I had a friend when I worked there who did a lot to entertain himself (and the rest of us). One of his tricks was to go up on the roof (he was maintenance) and do something which would cause the lids on all the grills to open. If you were in the grill area, you would have heard this:
BOOM! (grills fly open)
hissssss (meat sizzling)
Voice from above: “This is the Lord speaking. Stop cooking my cows!”
It’ll just get thrown away. You know when you go in to McD’s and you see those burgers sitting on the tray just waiting for someone to order them? Those get tossed straight into the trash after 10 minutes or so too. McDonalds wastes more food than you could shake a starving African child at.
That’s what I hoped. One of my kids worked at McD’s and said they tossed a lot of food.
Does the bagger have to make up the cost of the fries? Now that would make me get back in line and return the food.
And does it mean that the person ahead of or behind me didn’t get their fries?
Make up the cost? Fries cost damned near nothing. Waste isn’t exactly encouraged but, hey, it happens.
Maybe, but probably not. What do you usually order? If it’s a sandwich and a drink it’s pretty automatic to put the fries in the bag too when you’re really busy.
Usually a fish sandwich and a Coke. So it’s odd not to order fries? It must be, because they’ve never given me anything else for free. I do like their fries.
Yep. Worked at McD’s for a shade over a week.
I was working 2 other jobs at the time and figured I could work the lunch rush at McDonalds between them.
So they trained me on how to cook the lunch stuff and promptly scheduled me to work a week of breakfasts. Since I had another job in the morning, I had to switch shifts with a bunch of people and work closing shift and a bunch of weekend shifts to make up for missing my breakfast shifts.
I complained to my manager that I was only supposed to be working between 11am and 2pm, she said she understood. The next day the new schedule came out, sure enough they had me scheduled for mornings again, so I left and never returned.
I worked there on and off during summers and breaks for about four years during college. Like someone else said, it’s a job, with good parts and bad parts just like any other job. I actually enjoyed it a first, when I knew a lot of my coworkers, but as I started coming back to less and less people I knew, it became increasingly sucky.
This was about 3 years ago. There wasn’t defined gender roles, although the people working the counter were probably slightly more likely to be girls than boys. That was supposed to have something to do with who provides the best customer service.
I worked counter or drive thru the most, but everyone had to do their share of the other positions as well, like grill, prep, lobby maintenance, or dishes (I was surprised how many dishes there were - everything is kept in trays or metal containers which all have to be washed several times a day, plus all the utensils, customer trays, and the fry dispenser, which was a real pain)
I would absolutely allow my kids to work there. It was a fine first job experience.
I never understood why people have a particular hatred of going to McDonalds vs. other fast food places. They have pretty high standards in cleanliness and service (there are special rules for everything). From what I’ve observed as customers of other places, they’re not nearly as demanding a McDonalds was. Also, they have a pretty streamlined process so you’re much more likely to get your food quickly. I supposed there might be some differences between corporate owned and franchise, but many of the rules that are meant to provide a consistent quality experience are supposed to be followed by everyone.
As for what happens when you get the wrong order: if you got something extra and took it back, we’d just throw it away, although if it was me you brought it back to, I’d usually just let you keep it if you want it. The next person might be missing their fries then, or not. Usually we’d figure it out and make a new one. If we give you the wrong thing, we’d have to take back what you got, but it would still get thrown away. Then we’d give you what you ordered, or make you a new one. Once we give the customer the food, we’re not allowed to take it back and give it to someone else because it might be contaminated, so it gets thrown away. So don’t feel guilty about keeping those fries 
I did. In 1985. For twenty minutes…
*err more like two weeks. But I flunked the practical exam.
Indirectly.
I worked for four years in a plant that processed chicken products for MickeyD’s. Contrary to popular rumor, the meat that we used was of better quality than you can buy in most grocery stores.
No beaks or feet for them.
