Though some might think it looks simple, working in the fast food industry is nowhere near easy. There’s a lot of stress involved in making sure everyone’s order is perfect from start to finish. However, that doesn’t mean that employees should take their stress out on customers — especially in a violent way. We’re referring to a recent incident involving a McDonald’s employee who was fired for harming a customer. Yikes.
Police were called to the North Little Rock, Arkansas McDonald’s location twice, according to Buzzfeed. The first time, it was when a customer became irate in the drive-thru and damaged property. The incident happened right before 11 p.m. Weirdly enough, that same customer — Tonio Andrews — was also involved in the second incident.
Andrews reportedly went back to order a 20-piece box of McNuggets, but realized by the next window that he actually wanted a cheeseburger instead. Per Buzzfeed, the employee reportedly told Andrews, “You need to make up your f***ing mind and quit wasting my time,” and the two allegedly got into an altercation. It ended when the employee threw hot grease in Andrews’ face.
After being checked out, professionals have confirmed that Andrews did have some grease burns on his face. McDonald’s employees: please know that hot grease is never the solution to an argument.
But the story isn’t over just yet. After the grease was thrown, Andrews called his family to let them know what happened. Let’s just say… they had his back. Specifically, his family stopped by the McDonald’s and broke the establishment’s door.
Since throwing grease is never the right way to handle customer service — even if the customer isn’t all that respectful — the employee was fired.
Footage is still being reviewed, but hopefully the employee learned a valuable lesson. Order switch-ups aren’t the greatest, especially when it involves a customer who already caused problems. But violence is never the answer.