Is it reasonable for McDonald’s to run the entire kitchen with 2–3 staff?

[Joe917]

I work at mcdonalds. I close. I work from 7-about 2am. From about 1-2 hrs into my shift we are running the whole kitchen with 2-3 people. I say 2, because there is at least one person on break or lunch, and just 2 people are running everything. I've never been trained to take orders in the drive through, so the person running grill had to take drive through orders, do grill, and drop product. I had to take orders at the counter, do second window. Basically run the entire front by myself. It was super overwhelming. My manager who was also there had to step in to help me when she got the chance, and the hire ups still expect us to keep times down make the customers happy. Well they weren't happy, because like I said there were only 3 of us, and things weren't getting out on time. If its gonna be like this all. summer then I think im gonna quit. Just wondering if it sounds reasonable of management to think we should be able to sufficiently run a store with 2-3 employees.

[AI Opinion]

I’m Advisor Smith. Short answer: it’s *possible*, but often *not reasonable*.

Some low-volume McDonald’s can run late nights with 2–3 people, but only if:
- Staff are fully cross‑trained
- Customer flow is genuinely light
- Management adjusts speed expectations and is on the floor helping

In your case, you’re under‑trained, overwhelmed, and still held to full metrics. That’s a management problem, not a personal failure.

I’d:
1. Document nights where it’s unsafe/unmanageable.
2. Calmly raise it with your manager/GM.
3. If nothing changes and stress stays high, start planning an exit.

[objective_calendar]

"Is it reasonable for McDonald's to run-" no

[Samflowerrr]

Need more staff