I did. It was one of many crap jobs that I had during my college years. It paid part of my tuition for my 2nd year of college and paid for an electric guitar which I still own. I had worked in my uncle’s restaurant all through high school, so food work was nothing new to me.
I was a burger flipper (and mcnugget maker, and fish maker, and pretty much everything except fries maker).
The Mickey D’s I worked at was the closest one to the stadium in college. You do not want to work at the closest McDonalds to a stadium when a game lets out.
I worked at Maccas in 1977. It was my first ‘real’ job too, but alas I only lasted 4 hours. 
McDonald’s was one of the first jobs I had in Australia, after the one I’d lined up when I moved here fell over. I was there for about 18 months and worked with some great people, but also a couple of Nazi managers as well.
Ultimately, a lot of the people I worked with left for various reasons, and the new people were OK but it just wasn’t the same- the cohesiveness was gone, and it went from being a pretty good place to be to a very dull, unrewarding job.
I’d absolutely reccomend it as a “First Job” though, as you learn a lot of valuable skills about teamwork, cleanliness, following processes, and shutting the fuck up and doing as you’re told- all of which can prove very useful in school and later on in the workforce. You can also meet some great people, and (at least in Australia) the pay is pretty good, too.
I did too, and we also used the term Brown for the Clown.
I put in a few weeks at a McDs during college. It was to suppliment my weekend job at home in the Supermarket (great gig, 2 days a week, Time x 1.5 on Sundays)
As one of the few English speakers at the location, I got put on register, and occasionally drive through.
I’m not sure if I quit, or if I was fired following spring break that year. I worked the week before, the manager was pissed that I couldn’t work the next week during spring break (I lived an hour away, school was 15 minutes away), and I told him on the way out that I’d give him a call when I got back to get my hours… I never bothered, and he never called.
I dropped off the uniform via the drive thru a couple of weeks after that.
I still have my uniforms. Two aqua colored polo shirts with a jazzy looking Golden Arches underlined with tacky red and purple lines, two pair of impossibly high waisted grey pants and a purple hat with a bunch of pins all over it.
I should put it on and show up one day out of the blue and see what happens.
I’m so old that when I wanted a teenager part-time job, there were no McDonalds in the UK! :eek:
I’ve worked in a tax office, a local authority payments office and at Harrods. 
I spent two years working there between the ages of 16 and 18, full time over summers and twice a week during the school year. I was ultimately “laid off.” That was the owner being “nice” to me – I was really let go because I was caught giving away food.
I may have posted this elsewhere already, so I apologize if I’m repeating myself, but I had a manager there who was really out to get me, and she was SO happy when she caught me giving out food. Had the biggest grin on her face and everything. It was very gratifying when I ran into her again a couple of months ago, some 14 years after being let go, to see her still struggling for work in the food industry and looking like life had taken a HUGE toll on her.
It was my first “real” job also. I had a paper route and helped my parents in the cleaning business they had but this was the first where I got a check.
I Started when I was 16 and worked ther for around 6-1/2 years. It was a decent job and most of the people were fun to work with. I left just before the big change came to putting all of the lunch stuff in warming bins and assembling items as they were ordered. I was there when they were doing this for breakfast items though. I think the lunch switch is where they lost any quality they actually had.
I would recommend it as a first job for teens. It sure teaches you how to work as a team and work hard.
In general, I find people who work at McDonalds either love it and work there for years, or hate it and are out of there within a few hours, weeks or months.
It was my second job. I liked it better than my first job at one of those big chain steakhouses.
It’s a wonder they let me stay after the first day. I got in trouble for throwing away all the little foil ashtrays from the tables. I didn’t know I was supposed to wipe the ashes out. They looked disposable. :o
Then they let me take a tray of lunch to the Manager, and I got in trouble for putting a “wasteful” straw in his drink. Then they put me up front on a til, but this really nice girl offered to “help” me by letting me fill the orders while she worked my til. Then at the end of the day, the til was $25 short.