McDonalds must be hell to work at

[TwixVoy]

This Friday I went to McDonalds because I had run out of milk and couldn't have my typical cereal. I really needed something quick, but usually I would never go to McDonalds simply for health reasons.

Anyway an employee had apparently gone to the bathroom. In the middle of the damn mcdonalds a manager started yelling

"Where did you go????!!!" to which he responded "I had to go to the bathroom" the manager started screaming "THAT'S IT YOUR ON LOCK DOWN FROM NOW ON! YOU STAND IN THIS SPOT AND DON'T MOVE GOT IT?" In the middle of other co-workers and customers. The manager was also reaching out his hands towards him and curling his fingers. (He was a good 10 feet away, but he was basically making angry hand gestures during his yelling storm)

I am a manager at a retailer and my ass would be shit canned if I had acted that way to an employee. Reading about the employee who got shot and denied workers comp doesn't surprise me. Looks like McDonalds likes to put on a friendly little clown face to the public, but treats employees worse than wal-mart.

[Horse with no Name]

1. Reminds me of the obnoxious commercial for Halls

with the drill sgt screaming at the minimum wage worker for being sick.:(
This type of inappropriate gestapo'ish supervisory behavior is probably going to end up being the norm.

[Still Sensible]

2. Dumbest, lame ass commercial I've seen in a long time. n/t

[Still Sensible]

7. It really depends on the manager at each store

Unfortunately, fast food places are really discount and that includes managers. They are cookie cutter operations that generally hire people that they can just send off to "hamburger school" for a couple weeks and voila they have a manager. That is not to say many of them aren't fine, just that the particular MO leads to many people in those positions that wouldn't otherwise be put in that spot.

Some of them turn out to be very good, but after a while the good ones move on because the typical pay for a fast food manager is pretty weak.

[RandomThoughts]

4. I actually thought that commercial

Was a meme for the Republicans and certain groups.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Thank you

I thought it was just me. I find that commercial so disturbing, I can't hit the remote fast enough.

That girl yelling "Sir, yes, sir!" just sends me over the edge.

[alfredo]

13. Pay attention to the refrigerator shelves. They are mostly empty.

Anyway, not sure I'd want someone sick handling my food.

[backscatter712]

15. It is the norm.

Back in my call center days, the place where I worked literally wrote people up for calling in sick. They did not make a distinction between "excused" and "unexcused" absences. If you called in, you got an occurrence, even if you have a doctor's note, and if you get ten occurrences, you're fired.

I've had write-ups while hacking up a lung in the boss's office because of bronchitis. I've seen half the workers sick because everybody comes to work sick.

On one occasion, we had a worker come to work with a suspected case of meningitis. She looked like death warmed over, and even the supervisors were begging her to go to the hospital, and had to promise she'd get "green time" (in other words, covered for by saying she was let out of work early because call volume was down and things were slow.) She literally could have died.

Oh, and since I'm not a fan of withholding names to protect the guilty, the business is Center Partners. DIE IN A FIRE, CENTER PARTNERS!!!

[myrna minx]

3. I have worked in food service in my long ago past, but I can assure you, you never forget the horror

It is such hard, mindless, demeaning work, not only from management, but the customers too. :-(

[The Hope Mobile]

6. I was 16 when I worked there and you HAD to ask to go to the bathroom

and do it quick because everyone has a station and if its not covered things don't go smoothly. However that was LONG ago and it seems like things don't go as smoothly there as they used to anyway.

[Lex]

9. Me too. At age 16 and 17, after school and on the weekends.

It wasn't so bad, but yeah, you did have ask to go to the bathroom (so no one would be left standing there wondering where you went if there was a sudden rush).

[exboyfil]

16. I can't help but think about the scene in Fast Times

at Ridgemont High when Judge Reinhold, who is the studly Assistant Manager with all the connections, is abused by a customer and reacts. His boss hears him, and the customer is all sweet and innocent. Judge gets shown the door, and gets to work in Fish and Chips Hell for the rest of the movie (love that pirate hat).

[Odin2005]

31. Oh, so that's what that lame freecreditreport.com comercial with the waiter in a pirate suit...

...was referring to. Guess I'm too young to have understood the reference to that movie!

[Maru Kitteh]

49. I had a customer come in and hurl her drinks and sandwiches at me, screaming that we had forgotten

forgotten her pickles. The restaurant I worked in did not even serve pickles, which they of course explained to her when she ordered. Obviously, she wasn't paying any attention, which is normal. When the customers do manage to notice your existence, it's usually only to belittle you, abuse you or berate you. People who don't ignore you generally treat you like you have the IQ of a tapeworm when you work in food.

[Quantess]

5. It isn't any better at Burger King

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x273092

[Quantess]

8. Hi, I think you're deep fried & sexy.

No, I don't, on second thought.

[CraftyGal]

10. My daughter who is 20 works in one.

She has said that she has crying jags because of the treatment she gets from the manager. The location has since changed managers and things seem to be going a bit better. The poor kid.

