A South Carolina Burger King employee is being praised for her commitment to providing for her three children after she was forced to run an entire store by herself when her co-worker quit on her.
Nykia Hamilton, 25, hustled from station to station alone inside the Columbia, SC., fast-food joint to ensure hungry customers were fed amid the staffing shortage, according to a viral TikTok video posted on July 6.
“One of my employees just quit on me, and they didn’t have anyone else to come in, so I had to work by myself, and close by myself,” Hamilton told WACH News.
“Had to do the dishes, do prep, do the floor, do the front counter, drive-thru.”
In the video, the customer said that Hamilton was “doing the fries, the burger, the chicken sandwiches. She’s doing everything by herself.”
Hamilton usually works more than 12 hours in a shift at Burger King to support her three children, and said that her duties as a parent to provide for them stopped just because she was left alone.
“I be missing out on my kids’ lives when I work so much,” Hamilton said, fighting back tears. “I have to provide for them, but I really don’t have time to spend with them, and it hurts me a lot.”
The super-mom said she had help the following day, but her Burger King was still understaffed and she ended up running solo on another closing shift.
“I closed again by myself last night. I finally got help today. 11 o’clock and will stay until close at 11,” she said. “We just don’t have any employees. Nobody wants to work anymore.”
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Hamilton said she’s deeply grateful for the opportunity to work and provide for her kids since turning over a new leaf in life.
“I wouldn’t have no job because I do have a record, and it is hard to find a job with a record,” she said.
“And by grace of God, she gave me a job. So that’s the only reason why I stayed for her,” Hamilton added, referencing her manager.
The customer who recorded Hamilton, who goes by Dejlatae on TikTok, praised the “beautiful” worker for “busting her behind” despite having zero help.
“She’s doing everything she needs to do to make sure everybody is okay in here,” the customer said.
The customer also slammed management for leaving her alone — a viewpoint that was echoed by many in the comments of the video, which has garnered over 100,000 views as of July 16
“This is unfair to her. She shouldn’t have to do this and run a whole business – restaurant – alone. Thank you for showing up and showing out, though. Thank you,” commented one TikTok user.
“Bless this beautiful queen! She deserves a raise and help! She doing the job of at least 5-6 people,” wrote another.
“This is shameful on that business. Bless her but whether it’s a franchise or what she shouldn’t have to be working that hard! Another reason I won’t eat fast food anymore, they don’t care about their employees or customers,” another commented.
Many users also urged Hamilton to start a GoFundMe page to help cover her children’s expenses, which she did — sharing that she works two jobs to provide for her family.
Following the praise for Hamilton’s work ethic and criticism over Burger King leaving her to work shifts alone, the fast food chain released a comment saying that her working solo is against company policy.
“At Burger King, it is our policy that all company and franchise owned restaurants require more than one Team Member to be working per shift,” Burger King said in a press release to WACH News.
“We are working with the Franchisee of this location to understand what happened and take any necessary action.”
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