We reached out to the moderators of one of the subreddits featured in this post, r/Subway, to learn more about their community and what kind of stories members share on the forum. "This subreddit is for customers and employees of Subway the sandwich chain," the moderators write in the description. "We are a community-run subreddit, we are not endorsed by or affiliated with Subway."
One of the moderators was kind enough to have a little chat with us. They revealed they're not sure how the subreddit was created because they were not yet around at that time. Still, they told Bored Panda the community is decently active, "with customers asking opinions on sandwiches, or employees talking about their experiences."
It turns out, this online group is a great place for workers to both vent their frustrations and find comfort in the difficult situations they face every day. "When employees talk about their grievances, other employees will chime in with their own, or ways to help! Employees in the sub, past and present, are generally pretty supportive of other employees," the moderator added.
#4 "I'd Like A Meal" "Medium Or Large" "Yes" Thanks Lad. (It's My Tweet Btw Thought It Was Easier To Just Post The Tweet"
#6 So, We Got This Order Today, Just Bread And Pickles, Warm Bread And Pickles. Weirdest Part Is, It Was Not A Fake Order
From this post, it's surprising to see how often customers feel entitled to request exceptionally annoying things at fast-food restaurants. The moderator mentioned, however, they haven’t seen weird orders extremely often on the subreddit. "But posts about them are common. It’s fun to see what people get requested, and others to share theirs in the comments!"
Clients express their opinions on the forum as well. "The main thing I see from customers in the sub are complaints about prices (which we all agree are kind of getting ridiculous nowadays), or the never-ending app glitches charging $99+ for cheese or some other item."
Speaking about criticism, there are quite a few things members have to say about this fast-food restaurant chain, and they do not hold back. "Besides complaints about the app glitch posts, it would be customers blaming us for pricing, even though it is not the employees' fault. There have been a few cases of some customers harassing others in comments as well," they told Bored Panda.
"More recently, we had someone blaming subway for supporting Russia, even though they are not, and I have been told they are sending profits to Ukraine," the moderator said.
Recently, Subway released a statement on their support of Ukrainian refugees. "As background, Subway has no corporately owned restaurant operations in Russia. There are approximately 450 franchised restaurants in Russia which are all independently owned and operated by local franchisees and managed by an independent master franchisee, not Subway corporate employees," they stated. "Subway does not directly control these independent franchisees, nor their restaurants, and has limited insight into their day-to-day operations."
They continued: "We will redirect any profits from operations in Russia to humanitarian efforts supporting the Ukrainian refugees across Europe. We are also working with our franchisees across Europe to provide meals to refugees."
After you hear all the things fast-food restaurant employees have to deal with, the industry sure seems to be facing a crisis. For decades, workers have been paid low wages, had to endure dangerous working conditions, and felt disrespected by both customers and their management. Not to mention, they are still required to keep a smile on their face even during the most unpleasant experiences.
Plus, thousands, if not millions of workers were fired or temporarily laid off during the pandemic. Many also had to risk their health and continue working while dealing with people who didn’t want to wear masks or refused to follow other health safety guidelines.
Frances Allen, CEO of Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants Inc., told Bloomberg the pool of available workers appears to have shrunk permanently. "The labor market has shrunk," Allen said. "As leaders, we’ve got to actually plan for that shrinkage."
The labor shortage has forced the restaurant chain to plan for shifts that used to have five employees to get by with three, or possibly four in the future, Allen added. And even though wages for food-service workers have been gradually increasing, it seems that’s not enough to attract potential employees.
Scrolling through this post, it becomes crystal clear that working in the fast-food industry is one hell of a ride. And from what we can tell, these out-of-touch customer behaviors and their extremely complex mile-long orders certainly don’t help to increase employee happiness.