Why Some McDonald's Employees Aren't Loving This Breakfast Change

Back at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, McDonald's made some menu changes for safety and efficacy reasons. "To simplify operations ... and ensure the best possible experience for our customers, we are working with our franchisees and local restaurants to focus on serving our most popular choices and will begin temporarily removing some items from the menu," Bill Garrett, McDonald's senior vice president of operations, told Business Insider in March 2020. These changes included closing dining areas and removing salads, grilled chicken sandwiches, and the all day breakfast from the menu. 

Prior to the all day breakfast, McDonald's customers often complained that the maple syrup-drenched McGriddle and popular Egg McMuffin sandwiches were not available even a minute past 10:30 a.m. McDonald's finally made the switch in 2015, offering their legendary morning menu all day long (via Eater). Although offering breakfast all day came with challenges, removing the option appears to be causing more aggravation for employees.

In a recent Reddit thread, McDonald's employees describe their disgruntlement with all day breakfast removal. As one user explains, "I thought it was bad initially when we were doing all day breakfast but the transition is worse than all day breakfast. People attacking and throwing tantrums over not being able to get their breakfast sandwiches at a certain time and people upset we aren't selling hashbrowns at 5." Another user summed it up more simply: "Okay the breakfast transition to lunch is the worst thing in McDonald's history that could have happened." 

Exploring the Reddit thread further, it seems the 10:30 a.m. transition from breakfast to lunch is one cause of frustration for employees, and the transition from the night menu back to the breakfast menu is another. "The transitions get worse because from 10:30 onward it becomes stressful almost in the same way 1:30-2:00 transition from lunch back to breakfast in some 24 hours McDonald's are tiring," the original poster notes.

Aside from the chaos behind the scenes, there is also the big issue of customers treating employees poorly over the chain's lack of constant breakfast. "I hate how people don't understand WE DONT SELL HASHBROWNS ALL DAY," one Redditor proclaimed. Other comments from McDonald's employees use language that is just too harsh for us to post.