The strange phenomenon has been observed at other Wendy’s using objects like a metal tray.
Browsing YouTube shorts and I came across a strange video showing a Wendy’s customer filming a drive-thru worker literally hurling a coffee pot on a string out the drive-thru window onto the ground.
Without context, I could not make heads or tails of this strange ritual.
At first, I thought they were scooping up dropped change, but they did it every time and people mostly pay with a card, so the likelihood of them dropping coins that often didn’t support that theory.
But once I read the comments, it all made sense and explained from the worker’s point of view what was happening.
Here’s the video below.
In the video, we see the Wendy’s customer film two instances of this happening.
“There go the coffee pot…there go the coffee pot!”
The last time he shows it happening, the coffee pot breaks off the string!
“I have no idea what this is happening for.”
Yeah, me too, Wendy’s customer.
Then I read the comments and it all made sense.
If you didn’t already figure it out, what that fast food worker is doing is triggering a metal detecting sensor meant to count cars and, by extension, it’s supposed to measure how long it takes to serve a customer.
I said supposed to because, by hacking the sensor, they’re gaming the system to record shorter wait times between cars, so management doesn’t get on their case.
“As a former Wendy’s manager, this is actually REALLY common. Wendy’s has their times so far up their a**es it’s crazy. We HAD to get cars in and out in under 60 seconds to meet our time goals. The managers really push this because if we didn’t meet the goals, we didn’t get our bonus. That’s why if you go to Wendy’s late at night, they either have your park or your just straight up get cold s**t. Absolutely the worst place to work,” @RehabGamingg commented.
“It simulates that cars are moving superfast. But what they don’t realize is that they’re screwing themselves because the faster and faster you go, the faster and faster they expect you to go,” @alltheboost5363 also comments.
I guess the store manager is fine with this system, as it’s super obvious when an employee does this.
From a management and corporate point of view, the faster you serve customers, the more money you’re going to make.
It’s prioritizing quantity over quality.
Here’s a screenshot of how long drive-thru usually takes, on average, at your favorite restaurants.
But, from a worker’s point of view, trying to meet a shorter service window standard to satisfy management at the expense of added stress is just not worth it, especially since they’re paid by the hour for, presumably, not that much.
According to a Redditor, this system hacking was also seen at another Wendy’s in Metro Atlanta, although the video and their experience could from the same store.
Wendy’s near me uses some sort of metal tray on a string and throws it out the window and drags it across the pavement after every car
byu/primarygrub inwendys
“Sometimes the detector will miss the car leaving or something, so there’s a ‘phantom’ car that actually makes the numbers really bad,” /u/Hoodwink commented, giving this store the benefit of the doubt.
“It could be them just resetting it. If it’s after every car, it could just a bad detection system, or they are making their numbers go higher.”
I get why both sides of Wendy’s (management and workers) are doing what they’re doing, it’s a (crude) monitoring and accountability tool.
But there has to be a better way to ensure that your drive-thru workers aren’t slacking while making sure the system itself isn’t becoming counter-productive (having them resort to this method.)
Perhaps pairing this tool with some kind of way to measure a worker’s level of stress (maybe leveraging AI?) so the system strikes a healthy balance between a speedy drive-thru and keeping employees happy.
What good is a standard if it overtaxes your employees and ends up costing you more (training new employees and earning a reputation for being slave drivers) in the long run?
Also, it just doesn’t look good to have your employees hurling out a coffee pot out the drive-thru window after every car.
But, what do I know?
This is just a car blog.
