McDonald’s worker shares the one word people should never say at the drive-thru window

A McDonald’s employee has gone viral by sharing what employees think of customers who pull up to the drive-thru speaker and say, “Hello!”—and it’s not good.

In a now-deleted TikTok video, a user named @maccaworkaddict shared a 7-second video of herself dancing at work in her McDonald’s uniform with the text, “You can’t keep ignoring the car in the drive-thru because they screamed hello as soon as they get there” overlaid on the screen. The video instantly sparked a lively debate on social media.

Why is saying “hello” at the drive-thru considered rude?

If you’ve never worked in a fast food restaurant, you might not be aware that every time a car pulls up to the speaker outside, a buzzer sounds inside to alert the staff to your arrival. There is no need to announce yourself because they already know you’re there, and are most likely preparing to take your order.

DublinLive caught the ensuing comment thread before the TikTok video and user were deleted. They report that many fast food workers chimed in to agree with @maccaworkaddict. Employees explained that customers who can’t wait two seconds to be acknowledged are “rude,” and workers often make people who say “hello” wait a little bit longer just to punish them.

“Each time they say hello I make them wait another 10 seconds lol,” one person wrote. “I hated this working at Burger King especially when this customer be out there sitting there yelling soon as I put the headset on,” said another.

Other people spoke up to defend saying “hello,” especially if they’ve been waiting for a while and haven’t been helped. In that case, most drive-thru workers agreed that if no one comes to the intercom for several minutes, it’s okay to speak up. But saying “hello” the second you pull forward does nothing but rankle the workers who are about to make your food, and nobody wants that.

The debate went on for some time before @maccaworkaddict explained in a comment that her videos are “all a joke,” and not meant to be taken seriously. The video has now disappeared into the internet ether, but I think we all learned a lesson from it. Pull up and shut up!