I have this (probably terrible) habit of working until 2-3 AM, cracking a Celsius at 8 PM like it’s my lifeline, waking up at 6:30 AM to get the kids ready and shipped off to school—and then racing to my local McDonald’s for a Mighty McMuffin and a juice box.

Now here’s the thing. No matter how hard I try, my McDonald’s drive-thru order is never correct. I ask for six chicken nuggets with spicy chili dip. I repeat it. They repeat it back. Somewhere between the speaker, the kitchen, and the bag they hand me, my order gets lost. I end up with curry dip, no dip, or fries I didn’t even order.

At this point, I’m questioning my life choices:

Am I that bad at explaining myself?

Or are basic orders just too complicated for the system?

This gets me thinking about what I do every day—working with people, managing projects, and delivering results.

Here’s how my world works:

A Swedish-speaking client sends us feedback.

Our Project Manager translates it to English.

It’s passed on to our Local/Nepali counterpart, who discusses it in Nepali with our developers.

The developers, working in Nepali and English with a splash of Swedish, get it done.

And somehow, it works. Most of the time, anyway.

But then I compare this process—managing multilingual teams across time zones—to the simple task of ordering nuggets!!!!

Why does picking the correct dip sometimes feel more challenging than managing developers? Why does one require so much effort to get the dip right, while the other usually works?

The truth is, communication is tough—whether you’re in a McDonald’s drive-thru or managing a complex project.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: Whether you’re flipping burgers or coding software, success depends on understanding, clarity, and (probably) some patience.

Now, what do you think? Is it me, or does everyone have a McDonald’s moment where communication just falls apart?

I have this (probably terrible) habit of working until 2-3 AM, cracking a Celsius at 8 PM like it’s my lifeline, waking up at 6:30 AM to get the kids ready and shipped off to school—and then racing to my local McDonald’s for a Mighty McMuffin and a juice box.

Now here’s the thing. No matter how hard I try, my McDonald’s drive-thru order is never correct. I ask for six chicken nuggets with spicy chili dip. I repeat it. They repeat it back. Somewhere between the speaker, the kitchen, and the bag they hand me, my order gets lost. I end up with curry dip, no dip, or fries I didn’t even order.

At this point, I’m questioning my life choices:

Am I that bad at explaining myself?

Or are basic orders just too complicated for the system?

This gets me thinking about what I do every day—working with people, managing projects, and delivering results.

Here’s how my world works:

A Swedish-speaking client sends us feedback.

Our Project Manager translates it to English.

It’s passed on to our Local/Nepali counterpart, who discusses it in Nepali with our developers.

The developers, working in Nepali and English with a splash of Swedish, get it done.

And somehow, it works. Most of the time, anyway.

But then I compare this process—managing multilingual teams across time zones—to the simple task of ordering nuggets!!!!

Why does picking the correct dip sometimes feel more challenging than managing developers? Why does one require so much effort to get the dip right, while the other usually works?

The truth is, communication is tough—whether you’re in a McDonald’s drive-thru or managing a complex project.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: Whether you’re flipping burgers or coding software, success depends on understanding, clarity, and (probably) some patience.

Now, what do you think? Is it me, or does everyone have a McDonald’s moment where communication just falls apart?