Fast food labor is demanding. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees spend the majority of the day on their feet while taking orders, preparing food, dealing with challenging clients, cleaning, and other tasks. They also make a median hourly income of around $12 per hour.
According to the clock shown in the video, Kimberly (@she is like texas) of TikTok asserts that the day she claims her daughter had begun at approximately 5:30 am and finished at approximately 9:15 pm. In the comments, Kimberly reveals that her daughter attended school before leaving for work.
Currently, the video has received over 1.1 million views.
Kimberly’s daughter can be seen in the video sporting her Whataburger uniform. She has a hairnet dangling erratically from the front of her turned-back visor and looked exhausted and agitated.
“I’ve been up too long,” the woman says in the video.
Kimberly adds in the caption, “She is my hardworking kid.”
Users discussed the daughter’s mental status in the comments.
“Worked at Whataburger for 3 months,” wrote a user. “Ik her pain.”
“Going to school then straight to work coming home late was rough,” added another. “I don’t miss that.”
“I’ve seen plenty of co-workers leave with their hair net lookin like that at end of shift,” claimed a third.
“Fast food is not for the weak,” a further user shared. “I’ll never do that again.”
Others agreed that watching movies like this was crucial because it helped people appreciate how challenging this kind of labor can be.
“…so many adults don’t know how hard it is to go to public high school and work fast food making [barely] above minimum wage…” detailed a user.
“The same for my girl.. School at 6am then straight to work and doesn’t get home until 11pm,” a second stated. “There are still hard working kids in their generation.”
“Be nice to the kids who go to work straight from school,” an additional TikToker noted. “they are not ok.”
Only 17% of limited-service employees are teenagers, but there has been an uptick in teen employment overall, according to Black Box Intelligence research. Restaurant Dive claims that some businesses deliberately seek out young people by providing incentives like management positions with a higher salary or mentoring programs. According to Restaurant Dive, there are benefits to hiring teenagers because they typically don’t have duties for child care that would need time off. Additionally, in some places, companies may pay children less than the minimum wage. A former employee said in an Indeed review that Whataburger pushes teenagers to executive roles, labeling the practice as
August 30 update, 3:22 p.m. Kimberly discussed the video’s vibrancy in a DM on Instagram.
“I’m shocked it got so many comments,” she said. “Bethany is a hard worker like her dad, Paul. She only worked 4 hours that day after going to school. Every day she amazes me.”
Despite the apparent weariness in the video, she claimed that Whataburger has proven to be a supportive workplace.
“Whataburger is an amazing place. They’ve been great with working with our hectic life schedule,” she detailed. “They have been amazing to her. She never works past 9:30 PM.”
Kimberly expressed overall pride in her child.
“Her Dad and I are proud of how hard she works,” she boasted. “She goes to school and studies then works her 3-4 hour shift. College is next and she will do amazing things.”
Kimberly was contacted via an Instagram direct message.
