I think it's safe to say that indulging in a little fast food or chain restaurant is something we all do from time to time. However, it's probably also safe to say that you've wondered how ~clean~ things are behind the scenes. Well, unfortunately, not all are created equal. We asked members of the BuzzFeed community to share the grossest thing they've witnessed — and they did not hold back...
1. "I worked at a popular burger chain, and one day I walked in to see my co-workers separating frozen burger patties by bashing them on the grimy floor."
2. "A fellow worker's husband’s ex (not ex-wife, just an ex-girlfriend) came in and ordered potato soup. Out of spite, this girl — my co-worker — put on a glove, SCRAPED THE INSIDE OF A TRASH CAN, put it in the soup, mixed it up, topped it with cheese and bacon, and served it to her. She had been married to the guy for three years, and the ex was just an ex — no kids, no ties to them. At 19 years old, I was mortified and did not know what to do. Others workers saw it and told management, but they did nothing."
3. "My first job was at a fast food burger joint, and there was one guy who worked a lot. We later found out that he was licking his finger (like you do when you turn a page of a book) when he was grabbing the cheese for the cheeseburgers. As many employee meals as I ate there, I don't even want to know how much of his saliva I accidentally ate."
4. "I was an assistant manager, and one day I walked into the walk-in fridge to find the cook with his c**k in the container with the fresh steaks. I stared at him and then just said to meet me in the office when he was done. I sent him home, and the manager fired him that same day."
5. "When being trained on how to make waffle batter and put it in a machine, I saw a co-worker's Band-Aid fall into the mix. She picked it out and continued as nothing happened."
6. "At a fast food joint, I witnessed a woman use the soda fountain to wash her hair — just standing under it, choosing different sodas, and scrubbing her scalp."
7. "I was a shift manager and caught two guys peeing in the ice cream mix in the walk-in cooler. I had to shut down and disinfect the entire system, all while trying to reach the store manager. (This was 2005, so cellphones weren't 100% yet.) When the manager showed up, she screamed at me for kicking the worker out and wasting all the ice cream mix! 🤮"
8. "A co-worker was by the grill and saw a baby mouse creep out. He immediately stomped on it. I was impressed at his reflexes, horrified for the mouse, and skeeved out about him punting the squished corpse out of the way so he could continue cooking."
9. "My mom used to work at a fried chicken joint, and one day there was a rude customer at the drive-thru. She saw her manager put the chicken on the floor and use a dirty mop to drag it around before putting it in the box and serving it to the customer. That manager got fired."
10. "A regular customer used to blow his nose into a napkin and shove it between the seats. It was disgusting."
11. "One of my bosses didn’t flush his toilet paper for no reason. The septic system was fine. He put his caca toilet paper in the trash next to the toilet, and the trash would not get changed until it was full. Before it was emptied, I could literally make eye contact with his sphincter-shaped poop art while I did my business. It became a joke that we knew his asshole was tight because we could see how many wrinkles it had from these canvasses."
12. "In the drive-thru, you could see out of the window, but the customer couldn’t see in. One day, a lady in the drive-thru got out, pulled her pants down, and peed. The girl I was working with and I just stared in shock. The lady didn’t even clean her hands afterward. I was the one that had to hand her her ice cream cone. I was sick to my stomach after seeing that."
13. "My brother saw a worker cooking omelets wipe down the cooking surface with a rag then wipe his face with it before wiping it down again."
14. "At a Chinese chain, my mom and I witnessed the chef spit out the most mucus-filled loogie known to mankind in the sink. We never ate there again."
15. "I used to work at a chain donut place, and one time I saw the manager pick up a cinnamon roll that dropped on the floor and serve it to a customer."
And, lastly, this one is a dirty deed one of you actually admitted you committed yourself...
16. "When I was around 19, I worked at a chain restaurant, and these guys were rude, yelling about how long the food was taking. I had a cold, so when I bent over to get the food, a drip of snot came out and landed right in the man's spaghetti. I asked him how it was part way through, and he said good. 🤷♀️"
Hopefully, all the things listed above are EXTREMELY rare 😭😭😭... but, either way, I'll be eating at home for a while.
NOTE: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.