I used to work at McDonalds (I know). Opening usually involved me at the front counter with a headset on so I could do drive-through orders and handle making coffee / putting orders together / taking money at the front from the little old people that came in at the crack of dawn every morning. We would also have a manager who was there to be important and one person in the kitchen. We’re a small rural town so usually this is fine but we were on kind of a major highway so sometimes it would get busy out of nowhere.
Depending on the manager the amount of help we had would vary wildly. One morning we got super busy and I started cracking under the pressure. I’m a fantastic multi-tasker but my drive-through line was backing up since I was trying to juggle them and all the walk-in folks from my front registers and when it gets packed…well, it’s fun. I glance around trying to find my manager for help. I see him on one of our cameras – he’s outside smoking a cigarette around the side of the building. Mind you, this is like his third trip out to smoke this morning. I’m absolutely dying trying to get caught up. Customers are being passive aggressive saying they will come behind the counter and get their own coffee and stuff. I have people yelling at me in my headset from the drive through. I end up having to remove the headset just to try to get the frontline sorted. I start making progress with the front but I basically had to sacrifice the drive-through customers for two minutes.
Apparently the cars outside start yelling at my manager and interrupt his smoke break so he comes in, sees me with my headset off and goes berserk. He’s like “WHOS TAKING THE DRIVE-THRU ORDERS?” I’m in the middle of trying to get a fresh pot of coffee going so I sort of auto-respond “No one. Hang on.” as I continue to dash around behind our counter to grab a fruit & yogurt parfait for an order. He basically gets in my way and starts giving me shit. Loudly, talking to me like I’m a dog. I point to the camera and yell, loudly enough to disrupt the entire inside of the restaurant. “I’m these two registers, first window, second window, and I’m bagging. I’m like FOUR PEOPLE and you’re out behind the building not doing SHIT!”
His eyes go wide. I can tell he knows I’m holding on by my last thread. He’s sighs. And he’s like “You’re in a ton of trouble but we can talk about this later.” No. Fuck him. I’m done. I’m all riled up from random customers yelling at me. I toss him the headset. “You want to give me shit for not being able to run like four stations with no support? Run five. I’ll watch.” I remove my name badge.
He went to say something to me. I turn away, facing the one girl working in the kitchen who is watching this all play out. I remember telling her “I’m so sorry.” and then I dropped my name badge, toss my hat on the counter, grab a water cup, put on (and zip) my jacket so my uniform is covered up. I go to the drink fountain, fill my water cup, and then I go sit on the far side of the seating area and watch him go down in flames. He ends up ALSO taking off the headset and picking up the phone so he can spam call the whole workforce one by one trying to call for help. It’s like 5AM so no one is going to accept a call from their work number. About ten minutes into his struggle he ends up very loudly pleading with me to come back from behind the counter. I can’t even see him on the other side of the sea of people swarming the counter at this point.
I call back “I need a smoke first!” and I go outside.
Emo subculture was, and is a perfect illustration of the reality of widespread, normalised, psychological abuse.
As a young teen when Emo first became a term, everyone I knew who associated themselves with it did so because they had been shamed for feeling emotions. The term emo itself is a shortening of emotional, and it is a sub-culture, because it was not considered ‘normal’.
This shows the beginning of the problem.
Emo kids were children who had been so badly treated, so routinely shamed, they considered themselves abnormal for having feelings at all. Because the adults around them told them they shouldn’t.
“Emos” then became widely known, characterised and defined as minors who were depressed, minors who self harmed, minors who had suicidal ideation and were at risk of committing suicide.
This should have been horrifying. It is horrifying to me now, to think of people so young being so terribly hurt and so badly treated that they are at risk of committing suicide before they even reach their late teens.
But the adults did not sit up and take note, they did not start caring for them or looking after the children. They made fun, they mocked them. “Emo kids” became a joke that adults passed around and shared in, worsening the emotional abuse by telling these already at risk children that their sadness was not valid, and their life-threatening depression was a joke.
They just ramped up the abuse on these children who were already known to be at risk of suicide. They simply did not take it seriously.
The “silly emotional teenager” narrative actually prevents minors from being taken seriously by doctors and other professionals, regardless of the nature of their ailment, purely because of their age.
