Everyone Should Have to Work in Restaurants for at Least Two Months

An Ohio judge recently sentenced 39-year-old Rosemary Hayne to two months of working 20 hours a week in a fast food restaurant after she lost her cool at a Chipotle and threw a burrito bowl into the face of an employee. The entire incident was caught on video and went viral because of course it did. It’s certainly not the first time a restaurant customer has taken out their frustrations on an employee, but this might be the first time I've heard of someone being sentenced to the fate of a fast food job because of their poor behavior. 

I have long held the belief that if everyone in this world spent some time working in customer service, people’s overall behavior toward these employees would change dramatically. It only takes a few interactions with a less-than-perfect customer to recognize the job is demanding and takes a lot of patience. I once waited tables with a man from Hungary who told me he served in the military for two years because it was required by law in his country. After taking a hot second to be grateful that the U.S. hasn't yet adopted that policy, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in this country had to work in a restaurant for two months? Everyone would be so much nicer!” 

It’s practically a guarantee that anyone who mistreats a restaurant worker has never had to walk a mile in their slip-resistant shoes. The Burrito Bowl Bandit is now going to get a taste of her own medicine and that medicine will probably not taste as good as carne asada, brown rice, and sour cream. Even paying extra for queso blanco is going to make her sentence tough to swallow. 

While I’m sure Hayne will learn her lesson about how to treat people who are handling her food, it still seems like her “sentence” is slightly demeaning to, you know, those who go to that job every single day. What about the people who will work with her for those two months? She’s looking at her 60-day stint as punishment with an end date in sight while her co-workers just see it as their job with no chance for parole. What does it say about our country that this woman has to do something as punishment that other people are doing because it pays their bills? 

I also think about the manager of the restaurant that Hayne will end up in who will have to work her into the schedule knowing it’s only temporary. Then again, that’s probably not a new experience for a fast food manager since they’re almost always hiring. The job might be thought of by society as unskilled labor, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Fast food workers have been fighting for higher wages and better working conditions and maybe this judge’s decision will help their cause. The judge is essentially confirming it's a tough job. The old stereotype is that prisoners break rocks as manual labor, but this woman will be serving sides of fries to ungrateful customers. The comparison seems fair.

I hope in two months when she leaves her fast food job, she has a newfound respect for service workers. After standing at a counter and being yelled at by customers who think five minutes is too long to wait for a #4 Combo Meal Deal, maybe she’ll think to say "please" and "thank you" the next time she goes to a restaurant. While the sentence is unusual, it will probably teach her a valuable lesson about humanity. 

We’re all in this world together and no matter how angry we might get about some perceived misdeed, no one deserves to have a burrito bowl thrown at them. And even though Hayne will only have the job for two months, the lesson will stay with her for much, much longer. But probably not as long as the smell of french fry grease embedded in her hair.