Is There Any Fast Food Joint in Oklahoma Not Short-Staffed?

There was a time when “we’re short-staffed, thanks for your patience” meant something temporary. A sign taped to the drive-thru speaker because someone called in sick or a kid quit mid-shift.

These days? That sign is laminated, framed, and it feels like it came straight from corporate.

What used to be a rare inconvenience is now the standard operating procedure.

You pull into any fast food joint and it’s like playing roulette.

Will the lobby be open?
Will the lights be on?
Will a single person be inside working the register, grill, and window at the same time, looking like they’re one wrong order away from walking out?

It’s not just one chain. It seems like it’s most of them nowadays. From McDonald’s to Taco Bell, even Sonic used to have an overabundance of competitive carhops, but not anymore.

And I get it. Hiring is tougher now than it has been in the past. The pandemic changed everything.

An entire generation of workers discovered the beauty of an ideal work-life balance during Covid. Working remotely, less after-hours events and projects to complete.

While it was great for most, the corporate machine is trying to hook back to a time when people lived at work, lived to work, and spending time with the family was considered a bonus for killing yourself each week.

Are we really back to the Boomers vs. Millennials thing? 

It feels like that again.

Years ago, I knew a guy whose company was going to make recruitment more attractive by giving new workers (and everyone else) access to the maximum PTO allowance in their first year. Six full weeks, but some of the older (Boomer) employees raised hell about how it wasn't fair since they had to work a full ten years to get theirs.

Put yourself in those shoes. Even if you had worked at a place forever and earned that much yearly PTO, wouldn't you have loved having it years ago?

According to that friend, who shall remain nameless, the Boomers won by crying foul and the standard PTO schedule still remains, as does recruitment troubles for that particular nameless company.

What workers really want. 

I know people want better pay in just about every industry, but I think 99% of workers would settle for fair pay.

Perhaps better hours individually. Some people are night owls, others are morning people. Oklahoma needs food around the clock. How hard is scheduling?

Most importantly, maybe people would prefer not getting yelled at by angry adults over how long their chicken nuggets are taking. Can’t really blame them.

Let’s be honest, while it would be easy to think this way, this isn’t a “nobody wants to work” problem. This is a “nobody wants to work for $9 an hour while being micromanaged by an app and blamed for everything” problem.

If it seems that the drive-thru is taking forever to make your little pile of value-menu items, try not to take it out on the kid working the window. They too are overworked, underpaid, and just trying to afford life while they build skills in life.

Never forget the golden rule... Never mess with the people who prepare your food.

via GIPHY