CraftyGal

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Depends, they are franchises... so the policies do change from restaurant to restaurant

the son of my BIL worked for Mickey Ds for a while before moving on... and his particular place, (remember they are franchises) had descent conditions for any food service place

[mrcheerful]

14. Fast food joints aren't the only places that do that, all low wage jobs management

pretty much says and does what it wants. I worked 3rd shift at a self serve gas station in the late 70's. I was fired because the manager had a sick baby that cried all night and he came in pissed off at the world. My till was $100 short, he ran on the honor system where 2nd shift could cash their till out without you watching over their shoulder, but anyhow I got fired over it. Two weeks later one of the 2nd shift workers was caught stealing out of the till and on top of that it was discovered that he was on parole for the same thing at a retail store 2 years before said manager hired him.

But also working for a small machine shop we got told we could not leave our work stations unless we asked a foreman to use the rest room. Worker abuse has been an on going problem for low wage workers trapped in dead end jobs because jobs are scarce. The republicon way of doing business.

[Orsino]

20. Squeeze the employees for every nickel...

...then act surprised and horrified when they start to treat the job like the cheap thing it is. Check.

[Mari333]

34. boy you hit the nail on the head

I worked a part time job as a cashier in a local supermarket and the place was owned by this horrible man whose sole purpose was to make money..he took the supermarket over and stopped the senior discount from 10 percent to 5 percent, made the employees clock in one minute to the time, had cameras installed at all the stations to make sure we didnt steal, and made even the older employees park a mile away in the lot. cut everyones pay and made sure it was all part time so he wouldnt have to pay benefits. when my son became ill i had to take time off and then when he started getting better the management wouldnt let me come back because they said i had taken too many days off.
the manager told me' well your son didnt die!'...and yet, my son did pass on a few weeks later. by then i didnt have the job, didnt have the extra money, and will never walk into that supermarket again. and yes, i did let everyone in town know the meanness of the store management and owner. you treat your employees like shit, they will work shitty. its so simple.

[Baikonour]

17. Most, if not all, retail jobs are hell.

Mostly because of how vastly rude and impatient the public is. Along with asshole managers, of course.

[ejpoeta]

32. i think it's a cycle really for the most part.

our local walmart used to be ok. the employees were mostly nice, and the customers responded in kind, and vice versa. my sister and bil used to work there and my sister has told me how when the manager changed, things changed. you could see it as a customer. the employees were treated a lot worse, and they responded in the way they were to the customers. i had a harder time getting a friendly cashier. for the most part, I empathized with the employees and didn't blame them. but sometimes when i was having a bad day, it sure didn't help. the treatment of the employees has gotten a lot worse since then. my sister and bil have long since moved on to other jobs. they say they wouldn't go back there if they could help it! the management expects workers to be available whenever they want them there, regardless of childcare or any other needs of the employee. my sister and bil worked there for 8 years! my bil was the manager of the electronics department. they were forcing him to work overnights and weekends when he used to have a set schedule. he left before they went supercenter.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

35. When I worked at Walmart, most of management were very sympathetic with the workers

since they came up through the ranks (also New England Walmart is unusual paternalistic and "family-oriented"). But we still had one assistant manager who made Papa Doc look benevolent and just. He would yell at and verbally abuse the front end on a routine basis (mind you, this was during the summer, so the front end consisted mostly of teenage girls trying to save money for prom or something or the elderly). He'd also try to command workers who weren't directly under his sphere of influence, members of my department included. I don't get it. Is there something about retail management that attracts borderline sociopaths?

[ejpoeta]

37. i think these are people who have no authority, really, but want to be in control

and seem more important than they are. those are usually the ones who are aholes.

[brettdale]

18. Worked there for three years in the early 90's

I could tell you some horror stories, you wouldn't believe.

The highlight or lowlights

Physical assault
Not being paid for shifts worked
being clock out and telling to work
Being told to put the recycle bags in the same compacter with the non recycle bags.
Verbal assaults
cruelty
No breaks
working in over heated kitchen
being locked in freezers
made to work when sick

and all this would be on a good day.

[juno jones]

19. This is the reason some of us advocate against eating at fast food or chain places like Olive Garden

Denny's, or TGIF.

Corporate treats it's employees badly. I've heard stories from other cooks who have worked these places and they would curl your ears.

My own Denny's expereience lasted three weeks (my only corporate experience besides three hours in a Burger King). The refrigeration had gone down on the line. Instead of shutting down like most Mom and Pops would do, we had to work even tho the refer guys were literally underfoot (the refers were under the counters). Basically I stopped a pan full of hot oil from falling on a tech. I got second and third degree burns on my arms for my pains AND THEY WOULDN'T LET ME LEAVE. Even off-shift, they didn't want me to go to a hospital as it would ruin their management bonuses for no accidents during the month (there were plenty, just never allowed to be recorded). I went in anyway after i could escape the shift and quit the next day.

Eat local, go to Mom and Pops, family-owned, and small local and regional chains. They treat their people far nicer and pay them better, I guarantee.

