A Chipotle employee told the Daily Dot she was fired after posting a video calling out a customer for ordering a hack that went viral on TikTok.
Christina is an 18-year-old who worked at Chipotle for over a year. She told the Daily Dot in an interview that she was fired a few days after posting the viral video. In the video, Christina prepares the order, which consists of an online order of one taco and a bunch of sides that need to be individually packaged. The worker calls the customer out to his face when he arrives to pick up his order, and he promises not to place an order like that anymore if it’s “a bunch of work” for the employees.
Chipotle has since acknowledged the hack was a strain on workers and made it impossible to order just one taco through the app to put an end to it.
“While we have long embraced customizations and even released our own hack menu, the current social media trend is resulting in a poor experience for our food, our employees and our customers waiting for orders,” Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, told Food & Wine.
Christina said she was fired after Chipotle became aware that she was filming at her store and that she attempted to work out a partnership that would allow her to film in-store and create promotional content for the fast-casual restaurant.
@christinamaeeeee y’all better go through the line because im not having it in dml #chipotletacos #chipotleworker #chipotleworkerproblems #prettygirlsworkinginfastfood ♬ original sound – Christinamae
“I was just talking to my field leader, and I was like, you know, we can make this into a business transaction,” she told the Daily Dot. “I was basically telling him like, I think we should work together to do it. Then it was literally like, two hours later, he came back. It was one of the big bosses, they sat me down and was like, ‘You’re fired due to recording in the store.’”
Christina said she had worked at Chipotle for a year and really enjoyed it. She also clarified that she had permission from the customer to film them.
“Chipotle is a great company,” she said. “But I think when people see my video, they just thought I was super rude, which was not the case. When I posted that video, it was all fun and games, like I I had got permission from the customer.”
Christina said her video, which was viewed more than 1.3 million times, brought in additional business and interest in employment to her Chipotle location.
“I already had people coming up to the store in line, saying, ‘is the viral TikTok worker here?’” she said. “I also got people texting me, like, can I come work up there and stuff like that.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Chipotle.