‘I used to work at a drive-thru – here’s why you spot staff leaning out of windows’

A former drive-thru worker has provided an answer to a previously unsold mystery, after videos of fast food workers leaning far out of delivery windows went viral online

For months now, the internet has been speculating about the reason behind an unusual gesture sometimes performed by drive-thru workers. But it’s a fast action – blink and you’ll miss it – meaning not all customers know about the gesture, even though it is a common sight at some restaurants.

The move sees workers leaning far out of windows, before they appear to hit the ground using a metal object, often puzzling those who witness it. Thankfully, a former drive-thru worker has revealed what’s going on – and he claims it’s all to do with employees “cheating the system”, when bosses time their delivery speeds.

Posting to TikTok as @the_knight_danger, the former fast-food chain employee replied to a video showing a worker employing the trick, using the app’s duet feature.

In @zak.dean’s original video, a man can be seen leaning into the drive-thru, holding a sheet before what looks to be a sensor. “What are they doing when they do this,” asked the now-viral video.

Well, the worker may well have been trying to improve the restaurant’s average delivery time, according to @ the_knight_danger.

He claimed: “I’ll tell you exactly what they are doing. I used to work in a drive-thru. We used to do it all the time.” In drive-thrus, the length of time cars wait is an important metric, he explained.

Companies don’t always take into account just how long customer interactions can take, according to the TikToker. “In their tests, they are dealing with the perfect customer who has got money to the exact change point, who just throws money in, takes coffee, drives away, 20 seconds.”

But as he pointed out, the process can be slowed down when customers take time finding their money, change their order, or want to pause for a quick chat – and workers happily oblige them.

“So, what that worker is doing is, after the car drives away, taking a piece of metal to set off the detection for a very brief amount of time to bring the average time cars have been sitting down. Because the people that make these rules don’t think that customers are people and the people who work there do,” the man claimed.

He added: “The only metric is how long was car sitting, it does not look at anything else. So, yeah, they are cheating the system because it is system designed in such a way that you kind of have to.”

In response, many viewers were quick to share their shock. “Wow thank you for answering this, I am now content,” read one comment.” “I didn’t realize you guys were timed,” said another.

Several drive-thru workers also revealed they had needed to use similar tactics at work before.

One person said: “This is smart. We used to have one of my co workers drive around the building a bunch of times right before close to lower it.”

“We used to just drive our cars through at the end of our shifts. If you left, you drove your car through,” added a second.