Fast-food workers who had bizarre days at work: 'A man demanded an absurd amount of bacon for a child'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 21, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Fast-food workers of the world, you have a thankless job. It's an important one, though — people eat a lot of fast food, and someone's got to serve it to these hungry customers. It's always baffled me how some customers seem to save up all their weirdness for their visits to fast-food restaurants. Some are totally impolite, which is just par for the course for a job like that. But others are just very weird, and those are some of the stories we're going to be reading about today. We've got weird coworkers, strange bosses, and just surprising workplaces in general. 

For example, one person who worked at a Dunkin realized that if you put Munchkins through the toaster they'll turn into balls of flame! That's the exact kind of fact your average teenage worker would be delighted to find out. One person had a coworker who loved to flip ice cream cones upside down to delight customers… until the day he realized why that wasn't such a hot idea. Plenty of people had memorable stories about the people they worked with who entertained them day in and day out, intentionally or not!

After you have a laugh at these fast-food hijinks, read about the tech CEO who discovered a job candidate used AI during a job interview (!!!) and refused to hire them: "It was dishonest… We will not be moving forward with the hiring process."  

Advertisement
  • 01

    "Former or current fast food workers: What are your craziest stories?"

    I worked in Taco Bell on-and-off for 3 years. My worst story involved some a h le who threw a little cup of hot nacho cheese on me. What are your worst/craziest/best experiences as a fast food employee?
    via u/charizardcornucopia
  • 02
    g... I was a book guy at Barnes & Noble, but on a day when most of the baristas had called out sick, I was tossed in the cafe alone without any training while the one guy working that day took a break. A customer asked for a pressed pretzel, and I fished out the one at the front of the bake case. The customer comes back a couple of minutes later,
    via u/gnosticpopsicle
  • 03
    holding up the pretzel with a bite missing from it, saying "I think there's something wrong with this, it's as hard as a rock." The barista, who had at that point returned from his break, looked at the pretzel in the guy's hand, looked at the bake case, looked at me and said "that's the display pretzel. It's shellacked." tl;dr: fed a guy a fake pretzel.
    via u/gnosticpopsicle
  • 04
    bettyboops I worked at McDonalds 92/93. One of my co- workers asked "Wanna see my trick?" I said yes and he threw a pickle on the floor, stepped on it, then picked it up and ate it.
    via u/bettyboops
  • 05
    FamousDeadPerson I worked at McDonalds for about 6 months during my senior year of high school. Knew a kid who was disturbed in the head, We have to make the parfait cups each morning and it involves us opening a big bucket of the yogurt, taking a spoonful of it, putting it into the cup then topping it off with berries and such from another container,
    via u/FamousDeadPerson
  • 06
    anyways his routine was this. Spoonful of yogurt, drop into cup, lick spoon, berries, repeat. Worked at cold stone creamery for a couple of months in high school also. In the walk in freezer are commercial size boxes of all the toppings we use from butterfingers, heath bars, snickers, oreos, etc.... I took the gallon size container of
    via u/FamousDeadPerson
  • 07
    colored sprinkles once and divulged in a childhood fantasy of pouring as much as I could of the stuff into my mouth... right when i tipped the gallon into my mouth it started pouring out at an unbelievable rate and within a matter of a second I
    via u/FamousDeadPerson
  • 08
    was choking on colored sprinkles, my coworker sees. me gagging and performs the hemlich and I spew sprinkles all over the kitchen area in what was a rainbow blast of awesomness.
    via u/FamousDeadPerson
  • 09
    OPEN AND TIPS $5.50 Malte Chocolate or or try a Black a Regular $ Thick $7 Milk Sh Ice Cream Flavor Chocolate Vanilla Coffee 1 Mocha Back and White Regular Thick-$ No Hard Ice Cream Cash Only One Size 2
    via Clay Banks For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 10
    [….. I used to work at Subway before they started with all the toasting and stuff, so any hot sub other than meatball was microwaved. Usually the sandwich making process starts with cheese, then meat, then veggies/condiments. But when making a hot sub, we would put the meat in the microwave and add the veggies while it was heating
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    up to expedite the process. So one day 3 types come in. The last guy to order asks for a steak sub, so my coworker puts the meat in the microwave and continues adding veggies and w/e. Apparently it didn't dawn on this guy that the meat was going to go on last until it actually happened, but when it did, this flipped out. "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU MAKE THE SUB!"
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    "YOU DON'T PUT THE MEAT ON LAST!" My coworker tells him that it doesn't make any difference, the sub would have been the same had he waited for the steak to heat up before adding anything else. The doesn't care, he's still angrily saying things like "YOU'RE GONNA TREAT ME LIKE A REPUTABLE CUSTOMER
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    AND MAKE ME A NEW ONE!" I was sort of the manager on duty, so I told the guy "hey, I'll make you a new sub if you want, but you're going to have to stop cursing and yelling, there are people trying to eat." The guy somehow interprets this to mean I'm calling the cops, and starts saying "I DON'T CARE, CALL THE POLICE, TELL THEM THE MAN'S IN
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    TOWN". The guy's buddies convince him to just leave, and as they're walking out the door, he points to my coworker and says "I HAVE S WITH GUYS LIKE YOU" and walks out the door.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    [deleted] One time at Pizza Hut I worked overtime and got paid time and a half. If you've ever worked fast food, you will appreciate how crazy that was.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    [deleted] dunkin donuts fun fact: if you put munckins through the toaster oven they come out as flaming balls... great for throwing at your coworkers, or better yet, customers.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    Cheezburger Image 10556113664
    via Siednji Leon on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 18
    PotentiallySarcas... A man demanded an absurd amount of bacon for his child. He stormed back in after going through the drive through saying his child was crying as to the lack of 20 strips of bacon on his Big Breakfast (McDonald's). I'm all about bacon myself but it was McDonald's bacon. Totally not worth it.
    via u/PotentiallySarcastic
  • 19

