I worked in McDonald’s… now I’m revealing the biggest shop secrets, like why we’re not allowed to take leftovers home
A WOMAN who worked at McDonald’s for five years has revealed some of the secrets of the fast food outlet, including why they weren’t allowed to take leftovers home.
Lorella worked her way up to manager at the restaurant, and has been sharing stories of her time there on her TikTok page.
In a recent video she posted, she shared some of the “pet peeves” the staff there had to deal with – such as when people shout into the microphone at the drive thru.
“When you pull up to the drive thru, there are cameras that can see you as you place your order,” she said.
“And one of the biggest pet peeves when working on the headsets to take your order is when the person in the passenger seat is screaming what you guys want.
“The microphone is only little, so just tell the driver what you want
“There was one boy I used to know who used to say, ‘Sir, can you please get your nan to stop screaming into the mic?’
“When obviously it would be his girlfriend or his wife. It was so funny!”
Staff at McDonald’s always get free food on their break, “every shift”.
And while regular “crew members” had to queue up with everyone else, Lorella was able to make her own concoctions when she was manager.
“So I’d be making a Big Mac with like Big Tasty sauce, extra cheese, 10 pickles,” she recalled.
“I’d have a nuggets box with mozzarella sticks, nuggets and everything else!”
But when it came to leftovers, there were some strict protocols in place that meant it was impossible to take any food home.
“When it is closing time, the manager has to count up all the food that is leftover and put it into a little book, which then gets put onto the system,” she said.
“So we basically count our waste.
“However, what we used to do was let the crew take home whatever kind of food they wanted to take home.
“Eventually, we weren’t allowed to do that anymore – they started to become more strict.
“One of my colleagues nearly lost her job for taking home 20 chicken nuggets after the shift finished.
“So all the food waste literally had to be waste. We’d count it, we’d put it into the system and we’d bin it.
“This is because a lot of employees would cook extra food near closing time just so they could take it home.
“So I do understand it but it still just feels like such a waste.”
Lorella also revealed that McDonald’s staff always have nicknames for the regulars – like ‘Cappuccino Lady’ for a woman who always turned up when they were opening and just ordered a frothy coffee.
And don’t expect staff to be thrilled if you’re someone who orders fries without salt.
“If you order fries with no salt, I guarantee you that every single person in that restaurant is rolling their eyes in frustration,” she said.
“And it will likely mean you need to get parked up, because they need to clean everything in order to do fresh fries, in order to do them no salt.
“If you then ask for salt packets, some crew will say no, just out of principle – although they are meant to give you them!”
“Ugh cleaning the salt out when someone asked for no salt was the worst,” one person commented on the video.
“I’m the person saying we ran out of salt,” another added.
“As you should. Queen,” Lorella replied.
“I’m the no salt on fries girl!” a third admitted.
“Only because I always used get cold fries before!”