A Raising Cane’s worker contends they had to stand outside in the heat while at work, “like a Chick-fil-A worker,” and created a TikTok video to register issue with this.
The video comes from a Houston-based creator, attracting 60,500 views in a single day before being deleted.
In the video, the creator and another worker are outside a Raising Cane’s location wearing headsets and holding screens to note down orders as they help move the drive-thru line along. Brima mouths lyrics to Ghetto Twins’ “Responsibility” playing in the seven-second clip, saying, “If my ass don’t hustle, my kid won’t eat, and if my kid don’t eat, then I won’t sleep.”
The accompanying caption reads, “It’s hot asl working this 9 to 5.”
From the comment section, it appears that Raising Cane’s isn’t the only fast food chain that has employees standing outside to take drive-thru orders.
One person described their taxing experience at Whataburger, claiming the chain “left me outside for 8 hours in the summer, no break hot as hell…needless to say that was my last day there.”
Another wrote, “literally mcdonald’s started doing this outta nowhere and i was like what?!”
Many fast food workers also hopped into the comments to share their thoughts about working outside in general.
“Literally quit the first time they made me do it lol,” one ex-Raising Cane’s worker wrote, to which the creator replied, “NOOO the money is too good for me to do that.”
A second quipped, “All that just for everyone to order the same exact meal.”
“My managers stopped sending us outside since we understaffed,” a third commenter shared.
Another, questioning the whole practice, observed, “whoever thought up that sh*t deserves jail!!!!”
But according to a report from QSR, a publication covering the restaurant industry, Raising Cane’s takes good care of its employees.
The company is “coming off a two-year stretch where it added more than $200 million in wage increases and introduced a Restaurant Partner Program that could turn GMs into millionaires. The chain bought 50,000 lottery tickets in case the Mega Millions jackpot hit, which it then planned to distribute to workers.”
The article also notes that unlike many of its competitors, Raising Cane’s didn’t “furlough or lay off a single worker at the onset of COVID. It instead distributed $2 million in bonuses to account for hours some employees relinquished so everyone could stay employed.”
As the restaurant itself boasts on its website, it is “hiring 10,000 crewmembers to get to 50,000 in the next 50 days and opening 100 restaurants a year.”
But despite the harsh conditions these workers had to put up with, some viewers didn’t express much sympathy.
“Idk how it takes y’all so long to fill an order.. there’s like 5 things on the menu,” said one customer of the fast food franchise.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and to Raising Cane’s via email.
This story has been updated.