    Sigh

    [deleted] I work at a Jimmy John's on a college campus. When people call in an order and ask "HEY ARE YOU JIMMY? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL" I di a little inside. That is all.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20

    This is insane

    [deleted] I spent a year during college as an assistant manager at a Burger King. One day, the mechanism for controlling the flow of Sprite on the soda machine broke. It was as if Old Faithful had erupted. Eventually, the soda began to overflow and the entire area behind the cash registers was covered with Sprite syrup.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    We thought that the machine would stop if we unplugged the bag of Sprite from the tubes in the back room. It didn't work. We also tried to tamper with the machine, but somehow, it made the geysering even worse. At this point, I feared the store was about to be flooded and had no choice but to call the general manager. It was a h 1 of a sticky mess to clean up.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    Some customers took it lightly and laughed, but others were angry that we offered them chocolate milk instead of soda. A couple of people actually refused to complete their order and went to the McDonald's next door.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    c4ct0 Worked at McDonald's, fellow employee fainted and we were all forced to keep working as she slowly recovered right behind the front counter.
    via u/c4ct0
  • 24
    theutan I worked at Wendys with some of my friends while in high school. One of my buddies is on the drive through window. He is your classic clown and got his kicks from doing random things to make people laugh when he hands them their food. Whenever anyone
    via u/theutan
  • 25
    ordered a frosty he would spin it in the air and then hand it to them. One time the lid popped off mid-spin. and frosty came flying out all over the customer and his brand new lexus. That was the day he stopped flipping frosties.
    via u/theutan
  • 26
    [….. i used to work at dunkin donuts and i snapped at customers on a few occasions. i worked the closing shift alone, and around the holidays i'd get slammed at the front register and on drive thru at the same time after all the dumb soccer moms finished their xmas shopping for the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 27
    day and decided they needed "one of those lattes." sometimes customers would get impatient, tell me i sucked, and threaten to call my manager. when things got heated enough, i'd eventually lose it. normally, i'm a very calm person, but some other force would take over my body after enough. people treated me like sh.i
    via u/[deleted]
  • 28
    literally couldn't take the abe, so i'd yell back at them..."no, yous k, f you." one time, a woman was asking my name so that she could call my manager (because my service was slow... with a line out the door inside and a line of cars out the parking lot on drive thru). i covered my name tag and waved my middle finger in her face (in front of about
    via u/[deleted]
  • 29
    20 people who were in the store). she got flustered and left and i just stood there and helped the next customer as if nothing had happened. i felt really awkward, but the next guy in line acted like nothing had happened.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    frezzato Dude came in late on a weeknight. Hung out for like 3 hours drinking milkshakes. Kept trying to chat me up, telling me I should smile more. I didn't understand what he was all about until he called the store after closing asking for me. Said he was attracted to me and wanted to meet up for some "fun and friendship". Finally,
    via u/frezzato
  • 31
    my dumb a figured out what he was after. I was freaked out and all I could think to say was, "I'm a good Chri i boy and don't do that kind of thing"...and then I hung up. Probably would've been less embarrassing to hook up with him.
    via u/frezzato
  • 32
    bedsitland I wasn't working there, but I was in a McDonalds once and witnessed a (possibly drink) man order "40 cheeseburgers with no cheese," which led to a ten minute long argument with the cashier about why just getting 40 hamburgers
    via u/bedsitland
  • 33
    wasn't an option. This caused the cashier to get really angry and flip out at the rest of the staff, who were presumably not making. 40 cheeseburgers with no cheese fast enough.
    via u/bedsitland
  • 34
    DasHuhn I worked at half mcdonalds, half amaco station with a bunch of my high school friends the summer after senior year. One day we had a kid appreciation day or some such and had a ronald mcdonald clown come out and sign stuff for kids and pass out balloons and sh, and our heater started getting CRAZY hot. I pointed it out to my boss who told
    via u/DasHuhn
  • 35
    me to STFU and keep working, so I did. Ronald ran out of balloons and had to walk to the back of the store to get more, and as he passed the heater his fake hair touches and it lights up. Fire breaks out and the alarms trigger. Head manager tried to blame it on me, but the too many people saw the assisstant yell at me for bringing that up.
    via u/DasHuhn
  • 36
    Since the building was originally just a gas station, the fire department came out assuming there was a huge fire at the BP station, probably 10 firetrucks responded within 3 minutes, and another 5-10 ambulances. Ronald was fine, many kids were scarred, and the restaurant
    via u/DasHuhn
  • 37
    was closed for the rest of the day. Oh, we also got paid that day + the next while it was closed. Pretty sweet deal that was.
    via u/DasHuhn
  • 38

