Over in this thread about the drive through experiances there’s quite a few of us posting so I got to wondering how many Dopers have been “down for the clown” as we used to put it?
McDonalds was my first real job, at least my first job with a paycheck. I started working there when I was 15 and I quit when I was 17.
Worked there the summer after I graduated from high school, and the summer after my freshman year of college. Did not enjoy. Will go read the linked drive-thru thread now.
Yep. Worked there for about a year and a half.
First real job was a paper route from 11 until I was 16. Then worked in a liquor store stocking the warehouse and unloading trucks. Moved to Mickey D’s after about 6 months due to the cold hard cash, homey ($3.35 vs $3.90), and more control over my hours (the a-hole at the liquor store scheduled me for 10 hours of 4th of July after I had requested off.)
In my experience McD’s is not a bad job, really.
Yup! Worked there AND Burger King for about 2 -3 years I guess. I thought it was a good experience. Back in the day, they pushed customer service a lot harder than they do now. I don’t think companies have the same expectation of their employees that they did back then (at least it isn’t apparent to me). I think it was a great benefit to my overall work experience.
I believe I started at $1.35/hour. Jeeeeeez…
Worked there for one summer when I was 16, flipping burgers and toasting buns. Not a bad experience, but I remember the smell of grease permeated everything, from my clothes to my hair.
Working there did not turn me off Mickey D’s. It’s still a guilty pleasure.
I worked there for about a week. I quit because Wendy’s called me in to work I took that job because it was in walking distance.
I never worked at McDonalds, but my first job was at Dairy Queen. I worked there three months so I could get some job experience and then get a slightly better paying job at a local cafe. After that, I never worked in food service again, preferring to get part-time jobs in retail or offices.
Don’t know if it counts, but I did the books for a guy who is a partner/owner for 14 McD’s. I only went out and actually worked on the front lines for a day, though. Mostly I was in an office.
My parents wouldn’t let me have a car unless I payed for it, and the insurance/gas/maintence that went with it. So, when I turned 16, I was off to MickeyD’s. I worked there about a year before a found a job at a pizza place much closer to home.
It was my first real job, too. I worked there the summer between 11th and 12th grades.
Ed
I did for something less than two weeks. Hated/feared the manager so much that I didn’t even go back for my paycheck.
First job here, too. Age 13 for almost two years. Lots of good stories there, from making triple Big Macs for ourselves for lunch, special sauce fights, and the box of patties labeled “Grade D but edible”
Good times.
I served almost four years between high school and college. It neither great nor horrible. There were parts of it I liked and parts I hated, just like every job I’ve had since.
Coincidentally or not, I eat at McD’s maybe once a year, and that’s usually because other people want to eat there.
I worked there for about a year and a half, starting when I was 14. Left there to move up to bigger and better things…well, actually, to work at Hardee’s.
My first job at sixteen, coincidentally while my two older sisters happened to be working for Burger King and a pizza joint. Mom never got so many compliments on home cooking as that summer!
One summer (about 3 months) when I was 18, I think. I had to represent that I was planning to make a career of it, because, they said, they did not want to invest the training time in someone who would not make a minimum two-year commitment. I was aware of any number of people who had worked there for a few weeks and then quit, so I did not feel bad about agreeing that I wanted to work my way up to manager. Their 2 hours of me watching training videos would, I assumed, be more than recompensed by my not quitting in three weeks.
While the work was fine (cashier and fry bin, because “only guys can flip the burgers”), the comprtition between cashiers that was hyped to a frenzy by the shift managers really got me down. I wouldn’t play (these were cash drawer competitions with prizes) and in those pre-computer log-in days, one of the other cashiers stole out of my drawer to win. I was chastized for having a long line at my register even when some of the people in line actually called out to the manager that they were voluntarily in my line (making it longer) because I provided the best service. At the end of August, I said, “Oops, my parents are making me go back to school” and quit. I’m sure McD’s got their money’s worth.
Overall about 4 years on two occasions. It was a McJob. I worked into management the last time I worked there and hated it. The good that came out of it was I met and married babygirl.
SSG Schwartz
Worked their my senior year of high school and a couple of summers after. I ended up doing just about everything but the grill, including birthday parties. Those were fun.
Yup. I worked there for two years in high school and for some breaks into college. It’s a good way to get a lot of small burns all over your hands.
I worked at McDonald’s for five hours. Yup, five hours.
After five hours of constant stench and being screamed at by the manager, I just walked out the back, never to return. It’s one of only two jobs (and I’ve worked a lot of crap jobs) that I just plain walked out on.
I hated it so much that I never even went back to get my paycheck.