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It's always interesting to hear this from employees of McDonald's in the US. Here in Australia, it's widely regarded as a great first employer that pays well a

It's always interesting to hear this from employees of McDonald's in the US. Here in Australia, it's widely regarded as a great first employer that pays well and provides fantastic experience to young people.

throwawayboise 5y ago
I'm in the USA. Worked for McDonalds starting as a junior in high school and through college. It was a great job for a young kid, I learned a lot about business and restaurant operations. Pay wasn't super, but it was spending money. Never intended to be the sort of job to support a family.
- black_13 5y ago
  “Never intended to support a family” why not ? Why is this job more or less important than another? There are a lot of these franchises so they must be important.
- alphabettsy 5y ago
  Where does this idea of “Never intended to be the sort of job to support a family.” come from? Half or more of the people I see working at any given fast food chain are adults, which makes sense considering they need some mature people around and people to work during the day when kids are at school. What about those people?
  - strawdynamics 5y ago
    They are poor.
    - catlikesshrimp 5y ago
      "Even poor families" need support.
  - refurb 5y ago
    Managers can make good money, I think OP was referring to the entry level positions. And I would agree, they aren’t intended to provide a wage to support a family. That doesn’t stop people who are doing just that to work those jobs. And there are also plenty of adults who don’t need to work who do those jobs. I know a few older guys who work part time at Home Depot making peanuts but they don’t need to the money, they need some routine and interactions.
    - js8 5y ago
      > they aren’t intended to provide a wage to support a family What are these jobs good for then? How is society benefiting from having people doing this for so little, as opposed to them getting a proper job (that is supposed to support a family)?
      - refurb 5y ago
        Because not everyone needs to support a family? If a 16 year old needs a job are you saying the jobs should support a family?
        alphabettsy 5y ago
        The people quitting their jobs to find a living wage and consistent reasonable working hours at McDonald’s aren't 16 though. They’re the people who these jobs aren’t “intended” for. Now that they’re gone where are all the 16 year olds that these jobs are “intended” for?
        refurb 5y ago
        They’ll either find people at that wage or they won’t. I’m not sure I understand the handwringing. If some guy opens a used computer shop and asks $1,000 for an old 486 chip I don’t worry about “who is going to buy it?”.
    - alphabettsy 5y ago
      > And I would agree, they aren’t intended to provide a wage to support a family. That doesn’t stop people who are doing just that to work those jobs. Still wondering why or who intends this?
  - MomoXenosaga 5y ago
    Maybe McDonald's hires the kind of people who can't get a job elsewhere? The employer of last resort. There's no welfare system in the US.
- LogonType10 5y ago
  >Never intended to be the sort of job to support a family. I don't intend any disrespect, but you're repeating revisionist history.
AYBABTME 5y ago
When I worked at McDonald's in Canada, it also was a hard job, and seen as a good early employer... because it showed you were capable/useful. It was "hard" in that you need to get used to the beat of things, then it becomes sort of fun. But the schedule was no good. Pay was the same as other restaurants (like 6-7$/h back then).
spamizbad 5y ago
A lot of it has to do with management practices for low wage workers in the US. They aren't treated fairly. Part of the reason why this sector is struggling to hire in the US right now isn't just because of pay: it's the fact that you get treated poorly by management. Better paying jobs that aren't as grueling opened up during the so-called "great resignation" and tons of former low-wage workers have stepped in to fill those roles.
- jackorange 5y ago
  A lot of it is also the American public being selfish and inconsiderate of others. Even at a low wage, I'm sure the job would be more bearable and perhaps even enjoyable if the employees were not treated so poorly by the public and their coworkers.
- wespiser_2018 5y ago
  This is sad, but true. One thing I've heard about is flex scheduling, where you don't know your schedule until the last possible minute. Sure, great a project for a guy in IT like me and the VP who manages him back at HQ to get some costs down, but it's absolute havoc on peoples lives. That's one example, but it's nonstop.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Flex scheduling is one of those things that's had far more staying power in the heads of people in ivory towers than in the heads of people in boardrooms. (not that that doesn't mean some dunce isn't implementing it somewhere at any given time). It bounced around various industries in the 2000s and mostly ran its course when people figured out it increases errors, increases lateness and no-shows, increases turnover and the benefits were scant if measurable. I know of at least one chain of retail stores where the results were bi-modal. The bottom distribution was the stores that just implemented the schedules at face value. The top distribution was the one where managers realized the schedules were insane and came up with their own off the books. I don't think that chain will be trying to push flex scheduling on its locations again for a very long time.
  - 5y ago
brightball 5y ago
That’s how Chick-fil-A is in the US. Staff is very well paid, well trained, offered support for college. Customers gush about how well run the places are. During parts of the worst sections of the labor shortage, I was seeing CFA owners on my Facebook feed saying that they couldn’t hire anyone offering $19-23 / hr so they couldn’t imagine what everybody else must be going through.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  Non-unionized FedEx is supposedly having issues with staffing currently, while unionized UPS isn't.
  - exhilaration 5y ago
    And it seems to be paying off. I'm a manager at a large Unnamed Parcel Service, we had a big conference call 2 days back where the execs were raving about how much business we were winning from FedEx. They still make us go through a yearly training on how to prevent unionization though...
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    FedEx using the name FedEx for Express (employees? more highly paid?) and Ground (contractors? Cheap labor?) seems stupid to me. Fedex has come up in conversation over the past year as the worst logistics company, even from people who know nothing about logistics. All they see is that if it is coming via FedEx, then it very well might not come when it says it will. Why would you want to tarnish your entire brand image like that? Would you not want FedEx Express to be a different name than FedEx Ground so that people still think to go to your more valuable product than just thinking screw it, I am going with UPS or USPS?
- seibelj 5y ago
  It will all sort itself out. If you can’t hire employees at a certain wage then either wages increase or the job changes. There is no other option. The “job changing” could also be changes to make it more palatable.
nradov 5y ago
Most McDonald's restaurants are independent franchises so despite some standardized training there's a huge variance in how managers treat workers. Some are fine, others are terrible.

