While most people say that working at a McDonald’s is great fun, let me be the first to set the record straight. I have worked at McDonald’s for almost 8 years now, so I have a very firm grasp of what life inside a store is really like. Keep in mind while reading this however, that I was a barely 16-year-old girl when I started working there.
I was hired at a local McDonald’s in my area after one of my friends got a job there just a week after my birthday. It was the only job I had ever attempted to get, other than helping work at my parents business when I was a young kid. My friends and I drove the manager’s nuts; I was one of those sweet crew people with a bad tendency to cause trouble. Ok I admit I could have been a better example, but why should I have been?
Within 3 months I was already promoted to a crew trainer, despite the numerous dents that the cooler door now had in it, someone should have really told the corporate office that their joke idea of a Beanie Baby stress kit would have actually been better if it was a punching bag instead of a piece of paper with a circle saying “Smash Here.
I was the perfect little example of a crew trainer, always behaving and being a good employee, up until they gave me the ugly green visor they wanted me to wear instead of the purple baseball cap that I loved. After all those visors are kind of funky looking, while the hat was my favorite color, and much more comfy, plus bad hair days didn’t bother me with a hat, whereas with a visor, the whole world knew about it.
I will admit I was in a lot of trouble the afternoon when the owner pulled up outside to watch me burning happily the green visor after I drenched it in sanitizer to help it burn faster. Ok I told you I was a bit of a troublemaker at times. Well other than the visor incident, I was the manager’s favorite, and everybody knew it. Within 6 months of even starting my whole McDonald’s experience, I was already being promoted to a swing manager.
I loved the concept of being a manager, fit my personality really well, I was bossy and know it all anyways, after all I was 16, who could possibly know more about anything than I did anyways. Well I was the youngest person McDonald’s corporation has ever had attend one of their management classes. However, in June of 1998 I was a proud Basic Shift Management graduate and very proud of it.
I hate attended several management training classes with McDonald’s at this point, and nothing they train you for will ever prepare you for the drama that actually goes on inside one of their stores. You have people who are crazy who work there, managers who play air guitar onto of their cars, other managers who go and hire anyone who can breathe regardless of prior work experience or even their job history.
Yet every day it ceases to amaze me how many customers under these circumstances still expect everything to be perfect, when a restaurant pays so little, and offers so few benefits to the crew, most people do still expect perfection from their order. Despite the fact that most of the kids and adults who work there only work there because they cannot find a better job. How else can fast food restaurants keep staffing after all the kids grow up and find better jobs.
I have worked with adults who had graduated from high school and yet could not read to save their life. Kids who claimed to be straight A students who could not count back change no matter how much the amount was. I have also worked with people who cannot talk well, and stutter over each word out of their mouth. On the same note, I have had customers who act like I’m a piece of garbage despite my education, I have had customers call my employee’s every name under the sun, except what was their name, and other customers complain and yell at me because we charge seventy-five cents for a slice of tomato, like it’s my fault.
Yet each day I go back into work and do everything all over again, while hoping and praying that the store is not robbed during robbery season this year, yes for those who are confused, many managers of high-risk places call the holiday season robbery season, due to the high increase of robberies. I am counting the days until I can completely rid myself of working there, and the trouble and drama that always ensues each day.
While I do think it’s a decent place to work if you just need a part time job, it’s not the best of ideas for those looking to make a career, if nothing else because the money isn’t worth the hassle and headache’s. Look towards another career, with better benefits, pay, and the ability to truly be a flexible schedule.
