Woman gets assaulted at the McDonald’s drive-through on her first week. Then her manager allegedly fired her and the only reason was ‘you always want window 1’

A short-term trial period of employment at McDonald’s ended in ridiculous circumstances that had some people saying the employee should consider legal action. TikTok creator Phoebe Eaton took to the platform to give her account of how she worked at a drive-thru for only a couple of weeks before an assault left her nervous and eventually got her fired.

In the TikTok, she is standing in front of a blank wall, as is customary on the platform to prevent viewers from being distracted. Phoebe explained that in her first days she was amazing at her job, but the demanding nature of the typical McDonald’s drive-thru customer got the best of her.

Some people will always thrive off ruining your day

The week that would eventually change her fortunes at her new job, Phoebe decided to work at window 1. She said that she just loved the experience of interacting with customers. And that makes sense because it’s not uncommon to find a sweet viral clip online of a customer and a drive-thru staff member sharing a quick quip that gives you a little extra hope in humanity.

However, there’s the other side of that. In the same way kindness is rewarded with smiles, chaos is rewarded with adrenaline. Some thrill seekers always go the extra mile to ruin someone’s day. Whether it’s through bizarre pranks online or simply by being undeniably awful to the people around them to get their way—someone, somewhere in the world is probably trying that right now.

Unfortunately for Phoebe, she was about to meet such a person. She claims that at that point she had been working at window 1 for about a week with no memorable mishaps. Then a man pulled up impatient and frustrated by things that clearly had nothing to do with the service Phoebe was providing.

According to her recollection, the man first placed his order and then changed his mind. Phoebe had to let him know that she couldn’t change the order, and even though he was frustrated, he took it all out on her. As a staff member dealing with customers, all she could do was take it. But it didn’t stop there.

With all the delay caused by the back and forth, his payment timed out. So Phoebe had to ask for his card again. At that point, he lost what little cool he had left, accusing her of trying to steal from him. He believed Phoebe would personally benefit from charging him twice, something even she was confused about. But the customer made the matter even crazier when he started grabbing her shirt in a threatening and abusive manner.

She always had a stutter

Phoebe eventually managed to call the manager to de-escalate the situation. But from that point on, she was nervous about going back to window 1, and her stutter—which she claims she has always had—returned. Everyone at her outlet understood why the assault had shaken her up. But when it came to the end of her probation, when she was supposed to find out whether she would keep the job, she was told that she had started refusing to work window 1 and had a stutter. She was shocked.

Her top comment came from a user who wrote, “pls sue them – employment tribunal. i’m not a lawyer. just a law student. speak to citizens advice – they’re free. good luck and i’m sorry this happened.”

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is illegal to terminate an employee based on a disability if they are qualified to perform the basic functions of the job. TikTok posts are not exactly admissible in court in a vacuum. If she does sue, every aspect of her probation will likely be subject to discovery, and her manager’s perspective will also be heard. Only then would any lawsuit bear fruit. You can never truly know what happened from just one perspective.

That being said, it truly was an unfortunate experience.