If you haven’t heard, fast food isn’t doing that great right now. While the normal culprits for a lack of Big Macs usually revolve around E. Coli outbreaks at lettuce farms, this time around it’s something a lot different.
Fast food restaurants around the country have been hit by a pretty bad staffing shortage.
From Arby’s to Zaxby’s, fast food employees have been quite literally walking out in droves over the past few months. Franchises all over are desperately struggling to find enough workers just to cover the essential shifts, putting pressure on the workers who are already there!
While people disagree on the cause of the labor shortages, the reality is that many places can barely fill their kitchens.
One McDonalds franchisee said in an interview with Insider:
“Stimulus and unemployment are killing the workforce… labor shortages stopped me from reopening my dining room.”
For the employees leaving, however, things seem to be different. From what they say, it has to do with pay! Apparently, people don’t want to work in grueling conditions for hours at a time making minimum wage. As a result, some people have literally walked out on their job!
“Fast-food workers will strike in nine cities to demand a higher wage, according to Fight for $15, the worker advocacy group which organized the strikes. The demonstrations are planned for Asheville, North Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Flint, Michigan; Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and St. Louis, Missouri.” – Business Insider
For one Burger King in Nebraska, we can see this happening in real-time.
Rachel Flores is (was) a general manager at the Nebraska Burger King since January but had decided to put in her two weeks notice. After eight other employees heard about her resignation, they too decided they had enough. The conditions they were working in were absolutely terrible.
One of the employees made a joke about putting it up on their display sign and soon, the joke turned into a reality.
They wanted to put up a sign to say, you know sorry there’s really not going to be anyone here,” Flores said. “Just kind of a laugh to upper management. That got put up (Saturday) before we opened, and I didn’t think anybody was going to notice it, because we did just one sign and then it went pretty crazy on Facebook. I got a call from my upper management and they told me I needed to take it down.” – WSBTV
As you can imagine, the photo of the sign went viral and people shared it all over social media. The employees felt frustrated with the work conditions and the final straw was their manager leaving.
“They have gone through so many district managers since I’ve been GM,” Flores said. “No one has come to the store to help me out. They’re so in and out.” – WSBTV
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