Heartbreaking Video of Young Girl Watching Fast-Food Worker Get Yelled at Goes Viral: 'I Am So Sorry You Have to Grow Up in This Mess' A father filmed his daughter watching an altercation between an employee and a customer.
By Emily Rella Edited by Jessica Thomas
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Sadly, fast-food workers are no strangers to angry and entitled customers, especially when people come into the restaurants hangry.
One TikTok user is going viral for sharing the moment his daughter saw a woman act out for the first time inside of a restaurant, which he caught on camera.
In the 10-second clip, which has racked up over 3.6 million views, Scott Hubbard (@scottyhubs) films his daughter watching on as a customer argues about her order at the counter of what appears to be Mexican fast-food chain Filberto's.
"That's literally the easiest thing — fries, meat, cheese," the angry customer can be heard screaming at the employee in the background as the young girl watches on. "You spoon it on, I've worked fast food long enough to know."
@scottyhubsMy daughter witnessed a Karen for the first time.
♬ original sound - Scott Hubbard
Hubbard's daughter then turns back around to her father and towards the camera, innocently asking behind her mask "Why is she so angry?" in a heartbreakingly confused tone.
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The video has garnered over 525,500 likes and nearly 4,200 comments, with many hitting back against the customer's behavior and feeling emotional over the young girl's reaction.
"Oh the innocence," one commenter wrote. "Good question though."
"Hopefully this prompted a discussion about how one person is supposed to treat another?" One user asked, to which Hubbard responded promptly "You bet it did."
Hubbard also took to the comments to offer clarification and additional information on the situation that unfolded.
"Backstory! As we were waiting for our food this lady came in from the drive through and parked her car on the curb," Hubbard wrote. "She slammed the doors open …. I never post videos like this I just thought my daughters reaction was so pure. Food service employees don't deserve to be treated like trash for something so small."
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Others called the woman's actions "childish" and "sad" and pointed out that she should be "embarrassed."
"That is just the world now," one user wrote, talking to the young girl in the video. "I am so sorry you have to grow up in this mess."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 3,450,120 fast-food and counter workers in the United States as of May 2020, paid an average annual wage of $24,450.
This is approximately 546,700 workers fewer than was reported the same time the year prior, thanks to restaurant closures and changes in the workforce amid the pandemic.
However, positive changes appear to be on the horizon.
It's been reported that wages for hourly fast-food workers jumped around 10% in Q2 of 2021 in comparison to the same time frame in 2020, per a report from Black Box Intelligence and Snaggjob.
