My first job, from about age 13-16 if I recall correctly.
The work sucked, but all my friends ended up being my co-workers, and there was much goofing off and fun times to be had on slow nights.
I never want to work there again, of course.
I worked at McDonalds when I was sixteen for a couple of months and had a whole lot of fun. When I moved a year later, I applied at another, worked there for a while, and had a whole lot less fun. I walked out on that job (only time I’ve ever done that) because one night I had a migraine. I threw up, then went to the manager, with my green face and trembling hands, and asked to go home. Her idea was that I should work fries for a while.
A few years later, I went back to McDonalds as a full-time job. I had never worked anywhere else. I had no education and one kid. There were still fun times, but mostly it was just trying to survive on forty hours of minimum wage. I think that lasted about five years, during which I married the manager and also went to school.
I worked at McDonald’s for 1 whole day, back in September. I was desperate for a job and was having no luck finding one. Luckily, I got a job offer the day after I started working there so I didn’t have to go back.
McDonald’s wasn’t that bad. I have worked for D’Angelo’s, Dunkin Donuts, and Bickford’s. So, food service isn’t a new thing for me. But, I haven’t been able to eat there, or at any other fast food joint, ever since that day. Something about the smell in the kitchen just grossed me out more than I would have imagined possible.
I’m sure I’ve seen a statistic somewhere about the amazing number of people who have worked for McDonald’s at some point in their lives.
I worked there for a couple of years when I was in high school. The drive-thru window was my favorite job and the busier, the better. Fast-paced work made the shift fly by.
McDonald’s was the first time I became acquainted with grownups other than teachers, friends of my parents and parents of my friends. It was a very educational experience.
Anyone remember the doper who always kept talking about how much she hated working at McDonalds, but still kept working there. I don’t think she hangs around here anymore. Sorry for the obscure reference.
I narrowly avoided working at McDonald’s. I got a call for an interview the day after I broke my ankle (and was in a cast). I’m sure I would have gotten it, as I was suitably pimply, and my voice was cracking. My parents had made me apply, so I was kinda happy I’d broken my ankle, actually.
It’s time for my daughter to get her first job. She doesn’t want to do food service, but I have to admit it was a good learning experience for a teenager. Would any of y’all want your kids to work there?
Boy and how. I remember the first time I got a grease dip or a accidental bump from the fry basket but not the last. It’s amazing the amount of hand pain you can get used to.
Sure, not a problem. It’s like basic training for the corporate world. You do learn things like teamwork, customer service, why you should never be a dick to people in the food business, how many McNuggets you can eat, and the ever important “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean!”
ETA - Oh and QSCV! Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value!
I agree. It’s good experience. If it sucks, so much more ambition to get a good education and a better job. That’s partly the reason I told my kid to take a gig there.
We used to make little cheese and pickle sammiches to munch on while we waited for the lunch rush to end (and our lunch time to begin).
I was not allowed to work while I was still in school, but my son and my husband BOTH worked for McDonald’s - it was their first job.
I worked there too! I was sixteen when I started. Still have the scar on my arm from when I burned myself on the fry rack too!
First job at 14.5, worked there for 1.5 years, until I was 16, then joined the army (reserves - perfect high-school job!).
I started off as the bun guy, worked my way up to the grill (in the days before the clamshell), then to dress, then to PFC, then to counter.
I think my dad hated it more than I did. My sister worked there too, and he’d often have to go pick her up from her closing shift, then drive me in about 4.5 hours later for my opening shift.
Although I didn’t particularly like it either…
I served my time there, only it was after I graduated from college and I couldn’t find a job in my field. The first thing they did was have me clean bathrooms at the end of the night. I left it for a job in Hawaii.
One of my goals in life is to make sure that, no matter what, I can get a better job than working at McDonalds!
First job here as well, following on the heels of an older sibling. Maybe two years off and on and I eventually worked my way into a nice solo maintanence/janitorial/stock dude, which I preferred to waiting on folks or cooking. I started at a corporate store that then went franchise and believe me there was a definite slide downhill in terms of the quality of the work experience. New bosses were bitchy as all hell and utter penny-pinching scum.
I was very, very pleased to finally leave. As with others I’m still about a once-a-year patron. I get an inexplicable craving for the artery-clogging fish sandwich about that often - but that long predates my employment. A relic from my early youth, when you could still get those lava-filled, mouth-searing fried pies.
McDonald’s has asked that this term not be used anymore. McJob will now revert to its previous meaning, ‘getting oral sex from a clown’.
from SNL
Not McDonalds, but Wendy’s (if you want to broaden the topic to “any major fast-food chain”). I imagine many of my experiences would be similar at other fast-food places.
It was educational. I worked there for about 18 months in high school. Some of the attitudes on the part of the managers were :rolleyes: 
though most of them were pretty decent folks. Some of the fellow minimum-wagers were cool - doing it while they worked on other goals, some truly seemed to have no ambition beyond slinging burgers, and quite a few had some really head-shakingly strange understanding regarding work ethic and being an easily-replaceable cog in the greasy corporate machine.
I also got to mingle with, and appreciate, people that I wouldn’t have otherwise met, as a suburban, Catholic school, stable home, college-bound kid.
As someone else said, there were gender-rules on who did what tasks - girls generally ran the registers and assembled the burgers; boys did the burger and fry cooking.
Honestly I’d encourage every teen to work such a job for a while. I found it tremendously motivating to get an education. It was dirty, backbreaking and smelly and I would never want to go back to it.
Oh - and the cash register had buttons to push to document which condiments the customer wanted on his/her burger. I still remember the frickin’ key layout:
Mayo Lettuce Tomato
Pickle CP* Relish
Ketchup Onion Mustard
(*CP was ‘COMP’ or Catsup Onion Mustard Pickle).
I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast but I can remember a cash register layout from 30 years ago. Isn’t this an early sign of Alzheimer’s?
I worked there the summer before and during 11th Grade in the early 80’s.
We had computerized registers but the special orders were written on small pieces of paper and handed to the grillmen. (“Two piece quarter cheese grill extra ketchup no onions”). When were just about finished with a batch of Quarter Pounders or regular burgers, we’d yell out to the manager how many there were and he’d yell back how many got cheese. (“Cheese six burgers” “Cheese on four please”).
I worked there for almost a year during my junior year of high school. it was fun because several of my friends worked there and that was the main reason I applied.
About half-way through we seperately told the manager one reason or another why we could only work at night for the closing shift. That was awesome because after 9pm or so the place was dead and we just goofed off for the last couple of hours.
A couple of our favorite games were:
Mop-bucket Racing: we didn’t get in the buckets because we didn’t want to break them even though we did break one once.
Childrens-Area-Plastic-Ball Dodge-ball: those balls weigh nothing but pack quite a sting.
Pickle-Slice Surprise Tag: this wasn’t so much of a tag game but more of you get a pickle slice thrown at you at any given time.
I haven’t, but maybe this is a good place for a question: When I’m given something I didn’t order at the drive-thru, what would happen to the food if I returned it?
This happened twice recently, with fries. I didn’t notice until I drove away, and I didn’t feel like getting back in line to return it. And I figured they’d just toss it anyway, because it’d be cold, or potentially contaminated.
Please assuage my guilt at stealing from McDonald’s and tell me they’d just throw it away.