And don't get me started on the pre-fab, corporate factory stuff they serve at BK and OG. It comes from a factory, not from a cook, guys. In order to keep it all uniform they make it all in corporate factories and ship it frozen where the staff basically reheats it. You are eating the equivalent of frozen dinners and paying restaurant prices for the privlege.

[tammywammy]

21. I have quite a few friends that work for TGIF and they never have a bad thing to say

Same with the people I know that worked at Olive Garden a few years ago.

[renate]

44. you poor thing

I hope you healed okay... and wow, think of the positive karma you got in return for what you did! :hug:

[DireStrike]

22. Maybe the employee was always disappearing from his spot

Not that I'd blame the employee first. Just pointing out a possible alternative scenario.

[TwixVoy]

27. It's a McDonalds

the work area is the size of a freaking master bedroom. Where exactly can one "disappear" to?

[Scout]

29. one can disappear into the grill area, into the storage area, downstairs into the break room....

downstairs into the bathroom.

the counter service area isn't the entire establishment.

when i worked at mcdonald's years ago, some of my teenage co-workers did have a habit of disappearing. some of them couldn't manage to control themselves and not put their hands into the fries to snitch a few, or couldn't resist eating ice from the bin with their hands, or couldn't resist trying to give away free food to their friends...

[arcadian]

23. Not McDonalds!

[TwilightGardener]

24. It wasn't that bad. Worked there as a teenager. Good character-building experience.

[arcadian]

26. Character-building

I suppose if your ideal is the image I posted above.

[KurtNYC]

25. They fired the original clown when he got too heavy

Willard Scott (now on the Today Show) was the original McDonald's clown. They fired him when he got too large for their advertising genius.

I have heard that their suppliers get beat up just as badly as WalMart's. You have to lock in pricing at the thinnest margin or you don't sell to mcD.

[suede1]

28. Was he chalenged by a customer? Or did customers walk out?

[southpaw]

30. I worked at McDonald's for a few months

I was required to bow before a golden statue of Ronald McDonald before beginning each shift.

Thier Hitler Youth training camp-style environment was clearly designed to turn their employees into brain washed burger worshippers.




Or maybe I just don't remember the experience too fondly...

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

33. I Love Reading Your Fables!

They're always such a hoot!

:rofl:

[Missy Vixen]

38. Are you implying he's not being truthful?

Just wondering.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

40. Let Me Help You Out A Little:

fa⋅ble
   /ˈfeɪbəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation Show IPA Pronunciation
noun, verb, -bled, -bling.
–noun
1. a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: the fable of the tortoise and the hare; Aesop's fables.
2. a story not founded on fact: This biography is largely a self-laudatory fable.
3. a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; legend: the fables of gods and heroes.
4. legends or myths collectively: the heroes of Greek fable.
5. an untruth; falsehood: This boast of a cure is a medical fable.
6. the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play.
7. idle talk: old wives' fables.
–verb (used without object)
8. to tell or write fables.
9. to speak falsely; lie: to fable about one's past.
–verb (used with object)
10. to describe as if actually so; talk about as if true: She is fabled to be the natural daughter of a king.

[Missy Vixen]

41. Thanks for the help!

God knows I never would have been able to manage looking up that definition on my own.

In the meantime, OMC, I KNOW the meaning of the word "fable", and you know exactly why I asked the question I did.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

42. Actually I Don't.

No idea why you asked the question you did. The intent of my original post was more than obvious.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

47. I agree. It was obvious. No one with a brain cell would understand anything else other than

you accused the OP of lying.

I think Missy's question was rhetorical. Do you know what a rhetorical question is or do I have to look it up for you?

[raccoon]

36. Maybe that clown is Pennywise?

"Looks like McDonalds likes to put on a friendly little clown face"


IME, there are lots of dickhead "managers" like this.

I honestly believe there are lots of people out there who think being like Simon Legree is the way to manage people.

[mudesi]

39. I call bullshit

[SmileyRose]

43. McDonalds is fabulous to work for - franchisees, sometimes not so much

McDonalds owned stores (not very many of these) and McDonalds corporate are the best of the best. I'd bet my last nickel that was an independent franchisee store.

[RobinA]

45. My First Job

was McDonalds, and while I hated the job, my boss was a super nice guy and none of the things I hated about it had anything to do with McDonalds. Being it was my first job, I had NO IDEA people acted the way customers act. The first time someone screamed at me because their fries were cold I just stood there with my fool mouth hanging open.

[hughee99]

46. Assholes exist in all walks of life...

When I worked at McDonald's years ago, my managers were very professional and nice (not that I'm not happy to be out of there). If you're going to look at just one example, you might as well say it's hell to work in Hollywood after seeing the Christian Bale video.

[ohgooglemebaby]

48. Maybe, but you have to be careful about jumping to conclusions...

How do you know that this character (worker) doesn't do that ALL the time? Maybe he smokes crack in the john, maybe takes a nip at the Boone's Farm...It is unprofessional for the boss to do that, but how old is the mananger? Some are only in their early 20s!

I refuse to patronize fast food places. Once in a blue moon I will go into any type of hot dog joint to get fries, but I avoid them as much as possible. I can't eat garbage anymore.