    Clever!

    prophet3467 I worked at arbys in high school. I lost my name tag so i just started wearing an old one of a a girl who worked there. (its part of the rules, you always wear a name tag even if its not your name) it was a girls named marrisa At the time i was taking 4th level french.
    via u/prophet3467
  • 39
    I convinced every customer who made a comment about how i was obviously wearing a female co workers name tag; that in fact it was my real name, i was french, from toulous, and said marrisa with a thick french accent and made it sound masculine and preceded to call them dirty names in french pretending i said something about there order
    via u/prophet3467
  • 40
    worked bout 20 times till my manger told me to stop
    via u/prophet3467
  • 41
    Cheezburger Image 10556113920
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 42
    bluehammer Did not happen to me, but a coworker had an irate customer. He told the man 'If you do not shut the f up, I am going to jump over the counter and kick your a .' He did not get fired.
    via u/bluehammer
  • 43
    Itx First week at McDonald's: C - Hi, can I get a Pirate Pak? Me - ... C - ... Me - Pirate Paks are from White Spot. We have Happy Meals here.
    via u/Itx
  • 44
    Another time, in the drive- thru: C - How much for a sundae? Me - $1.39 C - How much for the whole weekend? Me -
    via u/Itx
  • 45
    LOL
    via u/Itx
  • 46
    An old lady once drove her car into the side of the building (in the drive-thru lane) and tried to get us to pay for it. No thanks. That's all I can remember right now. I don't really have any horror stories.
    via u/Itx
  • 47
    [deleted] Believe it or not, I've actually been tipped several times by customers at Burger King. I'm guessing most customers are so used to crappy fast food service that they don't expect it when I am genuinely helpful. My favorite customer feedback of all time?" the best drive-thru that was experience I've ever had!"
    via u/[deleted]
  • 48
    This Burger King was also too cheap to fix the broken shake machine, so during the summer, I sent customers over to the McDonald's next door. Some of them got a real kick out of that.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 49
    c_is_4_cookie Not my story: My brother worked at a Wendy's for about 1.5 years during which all sorts of crop would happen. One time he was working the day shift in December and the store had somehow run out of coffee filters. The manager was not on duty that day and so he improvised by using a rag to hold grounds - the rag that everyone used to wipe up
    via u/c_is_4_cookie
  • 50
    the spattered oil from around the fryer. People LOVED it! Everyone who drank coffee kept coming up and getting more coffee, complimenting how good it tasted that day. I am guessing you'll never see "French Fry Grease" as a flavor at $tarbucks, but maybe if you head to a Wendy's on a weekend, you may just luck out.
    via u/c_is_4_cookie

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

workplace-stories employee karen-customer work customers workplace food fast food
Scroll Down For The Next Article