6 Things You'll Only Ever Truly Understand If You've Worked At McDonald's In Canada

The smell

You know that delicious greasy smell that greets you when you enter through the Golden Arches? Well, it wreaks hell on your personal hygiene.

Yes, it smells wonderful, but it stays on your skin and hair for ages. I have really thick hair that I generally only wash every two or three days, so it was always a struggle to plan my hair-washing days around my shifts.

Waking up at 3 a.m. with the scent of grease in your hair is pretty unfortunate, but going on a date smelling like a French fry is really not a cute look.

How unhinged the overnight shifts are

I'm not sure if this was specific to my location, but things during the overnight shift would get really weird, in the best kind of way.

From seeing who could create the tallest ice cream cone, to creating Franken-burgers in the kitchen and napping in the booths, I have fond memories of those strange 2 a.m. times.

How rage-inducing the sound of timers are

One of the downsides of Mickey D's was the constant sound of timers going off.

Put the fries in? Beep. Reminder to give it a shake? Beep. Take the fries out? BEEP.

If you forgot to hit the button, the beeps would just increase until it finally p*ssed you off enough to rage-push the button.

And that's just one station — there's also the beeps that come from all the various food stations, as well as the drive-thru.

The fact that you still want to eat the food

Given the proximity we had to the food you'd think that it'd be a turnoff from eating it, but it was generally the opposite.

Seeing how well things were prepared, stored and dealt with was impressive, and I had no qualms about having a (usually free) cheeseburger after a long shift.

The general hatred for the breakfast shift

While breakfast items are now something you can get at all hours of the day, the same is not true of the rest of the menu.

People would get so irate when they'd come in during breakfast hours and find out they couldn't order a Big Mac.

Sorry my friend, you'll have to wait til 10:30 a.m. to get those French fries — but could I interest you in a hash brown until then?

The good memories

While every job comes with its ups and downs, working at McDonald's was one of the best I've ever had.

I'm a firm believer that everyone should work in customer service at least at one point in their lives, and I truly recommend young people give the Golden Arches a try.