something baffles me about mcdonalds-in high school i worked for them and although i hated the job i was impressed by their efficiency and how they seemed to have everything down to a science-
so why don’t they have a single line like every other fast food establishment (and banks for that matter) instead of multiple choice lines where some move fast, some slow and people are always fuming because they get into the wrong line? whenever i go inside i always leave pissed off-why wouldnt they change this so everyone gets served in order of their arrival?
and …on their fish sandwich they put about 3 times too much tartar sauce to wear it is almost inedible-(i order it without any now and have it on the side which even then they give me 3 times too much in a cup-) wouldnt they save money by putting less on it to begin with?
how could such a sucessful corporation overlook these simple things which would seem to me to increase their profits?
I worked at a Burger King in a college town one summer. One day, the manager wouldn’t give several kids the afternoon off for a concert that night, so they quit, and got several other friends to quit with them. We ran the restaurant with me doing virtually all the cooking (and changing the soda boxes, to boot), one working the drive-through, and one working the register in the front. That place probably ran more efficiently that afternoon than in a long, long time (granted, several more came in just before the dinner rush).
That got me to thinking, though, that if a fast food place say, doubled the wages, they would attract far more motivated employees (high schoolers, single moms, who cares?). The whole place would run better, because half of the fifteen behind the counter wouldn’t be standing around staring at their shoes, and the other half wouldn’t be falling over each other in slow motion. The job wouldn’t be looked down upon as much either–$15 bucks an hour in high school?
Of course, this applies to many other businesses as well, although it’s most apparent in fast food places. Pay more, fewer employees, better service, more profits. Why don’t they do it?
Well, djf750, I don’t think they put too much tarter sauce on the fish sandwich. That’s probably why they put on as much as they do. I mean, I’m certain I am not the only person on the planet who feels this way. The amount of condiments on any given sandwich has been tested, retested and retested again by McD’s to see which way the majority of customers prefer it. As you said, McD’s has the whole business down to a science.
So far as the single line theory goes, people do not like to stand in line with six or seven people in front of them. Believe it or not, people think they are going to be served faster when they can actually see and/or touch the counter–regardless of how many people are actually waiting. People think they are being served faster with four lines of three people than they are standing near the back of one line of twelve.
When you mention about getting into the wrong (slow-moving) line, just think about this. If there was just one line instead of the two or three, you would probably still be in line behind the slow person who has caused your line to move slowly. Only you would be even more pissed because you would look in front of you and instead of just one person in front of you, there would be three or four.
So far as the limited crew size, johnson, I agree. During the times where we were extremely short handed and we worked with a total crew of three or four, we always ran much smoother than a fully staffed restaurant. I guess the reason they don’t institute fewer crew members as policy is because as it stands, while it works fine when four or five people call in leaving the store with three or four employees, if you only employed five or six and the same four or five called in, you would be seriously screwed.
I have to disagree with you there. I’m a manager at McDonalds. When I first started with the company (about 4 years ago), I was making $4.25 in Florida. I worked my ass off, because I needed the money. Now, minimum wage is going up to $6.75, effective January I believe. My store has close to 40 people employed at the moment. Of those, I’d say about 9 actually work hard, and deserve the pay they get. The others goof off, and do nothing. To run successfully and smoothly, we need 8 to run a dinner shift. So unless we want those 9 good people working open to close every day, we have to keep the screwups. They’re getting nothing out of working, except for the money (most of which don’t even need to work, they just do it to socialize with their friends).No ammount of money would make them work any harder, or more effectively. So doubling the pay wouldnt do anything, except raise the price of a big mac.
How’s this for shittyness…Massachusetts labor board allows us to hire 14 and 15 year olds, but puts them on restrictions. They get paid the same as anyone else, but they can’t cook fries, cook meat, slice tomatoes, take out trash, go into the freezer, wash towels, or do anything besides register or dressing the sandwiches for the most part. We just recently found out they can’t even do stock for us, unless they’re in the view of a manager. Basically, they’re getting paid six bucks an hour for us to babysit them, while we have to do all the jobs because they’re not old enough. Grr.
I think the point he is trying to make is if you paid more, you would have more people competing for the job, and you could have more competent people working behind the counter - why don’t you fire the people who sit around looking at their shoes? Because you need SOMEBODY working there. If McDonalds paid $15 an hour, if someone didn’t work hard, you could fire them and be sure of getting a replacement immediately, AND you wouldn’t need to have as many people working there.
