WWhen Atulya Dora-Laskey goes about her job preparing tacos, burritos and salad bowls on the line at a Chipotle in Lansing, Michigan, she knows there’s a chance a customer will pull out a camera to film her lunch assembly. If that happens, “it’s immediately anxiety-inducing for my co-workers and for me,” she said. He finds filming at work “very stressful and dehumanizing”.
These shooting incidents began last month after rumors circulated on TikTok and Reddit that claimed Chipotle’s line workers were saving customers on the chain’s infamously large portion sizes — as long as customers didn’t film the workers creating the order.
Keith Lee, a former mixed martial artist and TikTok food critic who has more than 16 million followers on the app, started the controversy with a video review of the fast-casual chain in May. “The portions are crazy,” Lee said before digging into his burrito bowl for protein. “Where’s the chicken?” he asked as dramatic music played in the background.
Then Drew Polenske, an influencer with a TikTok audience of 2.6 million, encouraged fans to “check out” the restaurant’s average mobile app review in retaliation… while including his name in their one-star ratings.
Later that month, another influencer, Isaac Francis, filmed himself ordering at Chipotle. He first positioned his camera to show his face while ordering, but then switched it to record the employee’s hands making the dish. In the video, Francis angrily asked for more rice and chicken. He wrote in the caption that he “couldn’t allow” the worker to “disrespect me with that amount of protein.”
The clip garnered more than 115,500 likes on TikTok, inspiring copycat videos from content creators filming their own orders. On Reddit, users claiming to be customers have shared instances of “skewers” disappointed with their thin burritos or small bowls. As one Barstool headline put it: “The hottest new life hack is filming Chipotle employees making your burritos so they don’t skimp on portion sizes.”
Brian Niccol, the company’s CEO, has said in interviews that he disapproves of the filming trend. Instead, he said that anyone who wanted more food in their bowl should “look” at the counter, indicating that they wanted another portion. A Chipotle spokesperson later told the New York Times, “The filming does not lead to larger portions.”
In fact, Dora-Laskey said, if anything, she gave the filmmakers less food. “We’re actually lighter on the portions because we don’t want to be on record as violating Chipotle’s proportion policy,” she explained. According to her, workers can be disciplined if they exceed the prescribed portion size. “You can get in trouble with your boss for giving a customer too much food.”
Some Reddit users who claim to work as either line workers or managers at Chipotle say they are forced to keep portions small as a cost-saving measure. Although Chipotle representatives said the company has not made any changes to portion sizes, it has raised prices — six times since 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. But while fans like to complain, many of them won’t be leaving the chain.
There’s another factor at play: Chipotle restaurants are struggling with staffing problems amid a nationwide labor shortage. (Last year, the company said it was looking to hire 15,000 more people in North America.) If Chipotle stores run out of protein, it could take “quite a while” for employees to earn more, if too much. few people are scheduled for a shift.
“Once you run out of chicken or whatever meat a customer asks for, it can take 20 to 40 minutes to get more, which means there are going to be a lot of angry customers,” she said. “So you’ll probably do your best to give them the smallest portion possible.
Dora-Laskey works at the only organized Chipotle where in 2022 workers voted 11-3 to form a union under the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They said unions were necessary to combat understaffing, irregular schedules and low wages. (A Chipotle spokeswoman wrote in a statement to Marketplace that she was “disappointed” by the union win.)
On Reddit, one user who claimed to work the line at Chipotle wrote that while he sympathized with customers who feel cheated, it was disrespectful to film a low-wage worker just trying to get through another shift. “Please stop shoving phones in our faces,” they wrote. “Chipotle gets so much free publicity out of this and we employees who are there to make a livable wage to feed our families look like literal animals in a zoo behind glass making bowls until our backs and wrists disappear.”
The fact that Chipotle’s social media frenzy started at all means, in Dora-Laskey’s eyes, “there’s a real interest in placing blame on crew members, whether it’s coming from random TikTokers or the CEO.” Any frustration, she said, would be better directed at the top, especially since the chain earned $9.9 billion last year and continues to open stores in cities large and small. (The average Chipotle counter worker makes $17 an hour, according to the company.)
Dora-Laskey said if someone asks for a bigger portion — and they’re not filming it — she’ll give them another half scoop. Anything extra costs extra and those are the set rules she has to follow because it’s her job.
Last year, Chipotle debuted a “cobotic” (collaborative robot) that can make bowls and salads. In July, Niccol’s CEO told investors that the machine would hit restaurants “in the next 12 to 18 months.” According to Business Insider, it can make up to 180 bowls per hour—six times more than a human.
TikTokers take note: you can’t tell a machine to give you more protein. As Dora-Laskey put it, “Many robot-served customers are finally getting their first taste of what Chipotle’s official portion sizes are supposed to be.”