Former Dunkin Donuts Employees Share Dirt After Distressed Worker Goes Viral

Mason Joseph Zimmer
Dunkin Donuts employee crying during stressful shift with three call outs and two resignations
TikTok | @therealkayy_22

Although we started hearing about the labor shortage blossoming internationally over a year ago, it seems that we can see as many workers quitting jobs now as we could when this all started.

And while some have offered some interesting explanations as to the real reason everyone is quitting their jobs, much of it seems to come down to the reasons you'd expect and how they've only become worse since the pandemic emerged.

Whether they're overworked, underpaid, stuck dealing with bosses who mistreat them or all three, the tide of people deciding that their jobs are no longer worth it has hardly stemmed since the Great Resignation first started gaining momentum.

And when that happens or even when people try to take time off for perfectly valid reasons, it's not uncommon for their managers and former bosses to guilt them by telling them how hard their absence will be on the team.

But as one sad video illustrates, just because that kind of talk is usually spotted as an obvious manipulation tactic, that doesn't mean it isn't true.

Over the past year, a woman named Kaliah Hodnett has been making TikTok videos showing what it's like to work at Dunkin Donuts.

woman dancing in TikTok video filmed at work at Dunkin Donuts
TikTok | @therealkayy_22

But while some show her having fun in that environment, others show us just how many challenges come with a job in fast food.

And it seems that so many people who have been there themselves could relate to one of her most recent clips.

The video in question was posted on May 12 and depicts her coworker clearly stressed and weeping on a nightmarish day when their location was short-staffed.

woman in Dunkin Donuts uniform bows head with dismayed expression in back office
TikTok | @therealkayy_22

As we can see here, this was because three of their coworkers had called and said they wouldn't be in that day, while two others made it clear that they weren't coming back at all.

And since the consensus from former workers is that Dunkin Donuts tends to be busy at the best of times in the morning, we can only imagine what this woman already had to deal with that day.

For most of Hodnett's viewers, it was hardly a surprise that so many of her coworkers were staying away.

Dunkin Donuts employee crying during stressful shift with three call outs and two resignations
TikTok | @therealkayy_22

As one commenter put it, "Seems like an employer issue. One is unfortunate. Multiple is a pattern."

And it seemed Hodnett's viewers were speaking her language as she agreed wholeheartedly when another person said, "Service industry workers are so mistreated and underpaid."

But while fast food chains that aren't known for these kind of working conditions are few and far between, some posited that Dunkin Donuts was a rough brand to work for even by those standards.

In the words of one former employee, "Used to work there and when i put my 2 weeks in they made me scrub the floors in my hands and knees where they’ve never cleaned before."

This was also reported outside of Hodnett's comment section, as a Reddit thread attracting comments from former Dunkin Donuts employees made it clear that some had such bad experiences with management that they can't even look at the logo anymore.

More concerning, others said they wouldn't stop in because they didn't trust that their order would be safe to eat. It's hard not to wish they elaborated.