To be fair, it’s not McDonald’s that is wrote this. It was written by a third-party vendor that was hired to provide advice to McDonald’s employees. McDonald’s published it though.
Last month, McDonald’s published advice to their low-paid workers on how much to tip their pool cleaners and so forth:
I think the one-bedroom apartment I had in L.A. is going for $1,200 or $1,400 a month now. My last car payment was over $300/month. My insurance premium contribution isn’t listed on my pay stub, but I’m sure it’s significantly more than $20/month. My car does use some gas, as it’s a hybrid and not fully electric. Oh, and I do need to eat food. Thankfully, I’ll never have kids so I don’t have to worry about tipping my au pair. Look at me, and you’ll easily see why I don’t have to tip my personal fitness trainer. (And possibly why I’ll never have kids!)
McDonald’s seems a bit tone-deaf in regards to the living conditions of their workers. You’d think after the first insensitivity, they’d look into what the advice they’re buying actually says – and have someone in their glass-and-steel citadel do out and see how their workers live.
I don’t think McDonalds or any other fast food place advertises its food as a healthy alternative to a home-cooked meal. It’s fast food that is not healthy and they acknowledge that. They’ve offered “healthy” alternatives to fatty burgers and fries due to pressure but they have never advocated eating their food every day.
McDonald’s has for a fed long time been careful to advertise that eating there is a special treat or for when you need something fast. They have never tried to claim that they serve healthful food.
To be fair, it reads to me like they are advising returning things you’ve bought for yourself. But the rest of it sounds like, 'If you don’t make enough money, you should sell your possessions. If McDonald’s doesn’t pay enough for you to live on, get another job. Heck, get two other jobs. Sleep and taking care of children (which you should probably sell anyway) are overrated.
Spoken like people who didn’t bother to check the link in the OP which showed an example of the McDonald’s “Employee Advice” website clearly picturing McDonald’s fries and burger with the label “Unhealthy Choice”. It’s way more blatant than just encouraging their employees to eat a balanced diet.
Actually, when McDonald’s France ran ads that said “However, there is no reason to eat excessive amounts of junk food, nor go more than once a week to McDonald’s.”
But A spokesman for McDonald’s in the United States said the company did not agree with the views expressed in the advertorial.
$600 makes some sense if you live with a roommate or two. The *Nickel and Dimed" author seems indignant and perplexed that she can’t really make it working service jobs, but ignores the fact that the people around her usually have roommates.
But yeah, $20 for health insurance- that might buy you a worthless discount card.
Don’t McDonald’s employees get a discount on food they buy there? You get a dinner break and you have to eat something. Buying McDonald’s food might be cheaper or as cheap as bringing a sandwich from home, and cheaper than going to the Burger King down the street.
Of course it isn’t good for you, but young people (and IME, McD’s employees are almost always under-25s) probably eat a lot of junk food anyway. They’re not thinking about fat and sodium and cholesterol yet.
They get to eat all the sandwiches that fall on the floor.
I once saw a fat manager stepping on the hand of a starving employee that reached for a fallen Big Mac.
Going to Burger King in a McDonald’s uniform…priceless!
Hell, they’d draw and quarter an employee who did that.
I don’t know why they’re giving life advice to their employees anyway. Even if their advice was relevant, who asked them?
When I worked there many years ago, we got a free sandwich/chicken nuggets, soda, and fries with a long enough shift. That was it though, you couldn’t decide to have a salad or shake or something instead.
You are vastly overestimating the extent to which McDonald’s managers give a shit about their jobs and employees, or particularly what their employees do once they leave the doors of the restaurant.
