Good chance I'll be working at McDonald's soon. Advice?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I worked at McD’s for a few years in high school/college in the late '80s.

It really wasn’t that bad of a job. I learned a great deal.

I started when I was 15 years old. My restaurant’s policy at the time was to put all new hires to work for a few weeks cleaning tables and emptying trash, to see how they worked out.

After that, I deemed worthy enough for further training. Because I was under 16, I was put on the front counters. (My restaurant put all workers under 16, male and female, on front.)

Unfortunately, I was the only guy on front, and I felt rather self-conscious. When I turned 16, I asked to be trained for grill, but it never seemed to happen. (I was already trained and competent on front, so there was no real incentive for them to put me anywhere else.)

I therefore took every opportunity on slow periods to wander back to the grill, and get trained by the guy back there. I also watched all of the grill training videos on my breaks. Finally there came a time when there were too many people up front, and they were short on personnel on grill. I told the manager that I could do it, and was assigned to grill for the day.

After that, I was usually assigned to grill, and only occasionally on front. Some time after that, I picked up drive-thru. At that point, I could do every job in the restaurant, so I was made a crew chief. The variety certainly made the job more bearable.

After high school, I cut back to working there only on summer breaks.

After two years at college, however, I could make significantly more money working for my profs in the summer than I could working at McD’s, so I left for good.

22

I’m sure he interviews the candidates for manager positions himself, but for us mere crew members, he lets his underlings do it.

I’m told he’s a lovely guy in person, but sadly I never got to meet him.

23

Oh god, I had forgotten about the soap opera aspect. One of the Assistant Managers where I worked did in fact ditch his girlfriend in favor of one of the Hot Front Counter Girls. There were also persistent rumors of “someone” from another store getting or receiving blowjobs in the stockroom, although I suspect these were largely unfounded.

24

sturmhauke, I believe the rumors! Several similar incidents happened in stores where I worked.

25

No, I think they were probably true- certainly, I could tell many stories about some of the shenanigans the staff got up to with each other when I worked at McDonalds, and at the risk of making the place sound like a porn film set, I’ll say that blowjobs in the stockroom were a more common occurence than most people would like to think (insert “Special Sauce” joke here).

But yes, working in Fast Food is like starring in your own personal Soap Opera- complete with hot, bitchy women, scheming guys, and the obligatory stoners for comic relief…

26

Good luck on gettting the Job, you will be joining a family.

Its been so long since I was in , that I am not gonna comment on the technical side.

But some things should still be true

You got time to lean , you got time to clean

Your managers , from the assistants , right up to the head manager , will be a cross section of Bosses that you will meet in every job from now on , the good and the bad.

If your schedules are still lines on an hourly graph, check em close , amazing how many times I was late ,simply cause I never noticed.

Your 21 , some of those hot chicks at the counter might be 15, beware.

Lastly , after the first few weeks, when you relax into the job ,then it gets fun wihen your doing a close , depends on who you end up working with on the crew.

As for weekends , um, either your doing a close , or your opening , always they managed to screw mine up somehow.

Good luck

Declan

27

If you’re set on fast food, I’ve heard from several sources that MickeyD’s pays the least. Go to Taco Bell if you want high wages for fast food service. This varies by region obviously.

My advice would be to work at a pizza shop. Same food service culture, less or no frying. Less drive-thru drama as well.

28

I worked at the McDonald’s that was built into Disney’s California Adventure, and while the menu was limited (only burgers, fries, chicken, and salads), I wager the volume made up for it.

If you accidentally drop a handful of McNuggets into the fryer, stand back until the sizzling goes away, then fish 'em out and throw them away. Don’t try to rescue them.

Cleaning the grill really sucks, especially when you’re told to only clean half the grill while keeping the other half hot in case somebody walks up at five minutes to closing. If that happens, it’s a contest to see if you can keep your knuckles away from the press that is hot while simultaneously trying to keep the soap off of the hot half of the bottom plate. Taking the little plastic sheet off the grill by hooking the metal rod off the back is also going to sear the skin off your knuckles. Putting it back on (“This guy just ordered 15 Big Macs! Hop to it!”) is even worse.

If you use the spatula upside-down, it’s a lot easier to pick up patties in groups of three and put them in the little plastic trays.

The fryer oil cleaner is a god-damned monstrosity.

Your car is going to smell like fries. The reason for this is that YOU will smell like fries. I would advise buying an extra pair of pants just for driving in, because the type of crud you’ll be bumping into all day is not someting you’ll want to smear into your upholstery.