Yes, teens will get anxious about things they are new to dealing with, and yes they will get depressed when things are hard, but it is our job as adults to teach them how to deal with it, how to cope, and to be there for them when they need that.
The previous generation had no such idea. So wrapped up were they in the economic boom they enjoyed and the pure narcissism they inflicted on their children.
They blame those same children for the things they suffered. Called them “problem children” and called them “emotional time bombs”, and pretended it was nothing to do with how they were raised, nothing to do with the psychological abuse they endured from all adults and media.
And now, they continue to laugh about “silly depressed teens”, while also berating this new wave of self-loving ones.
This new trend for self love and acceptance is beautiful, and necessary.
Those same adults who mocked and made jokes of their own suicidal children are now mocking and making jokes of their own children who like themselves in spite of what they are being taught.
They call you Narcissicstic for not being self loathing, but they made Emo Kids an international joke for self loathing.
There is no way to win against the emotionally and psychologically abusive, and when it becomes a cultural norm in this way, it’s very hard to find people who broke out of being that way.
The only way to win is not play at all.
You need to keep loving yourselves.
Emo subculture was, and is a perfect illustration of the reality of widespread, normalised, psychological abuse.
As a young teen when Emo first became a term, everyone I knew who associated themselves with it did so because they had been shamed for feeling emotions. The term emo itself is a shortening of emotional, and it is a sub-culture, because it was not considered ‘normal’.
This shows the beginning of the problem.
Emo kids were children who had been so badly treated, so routinely shamed, they considered themselves abnormal for having feelings at all. Because the adults around them told them they shouldn’t.
“Emos” then became widely known, characterised and defined as minors who were depressed, minors who self harmed, minors who had suicidal ideation and were at risk of committing suicide.
This should have been horrifying. It is horrifying to me now, to think of people so young being so terribly hurt and so badly treated that they are at risk of committing suicide before they even reach their late teens.
But the adults did not sit up and take note, they did not start caring for them or looking after the children. They made fun, they mocked them. “Emo kids” became a joke that adults passed around and shared in, worsening the emotional abuse by telling these already at risk children that their sadness was not valid, and their life-threatening depression was a joke.
They just ramped up the abuse on these children who were already known to be at risk of suicide. They simply did not take it seriously.
The “silly emotional teenager” narrative actually prevents minors from being taken seriously by doctors and other professionals, regardless of the nature of their ailment, purely because of their age.
Yes, teens will get anxious about things they are new to dealing with, and yes they will get depressed when things are hard, but it is our job as adults to teach them how to deal with it, how to cope, and to be there for them when they need that.
The previous generation had no such idea. So wrapped up were they in the economic boom they enjoyed and the pure narcissism they inflicted on their children.
They blame those same children for the things they suffered. Called them “problem children” and called them “emotional time bombs”, and pretended it was nothing to do with how they were raised, nothing to do with the psychological abuse they endured from all adults and media.
And now, they continue to laugh about “silly depressed teens”, while also berating this new wave of self-loving ones.
This new trend for self love and acceptance is beautiful, and necessary.
Those same adults who mocked and made jokes of their own suicidal children are now mocking and making jokes of their own children who like themselves in spite of what they are being taught.
They call you Narcissicstic for not being self loathing, but they made Emo Kids an international joke for self loathing.
There is no way to win against the emotionally and psychologically abusive, and when it becomes a cultural norm in this way, it’s very hard to find people who broke out of being that way.
The only way to win is not play at all.
You need to keep loving yourselves.
“Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light Radiant beams from Thy holy face With a dawn of redeeming grace.”
Sometimes loneliness eats away at Deceit until he can’t take it. And sometimes he wishes they felt the same way about him. When the holidays come around it’s especially hard for him to see them all having so much fun with their cookies and their decorations. At night when it’s cold and he feels lonely and they’re all asleep, he sneaks into their rooms and sings Christmas songs in minor key to them. He won’t ever let them know how much he wishes he were a part of their holiday festivities, but they often wake with strange versions of recognizable Christmas songs in their head……
(Go listen to Silent Night by Chase Holfelder on youtube and you’ll hear how he sings it.)
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