A viral photo of someone publicly quitting their job at McDonald's via a sign on the drive-thru speaker has gone viral, thus opening the floor for many different types of discussions.
From workers' rights to exploitation and automation to service design, it seems many people had strong opinions about the situation. Once these opinions were shared below the photo, it created quite an enlightening selection of comment threads.
Twitter user @GreatApeDad posted a photo he took while trying to pick up food for his wife, captioning it simply, "Seen at our local McDonald's." The sign reads, "We are closed because I am quitting and I hate this job."
He didn't expect the post to explode across the site, currently sitting at over 21k retweets and 200k likes.
When he told the worker at the window, they revealed that the night manager had quit the previous evening and closed up early.
In an interview with Today, he sympathized with that manager, saying "I used to work in the service industry myself. I think that people are just frustrated, especially the working-class people who are there in the front line… things that are in a boiling point where I can definitely see where someone on a Saturday night that doesn't want to be working the drive-thru — wants to just call it quits."
Of course, it had its jokes, with many questioning why this deserved a sign but not other, more common issues, like @SteveD71 pointed out. "Why don’t they save us all the trouble and put up a sign saying their milkshake machine isn’t working?"
@GreatApeDad returned and shared another photo that had been taken at the same location the week prior. This sign explained that none of their frozen treats were available, but was riddled with spelling errors.
Like @artist_flop, who suggested, "They should start making drive thrus like ATMs, you pull up to [one] and punch your own order in. Then all they really need is the cooking staff."
User @DrProximo elaborated on this thought with, "I think it would be easier, cheaper, and more practical to further standardize ordering and paying via the smartphone app. Why have a shared interface device outside to malfunction and get vandalized when you have one in your pocket?"
"Thus begins the next great cycle of automation," wrote @radicalbarks. "I give it three years tops before we start having McDonalds being able to operate without any employees at all."
Further down the thread, user @Neko_Crimson hoped this was a wakeup call. "I'm seeing this trend on the internet a lot lately and really hoping it hits my town/surrounding towns soon because you can see visually how overworked/uncared for these people are"
As more and more places are reopening, there's a budding labor shortage that's plaguing restaurants and other customer service industries as people refuse to work those jobs for a multitude of reasons. Some companies, like McDonald's, are trying to combat this with pay raises.
It just goes to show how one simple photo can contain layers and layers of depth behind it, and really resonate with the public. Especially a photo like this that deals directly with the working class.
Everyone deserves to work somewhere where they aren't feeling exploited, regardless of how they decide to quit.
h/t: Today
