Working in food service, especially fast food, comes with a host of unique experiences that can only occur under the fluorescent lights of an industrial kitchen or stylized dining room.
Many of these experiences are universal to the job: upset customers, long wait times for orders, being short-staffed—the list goes on.
A recent TikTok trend is proving to be a relatable outlet for employees of such businesses to air their frustrations with a bit of humor. In this trend, participants will begin a sentence by saying something along the lines of, “We’re Chick-fil-A workers, of course we eat the fries that fall on the counter.”
A recent video following this trend template created by employees of the chicken restaurant Chick-fil-A has highlighted some aspects of working for the company that frustrate the staff of this particular store. Among the complaints, in the video posted to TikTok by @faith_moore123, is that the $8.75 they are allowed to use toward their on-shift meals does not generally cover the cost of their meal.
“We’re Chick-fil-A employees, of course the $8.75 we get for our employee meals doesn’t actually cover the whole meal,” @faith_moore123 says in the video.
In the video, @faith_moore123 shows her order screen that reveals a grilled chicken club and large fry come out to $11.68 without tax, leaving her responsible for the remaining amount.
While it is not required in most cases for an employer to pay for employee meals during breaks, some restaurants are known to provide employee discounts on and off-shift. Otherwise, federal law does not require meal breaks, although some state regulations do.
@faith_moore123 We’re chickfila workers! #cfa #chickfilaworker #chickfilarockymount #mupleasure ♬ original sound
The Daily Dot has reached out to @faith_moore123 via comment on the video, as well as to Chick-fil-A via email regarding the video.
Some viewers shared that they were also Chick-fil-A employees, and commented on the video that they had varied experiences when it came to the handling of payment for meals.
“At our cfa we get a whole meal for free no matter the cost, we love our owner,” one commenter wrote.
“At my CFA our meal money relies on customer satisfaction through the week,” another user said. “Rn we’re at $13 but it could go down to 12 next week if we didn’t do good.”
“My bf works at cfa and he only gets $5 for the meal,” one commented.