Exactly, Batz Maru. If wages were higher, and, say, leave accrued, the quality of employee would be higher. They’d be more efficient while at work, and they’d be less likely to blow off work because of a hangover or concert or because they feel like it. I suspect total payroll costs would be lower, and even if not, the consumer experience would be substantially better, leading either way to higher profits.
Besides, businesses other than retail don’t generally have to worry about having enough employees to cover. Obviously, if the pay was barely enough to make me want to get out of bed, I’m not going to make the effort. But if pay was decent, I’m sure going to try to get to work…
So why on Earth would you hire 14- or 15-year-olds? That would be somewhat like a corporation gnashing their teeth because they can’t hire homeless people as corporate lawyers because the laws forbid practicing law without a license. If they’re not qualified for the job (for legal reasons or whatever) don’t hire them.
I started working at Wendy’s at age 17. I wasn’t allowed to use the patty maker, tomato slicer (for the salad bar), lettuce slicer (also for salad). I couldn’t do a fry grease rotation, but I could “run” the French fry fryers. The chicken breast fryer I wasn’t allowed to operated. I could run the grill.
It was a strange mix of cans and can’ts, coulds and couldn’ts. The final “couldn’t” was from me. I got my first raise from them after 15 months, from $3.35/hr to $3.40 (oooohh!). I just couldn’t see working for them anymore. :D:D
I worked at a bakery/sandwich place for almost a year. The 3pm-close(7pm) shift only required three people and a manager. If one person couldn’t make it in and we couldn’t find a replacement, the manager would generally have to help out. Otherwise, we’d finish the closing tasks considerably later than usual. Perhaps McDonald’s just have a high proportion of lazy people or have a few employees who can do things 5X faster than the rest of us.
Here in sunny California, In 'N Out Burger pays a starting wage of $9.50 or so. One of my bakery managers trained new employees for five years there before working at our bakery. He said that In 'N Out attracted a much better qualified group of applicants than $6.25 places like our bakery. I believe it, the service at In 'N Out is always good: the employees are efficient, courteous, and seem to be able to speak coherently into the drive-through microphone.
Perhaps McDonalds feels that that would be imposing an order to things, and they much rather people feel free to stand wherever they choose, in keeping with the relaxed, happy atmosphere they promote. Or, it never occurred to them. As a former McWorker, I am certain it is the latter.
For those of you who worked in states where 15-year-olds couldn’t do certain tasks, interesting posts. I started at McD’s when I was 14, and I did almost all the things Pammipoo and AWB said they couldn’t.
Taking out big, soggy, dripping, sticky, heavy bags of garbage to the dumpster qualifies me for management? I may be overqualified!
Seriously though, I had to. After nearly four years, I couldn’t stand the place anymore. $5.75 an hour sucks when you work at the 3rd busiest McDs in the state. And I hadn’t had a raise in over a year, although you’re supposed to be reviewed and given a raise every 6 months or so.
I once heard a story (hopefully an exaggeration or lie) that a McDonald’s worker (friend of a friend–aren’t they always?) got a raise from $3.35 to $3.38. Might as well not bother.
And, by the way, I once earned $3.40 an hour working for Toys 'R Us (probably in the bit more distant past than your Mickey D days).
I agree with you on the sauce thing. It takes about a gallon of that sauce to make the McD’s fish palateable.
but on the line issue, I think youm issed the mark. the OP isn’t referring to one register with an enormous line, it is referring to multiple registers with one main line feeding them all. Thus you would not be waiting any longer behind anyone in particular. You would only leave that main line once a register was available. Now, granted, those of us who are always lucky and get in front of the fastes employees may notice a increase in our time in line but the net effect of such a feeder-line system is to streamline a process by circumventing any number of people standing beings a slow decider or custom orderer and thereby making everyone’s stay in line about the same. Also such a system allows for realization of “first come first served”. Don’t you hate it when you get in a line before someone else gets in another line and that person is assisted before you are due to some idiot in front og you in your own line? I know i do.
I would tend to agree that most people think that the multiple line system is faster, but then again I think most people (with the exception of the majority of Dopers) are stupid and believe anything they are told if the person telling it to them has a hat or a clip board.
Oh, I agree with you, zen that one line feeding numerous registers would work better. However, I was simply commenting that there would probably be many more complaints from the “he-got-his-faster-than-me-so-I-deserve-a-free-apple-pie” crowd that it was slower because the line looks longer!
