Fast food workers have been given a raw deal since the pandemic. Long hours, inadequate staffing, and entitled customers are making employees reconsider how they respond when a customer decides to be rude.
In a recent TikTok video, viewed over 219,000 times, McDonald’s employee papas (@papascolvin) shares how he responds to rude customers screaming at the drive-thru. Though some in customer service respond to rudeness with malicious compliance, a term coined to describe workers who work within the rules against abusive customers or workplaces, papas’ short clip demonstrates how he fights back.
Papas’ 6-second clip begins with a simple white text above his head reading, “When a customer starts yelling at me on the headset forgetting I can easily take it off and cancel they order.” As he pantomimes listening to a drive-thru customer, his face twists before he takes off his headset and shakes his head while talking to himself.
It’s set to Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”
He wasn’t alone apparently.
@papascolvin Gone have to take that bs to wendys😭 #fyp #foryou #trend #trending #viral ♬ original sound – therealkanyemeatrider
Some commenters congratulated him on his method, while others chuckled about his no-nonsense attitude.
“They gonna get mcnothing,” one user quipped.
“I argue with customers dailyyy, really all I gotta is look at them crazy & they stop,” another user said.
“I be laughing at them it makes them more mad then they already was,” Papas responded.
“Soon as they start yelling I take off the headset to give them a min to calm down,” a user added.
“The moment they catch an attitude is when I accidentally catch the void button,” laughed another.
The Daily Dot reached out to Papas via TikTok comments.