29

What’s worse than the fry smell is the Big Mac smell. These days McDonald’s doesn’t keep big batches of ready-to-eat food under a heat lamp, so it might not be as bad. When I worked there though, a fair number of Big Macs and other stuff didn’t get bought and so it sat there, fermenting under the wash of infrared radiation. If no one bothered to throw it out it would start to give off fumes. There was usually excess room on the rack, so it was easier to shove the old crap to the side in favor of fresher stuff than to actually follow proper procedure.

30

What’s with this smelling like fries thing? Nobody at our store smells like fries. Or maybe I just don’t notice because I also smell like fries.

And I while I don’t know the Big Mac smell, I’m pretty sure the putrid bacon smell beats it. Bacon, while waiting to be heated, smells just like the dead pig it is. Beware.

31

Oh it’s all flooding back now!

Bitching about and mocking incompetent co-workers. Arguing over who started the fire in the staff room (gee, wonder if it was the person secretly smoking in the staff room?) Then there was the time the staff room got broken into. Rumours of our manager “getting it on” on one of the counters. Oh, and the time I slapped a co-worker by the counters. (We’re now getting married. :smiley: )

32

I personally recieved oral favors in the cooler of a Wawa, on the clock. Not that it matters, I’m just bragging :slight_smile: .

My roomate worked at an Wendy’s and his married manager knocked up a teenaged register girl. Oops!

33

I personally recieved oral favors in the cooler of a Wawa, on the clock. Not that it matters, I’m just bragging :slight_smile: .

My roomate worked at an Wendy’s and his married manager knocked up a teenaged register girl. Oops!

34

BUS!!

TWO!!!

Enjoy,
Steven

35

Don’t eat the food.

:smiley:

36

So, Blalron, I’m assuming you got the job? Come on and tell us about it!

37

I’ve never worked fast food, but I’ve worked a couple of crappy factory jobs in my day. The best advice I can give you is to work hard and work fast. Because that’s the only way to save your sanity. When you’re working as fast as you can the time goes quickly and your shift will be over before you know it. When you drag and grumble and work slowly and resentfully, your shift will drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag. Don’t work fast because they want you to work fast, work fast because that’s the best way to avoid the temptation to put a shotgun in your mouth.

Also remember that your idiot manager may try to pull some alpha baboon power trips on you. Let it wash over you and let it go. This guy’s a freaking assistant manager at a freaking McDonalds. You’ve got nothing to prove to him. His petty power trips mean nothing. If you challenge him, and show everybody that he’s an idiot what have you done? You’ve shown you’re smarter than the assistant manager of a McDonalds. Kudos. Truly, you will have your reward. Not that you have to put up with egregious behavior, just that there’s no point in proving you’re the biggest man at McDonalds. Soon enough you’re going to be moving on, and his punishment for being a dick will be that he’s a dick who’s the assistant manager of a McDonalds. Think on that, and shudder.

38

Ah, the Mc-cycle of life. First you work there, then you eat there, then you die from heart failure. :wink:

I worked at McDonalds for 3 years starting when I was 15, it was my first real job. Employees at McDonalds are generally drones getting paid close to minimum wage (unless you’re in New Orleans, they’re making a killing right about now) so getting a job there is no big deal. If they have a need for employees and you show up with a properly filled out application you’re 99% there already.

39

You could make history and strike a blow for social progress.

You could organize the workers at McDs. There is no McDonalds in the US where the workers have a collective bargaining contract!!

Proceed slowly. Find out what issues the people have. Should McDonalds be forced to install a shower so you can get cleaned up and change into your street cloths so your car no longer smells of fries? Paid clean up time? Higher wages?

You can do this. It’s the law. It will be a great experience and the people there will begin to see each other and themselves in a new way.

Of course, the company will try to find a way to illegally fire you when they find out you are trying to organize their shop. They will send in the heavy union buster types to mind fuck people. You really have to be ready for this. I guarantee you will gain an entirely new perspective on how “democratic” our system really is.

You may not want to take on this project, but it would be a unique experience.

If you consider doing this, start be seeing if you can get any help from the local labor council.
Who knows, in twenty years people might be saying, “Oh, Blalron, isn’t he the guy who started the whole fast food organizing campaign. God, those people make so much money and their medical benefits and pensions are to die for. Everybody wants a job there, but the union has a long waiting list.”

Think big. It is the only way to think.

40

Ok, so I got hired. I’m still adjusting to the place. I learned a little about grilling and frying. Not so bad (at least so far). It’s a lot more fast paced than my previous jobs and a bit more exhausting. Still a bit intimidating. I hope it’ll all become second nature to me soon.