TikTok Is Arguing About This McDonald's Employee Code Giveaway

Recent events that seem too good to be true in the McDonald's world include Mariah Carey showing up to the restaurant in a ballgown, customers earning free food just for driving safely, and the chain giving out free Big Macs thanks to activity on Twitter. While all the aforementioned happenings turned out to be true, a new series of TikTok videos seems to cross the line into fairytale land. In the videos by @nnennaaaaa6, a McDonald's employee, the user reveals that she has been using her personal drive-thru code on customers' orders to earn free points on food. "The people that get it get it duh," the user captioned the first TikTok, which as of this writing has 1.3 million views.

After doing this for two days, @nnennaaaaa6 racked up nearly 30,000 points, a second video shows. However, plenty of comments warn the TikToker that her actions are very likely to result in her termination. So, for McDonald's employees, is using their employee code on customers' orders to gain rewards really worth it?

"Don't do it constantly because corporate is gonna send an automatic 'fraud report' to the store. I got caught. I had over 40k points," commented one user, presumably a current or former McDonald's employee who had done the same thing as @nnennaaaaa6, on her TikTok. Other users pointed out that such action is arguably theft, with one writing, "We had to sign paperwork at my McDonalds stating that if we ever did this it was an automatic on the spot fire." 

However, one employee had a different view, claiming that workers applying their codes to diners' bills is beneficial to the company. "I do this a lot to get free points, encourage costumers to get the app, and to help our store reach our goal for the app," the user wrote. Others shared that they've done the same thing and "never got caught." While Mashed didn't find a policy from McDonald's that clarifies if this employee code practice is allowed or not, the terms and conditions of the restaurant's reward points program states that McDonald's maintains the right to void points and terminate accounts if it determines that users "improperly obtained points."