Kailee Crayton is a sophomore in Media and an employee at McDonald’s on Green Street. She has worked at McDonald’s since last year. A typical overnight shift for Crayton is usually from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

How often do you work a night shift? 

Four days out of the week. I tried five at the beginning of the year, but that was too many hours. 

How do you balance that with your studying?

I actually found that in terms of attending classes and doing homework, the night shift is easier because … I did mid-days last year, but I kinda feel like it took up my whole day and I’d go straight from class to work and I hated that. At least this way, I just push all my schoolwork and classes in the beginning of the day and then at night I just work.

What’s the craziest story you’ve ever witnessed during a night shift?

So, there’s a lot of drunk students, so a lot of drunken fights break out — or I’ll say arguments. So I’ve seen a couple of instances where my manager has literally had to kick people out of the store just for like trying to fight someone for being too close to them or something. My manager has also gotten in like yelling matches (almost) with students who fight back and forth with them. The other day, someone walked in and … stuck their hand in the fryer behind the counter. I don’t know, it was insane.

How do you deal with these encounters?

For most overnights, our screens are so overwhelmed with orders that I really don’t have time to interact with a customer unless they are super persistent about getting my attention. So, at best, I just kinda have to tune out the background noise. And if it gets super disruptive, then maybe my manager would do something, but we’re just kind of expected to go about our day.  

Is that difficult?

Yeah, sometimes. It’s more hard, not even out of interest, out of annoyance a little bit. It’s just like, oh my gosh, I already have so much stuff to do and I really don’t wanna be bothered with it. You can get a little distracted and (it can be) a little bit annoying. You have to have a lot of focus I guess, but when you have a task in front of you at hand that you need to get done, it’s easier to kinda direct your attention at something else. 

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