throwawayboise 5y ago

I'm in the USA. Worked for McDonalds starting as a junior in high school and through college. It was a great job for a young kid, I learned a lot about business and restaurant operations. Pay wasn't super, but it was spending money. Never intended to be the sort of job to support a family.

black_13 5y ago
“Never intended to support a family” why not ? Why is this job more or less important than another? There are a lot of these franchises so they must be important.
alphabettsy 5y ago
Where does this idea of “Never intended to be the sort of job to support a family.” come from? Half or more of the people I see working at any given fast food chain are adults, which makes sense considering they need some mature people around and people to work during the day when kids are at school. What about those people?
- strawdynamics 5y ago
  They are poor.
  - catlikesshrimp 5y ago
    "Even poor families" need support.
- refurb 5y ago
  Managers can make good money, I think OP was referring to the entry level positions. And I would agree, they aren’t intended to provide a wage to support a family. That doesn’t stop people who are doing just that to work those jobs. And there are also plenty of adults who don’t need to work who do those jobs. I know a few older guys who work part time at Home Depot making peanuts but they don’t need to the money, they need some routine and interactions.
  - js8 5y ago
    > they aren’t intended to provide a wage to support a family What are these jobs good for then? How is society benefiting from having people doing this for so little, as opposed to them getting a proper job (that is supposed to support a family)?
    - refurb 5y ago
      Because not everyone needs to support a family? If a 16 year old needs a job are you saying the jobs should support a family?
      - alphabettsy 5y ago
        The people quitting their jobs to find a living wage and consistent reasonable working hours at McDonald’s aren't 16 though. They’re the people who these jobs aren’t “intended” for. Now that they’re gone where are all the 16 year olds that these jobs are “intended” for?
        refurb 5y ago
        They’ll either find people at that wage or they won’t. I’m not sure I understand the handwringing. If some guy opens a used computer shop and asks $1,000 for an old 486 chip I don’t worry about “who is going to buy it?”.
  - alphabettsy 5y ago
    > And I would agree, they aren’t intended to provide a wage to support a family. That doesn’t stop people who are doing just that to work those jobs. Still wondering why or who intends this?
- MomoXenosaga 5y ago
  Maybe McDonald's hires the kind of people who can't get a job elsewhere? The employer of last resort. There's no welfare system in the US.
LogonType10 5y ago
>Never intended to be the sort of job to support a family. I don't intend any disrespect, but you're repeating revisionist history.

