Ex-McDonald’s Employee Says Ice Cream Machine Is Never Really Broken — Staff Is Lying to You

Former McDonald's employee and TikToker Lorella Palmer (@lorellapalmer) is sharing bits of information about her time working for the global fast food franchise in a viral clip that's accrued over 55,000 likes on the popular social media platform.

Lorella says in the video, "I worked for McDonald's just shy of five years, and now that it's been a couple of years since I left I've always wanted to do a video on like secrets or just like things about working there."

The first order of business that she tackles is the infamous ice cream machine always being out of service. However, Lorella says that this isn't the case: "It's never broken. If it's running out of the mix for the ice cream for the milkshakes and no one fills up, it goes into what's called heat treat mode."

The TikToker goes on to say that because it "takes ages" for the ice cream machine to exit from this heat treat mode that the "broken" excuse given to some customers is really workers telling guests it's going to be a while before any ice cream based treats are available for purchase.

She went on to say that another reason why the ice cream machine may be malfunctioning could be due to employees having to clean them, which she says is often a time-consuming process, stating that it will often take a "full shift to clean it from start to finish."

Lorella also had a message for folks who are shocked at the quality, or lack thereof, of customer service that they receive while at McDonald's, stating that the majority of people who work for Mickey D's are teenagers or "children" who don't necessarily care about the job or service they're providing.

As a result, she insinuates that customers should lower their expectations if they're upset that their food has been made incorrectly or if it takes them a while to receive their order.

Another on-the-job secret she revealed is that "everyone sleeps with everyone" stating that "across all stores" folks are dining at what is a big "incestual family."

"Managers get moved from store to store all the time so after like a year of working there I knew people in like all the stores in my city. And someone's always sleeping with someone. Everyone's dating."

The next behind-the-scenes sneak peek of working at McDonald's almost appears to be a point of enjoyment for the TikToker, who called the level of drama "top tier," while adding that she once dated one of her managers for 2 years, calling her decision to do so a big mistake.

Another point she brought up is that of cleanliness, adding that while there is a handwash timer that goes off every 30 minutes, "it's not always abided by," and that many food items, like garnishes and buns, are picked up with people's bare hands.

She goes on to state that the desserts served up at Mickey D's like donuts and such arrive to the location "frozen" and are defrosted by staff. "They're not cooked in our kitchens," she goes on to say.

Lorella also claims that there's an extensive ban list of children at any given McDonald's and she's either personally seen, or handled, kids getting thrown out of the stores, and has witnessed numerous fights break out while on the job for the burger chain.

"I literally had to go and pick up a child who fell to the floor after getting hit. And bring her into the store because there was literally gangs outside fighting each other."

She then shifted her focus to Uber drivers, calling out those who say that they've registered bicycles on the application because they don't want to pay the insurance fee of having a vehicle, which messes with the delivery times of some orders. I.e. they think employees will think that the person picking up food is 10 minutes away, but in actuality, it's 2 minutes.

And for folks who have items missing from their order, she urges them to call on the day that they've ordered the item, as there is a system set in a place where employees can generate codes in order to give patrons their missing food.

Her final secret? Mayonnaise isn't offered as a condiment, even though it's put on some of its sandwiches, and Lorella said that she was "verbally abused" by a guest who couldn't understand why he couldn't get a mayo packet/container with his order.