to have money to help me get through university. I know that you also work in fast food so we can relate to crazy customers. After re-reading my piece, I realized you are right. Next time I will add more detail in the closing part of my piece.
Sincerely,
Kamran
Dear Kamran,
I loved your tone in your piece, and the mood created by your free choice both amusing and relatable at the same time. I really felt like I was there to experience your ups and downs whilst on the job, and I loved every second of it. I also loved how you didn’t just talk about one incident or experience, and talked about multiple to add width to your free choice. The one thing I would suggest would be to talk about yourself more and how you acted in these situations as I would love to learn more about you while you’re working. Overall it was excellent, and I look forward to reading all of your future posts. And I mean ALL of them 🙂
Much love, Tanzi.
Dear Tanzi, Thank you for all the feedback. There are so many different stories I have about work and people just seem to amaze me every day. I usually react calmly and try to make the best out of situations. I didn’t really think about discussing how I react so thank you for bringing that up. And I know I said I “usually” react calmly. The one exception to this is another great story but that’s for another time. Thank you for your feedback.
Sincerely,
Kamran