AYBABTME 5y ago

When I worked at McDonald's in Canada, it also was a hard job, and seen as a good early employer... because it showed you were capable/useful. It was "hard" in that you need to get used to the beat of things, then it becomes sort of fun. But the schedule was no good. Pay was the same as other restaurants (like 6-7$/h back then).

spamizbad 5y ago

A lot of it has to do with management practices for low wage workers in the US. They aren't treated fairly. Part of the reason why this sector is struggling to hire in the US right now isn't just because of pay: it's the fact that you get treated poorly by management. Better paying jobs that aren't as grueling opened up during the so-called "great resignation" and tons of former low-wage workers have stepped in to fill those roles.

jackorange 5y ago
A lot of it is also the American public being selfish and inconsiderate of others. Even at a low wage, I'm sure the job would be more bearable and perhaps even enjoyable if the employees were not treated so poorly by the public and their coworkers.
wespiser_2018 5y ago
This is sad, but true. One thing I've heard about is flex scheduling, where you don't know your schedule until the last possible minute. Sure, great a project for a guy in IT like me and the VP who manages him back at HQ to get some costs down, but it's absolute havoc on peoples lives. That's one example, but it's nonstop.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Flex scheduling is one of those things that's had far more staying power in the heads of people in ivory towers than in the heads of people in boardrooms. (not that that doesn't mean some dunce isn't implementing it somewhere at any given time). It bounced around various industries in the 2000s and mostly ran its course when people figured out it increases errors, increases lateness and no-shows, increases turnover and the benefits were scant if measurable. I know of at least one chain of retail stores where the results were bi-modal. The bottom distribution was the stores that just implemented the schedules at face value. The top distribution was the one where managers realized the schedules were insane and came up with their own off the books. I don't think that chain will be trying to push flex scheduling on its locations again for a very long time.
- 5y ago

brightball 5y ago

That’s how Chick-fil-A is in the US. Staff is very well paid, well trained, offered support for college. Customers gush about how well run the places are. During parts of the worst sections of the labor shortage, I was seeing CFA owners on my Facebook feed saying that they couldn’t hire anyone offering $19-23 / hr so they couldn’t imagine what everybody else must be going through.

throw0101a 5y ago
Non-unionized FedEx is supposedly having issues with staffing currently, while unionized UPS isn't.
- exhilaration 5y ago
  And it seems to be paying off. I'm a manager at a large Unnamed Parcel Service, we had a big conference call 2 days back where the execs were raving about how much business we were winning from FedEx. They still make us go through a yearly training on how to prevent unionization though...
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  FedEx using the name FedEx for Express (employees? more highly paid?) and Ground (contractors? Cheap labor?) seems stupid to me. Fedex has come up in conversation over the past year as the worst logistics company, even from people who know nothing about logistics. All they see is that if it is coming via FedEx, then it very well might not come when it says it will. Why would you want to tarnish your entire brand image like that? Would you not want FedEx Express to be a different name than FedEx Ground so that people still think to go to your more valuable product than just thinking screw it, I am going with UPS or USPS?
seibelj 5y ago
It will all sort itself out. If you can’t hire employees at a certain wage then either wages increase or the job changes. There is no other option. The “job changing” could also be changes to make it more palatable.

nradov 5y ago

Most McDonald's restaurants are independent franchises so despite some standardized training there's a huge variance in how managers treat workers. Some are fine, others are terrible.