How do you cope with working fast food/retail?

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I don't. I'm not saying working fast food is totally awful, it's not. Some people enjoy it, and don't have any issues with it.

However, having worked fast food a few times, it's just not for me. It's hectic. Especially if you are dealing with rushes, and you're in charge of both register, and making sure customers get their orders. (due to being short staffed.)

Maybe because he was racist (I kinda think that's what it was. Because another black guy who worked a different shift, also complained about him) but one of my managers would in front of many customers, talk to me like I was a damn dog, and belittle me, and make me feel like dirt. It was also over honest and simple mistakes, that I didn't mean to do.

Or he would get on my case, when I would try my best to please the customers, like I was putting too many fries in the container, or the customers asked for extra ranch dressing or barbecue sauce, or free cups of ice, or in one instance, (because it was a fast food restaurant at a tourist resort) I was told by another superior, that the security guards that did security crowd control at the resort, get a free entree, so whenever the security guard guys would come, I would give them food on the house, like I was told. So one of the security guards comes up, and I begin to give him a free meal, then my manager comes and puts a halt to this, and once again gives me hell, and says, "what are you doing?" Even though I'm only doing what was I told, which was the security guards get a free entree. Smh. So yeah.

The rude customers, ugh, I feel the customer is always right. If I don't like it, I can quit and find another job, (which is what I did lol). I had to deal a with a lot of Karens, and angry customers, and the customer is always right. It's not worth it to get mad over them, because you're not going to win that battle. So I just got tired of putting my game face on, and being nice to customers which I feel didn't always deserve it, but by default they did.

So yeah, that's my thing on working fast food lol.

Retail was ok once I got off the cash register and started working in hardlines. Sure I had to help customers, but it wasn't all I did. A lot of the time I just got to stock shelves or work in a small group. The hardlines crew I worked with was pretty great.

Then I worked in fast food service. It was constantly noisy, or hot, or cold. A kitchen is full of stimulus, and there's a lot of things to keep track of. You usually have several orders cooking simultaneously and some inevitably have special instructions. I was in an open kitchen too, so customers often were staring at you while you made the food. And the culture of the food service industry is famously abusive and unfriendly. I was thrown in the deep end, and then resented by several coworkers for slowing down the service. And customers were used to the existing staff and would sometimes refuse to talk to me. I have never had panic attacks, but did when I worked that food job. I couldn't breathe and would collapse, I was even having attacks while commuting to work which was pretty dangerous. I came home everyday tired and in physical pain because my body was so tense. I couldn't cope with it and started to get into a very dangerous place mental health wise.

I told myself that if I couldn't make it as a fry cook that I was basically worthless so I kept pushing on in an unhealthy situation for way too long. If your job makes you want to hurt yourself, start applying elsewhere and get out ASAP. So retail>fast food. As far as coping, I think deprogramming some black and white thought patterns can help. I equated my work performance as success or failure and correlated that with my worth as a person, which is unrealistic and unhealthy. If you struggle at work after repeatedly trying to improve, it doesn't mean you're a bad person, it probably means you're not in the right job. Just remember, you are stocking shelves or flipping burgers, not handling the nuclear launch codes. In the grand scheme of things, nothing you do there matters. And those jobs are a dime a dozen, you can find another one if this one isn't working for you. I still try everyday at work, but I'm more relaxed about it because I can separate my work from my life and worth as a person.