The McDonalds Thread

Are the new wraps on the employee discount menu? Not working today so I can't check, but will be going into town tomorrow to do some shopping so will probably go into Mcd's for some food and I absolutely love the sweet chilli wraps

Had an interview with the training manager about getting put onto the apprenticeship today. Gotta do my english and maths first of all, cant actually be put onto the apprenticeship until I've worked there for 90 days but they did say I'm suitable

hey guys, how long was it before they contacted you after the online application?
I applied yesterday! really hoping for some success!

Oh God, just finished my shift and had a really horrible experience. It was really busy and an argument broke out in the kitchen between two managers. Later on, another argument with one of the managers and a crew trainer in front of customers. One of the crew members made a mistake with one of the burgers and was shouted at. The managers are relentless with the amount of pressure they place on the staff below them. Later on, most of the management decided play a game at my station which involved drawing names out of a hat while the business manager filmed it on his iPhone, this all happened as I was trying to prepare the burgers. Do I complain?

Oh God, just finished my shift and had a really horrible experience. It was really busy and an argument broke out in the kitchen between two managers. Later on, another argument with one of the managers and a crew trainer in front of customers. One of the crew members made a mistake with one of the burgers and was shouted at. The managers are relentless with the amount of pressure they place on the staff below them. Later on, most of the management decided play a game at my station which involved drawing names out of a hat while the business manager filmed it on his iPhone, this all happened as I was trying to prepare the burgers. Do I complain?

Oh God, just finished my shift and had a really horrible experience. It was really busy and an argument broke out in the kitchen between two managers. Later on, another argument with one of the managers and a crew trainer in front of customers. One of the crew members made a mistake with one of the burgers and was shouted at. The managers are relentless with the amount of pressure they place on the staff below them. Later on, most of the management decided play a game at my station which involved drawing names out of a hat while the business manager filmed it on his iPhone, this all happened as I was trying to prepare the burgers. Do I complain?

Ah I'm sorry.

I had that last week, the store manager and the assistant manager had a bit of a barney.
Then the store manager was relentless in pointing out the wrongs of another employee ( who'd been there for years) because apparently they're having a bit of a womanly personality clash.
Then a very nice Cambodian ( I think) woman had a fight with a crew trainer who kept piling on pressure.

It was all so awkward.

As for complaining personally I wouldn't, with the two weeks of working I have so much I could complain about but it just doesn't seem it'd be well received by the store or area manager who are your first port of call really. I'd just save it until/ if something big came up. But I haven't been working here long and am just weekend so my advice only extends to as far as what I would do.

My managers are really nice. Strange.

1 point, I've been working on tills/Drive-Thru window 1 for 9 months now and would really like to try something different maybe drill side or BOP.

Should I just ask to do this when I go in on sunday asking for more hours? Has anyone else here just asked to do something different and were able too?
I just hate all the running around, and I once spent 2 hours on quarter grill and enjoyed it since it was such a change...

I've seen my fair share of fights at McDonalds, swearing, crying, threats, broken items. It's part of the job. If it is infront of customers or bullying I would consider taking it higher up. If it was a heat of the moment argument caused by stress then I would ignore it.

Remember McDonalds is a high pressure environment, mistakes cause problems in all areas. I agree that there is no need to shout but sometimes people snap.

I don't get why it has to be such a hostile environment though. My restaurant was awful for this sort of stuff; it was not much fun. I got over it by thinking that I wasn't going to be there for long and the worst they could do was fire me, but it is dreadful for the people who have to work there on a permanent full-time basis.

People in jobs where there is far more at stake if they mess up would be appalled to be treated like that, even if they made a serious error. I think the managers sometimes lose a bit of perspective- the world's not going to end because someone makes a mistake on the till or mixes up an order. I know that it's a high pressure environment, but it can't be nice for the customers to hear all that going on.

Thats what I did today! When I went in I was asked if I can do window 1 on drive through but I said no as not been trained and that I can only do fries properly, done about an hour or two on tills and half an hour on bop. So went on hashbrown/fries for an hour and half at first but asked the manager could I get more practice on tills but I would need help on it as wouldnt cope on lunch on my own and he said hed see, and he managed to get me covered on fries so I could do tills
They may say no for that shift though as need cover you but they will have it in their heads that way, and they may forget but if you keep asking then theyll get there They want staff to be versitile so that they can then cover other people etc so they should have no problem with it

I agree with the statement about it seeming like the more there is to lose the calmer the staff are (look at hospitals).
It is a fast paced enviroment with pressure to hit targets, some staff lack basic intelligence and common sense which can be stressful. Add to that long hours, low pay, heat and a lack of respect from customers and you get anger and frustration. I'm not condoning arguments and yelling but I can understand why.
You just have to grin and bear it, when you meet these horrible managers outside work you will probably find they are really nice people.

Look at it from the store managers perspective, their bonuses can be in the region of tens of thousands of pounds. If a person on till can't understand how to get an order right and misses a gap that impacts negatively on them, on the store and on their bonus. It can reduce staff morale (no more 50p bonuses), it can destroy track records (we almost had 12 months perfect last year and 1 person blew it by not greeting the customer) and also any complaints sent to head office impact negatively on the store. Generally managers are looking for promotion and if their store isn't hitting targets, that isn't going to happen.

Could be two days to 4 weeks. It varies store to store

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't actually had a reply yet, but I'm just thinking ahead. Does anyone know what the story is with facial piercings? I have a labret which has been there for over two years now. Does anyone have any experience? Would I be expected to take it out for shifts or is it OK to wear a retainer?

Cheers

One question:

I've just started as a crew member, but my restaurant is quite a way from where I live and I'm doing really late shifts. I've seen that there is a vacancy at my local restaurant, so do any of you know whether I might be able to transfer. I was thinking of talking to the manager of my local restaurant tomorrow to see if this is possible.

Any advice would be really appreciated. Cheers

Yeah hospitals are actually what I was thinking about (I'm a med student)- it would be outrageous if anyone was spoken to like that, especially in front of patients. After thinking about it I actually found it quite amusing how worked up people got over the smallest little thing.

I may be being cynical, but I think some of the (especially junior) managers just like that little bit of power to make the crew member's lives difficult, which is a bit sad really. When I was on customer care, one of them once demanded that I mop the stairs 5 times at lunchtime on a saturday for no obvious reason: how to create maximum customer inconvenience, with blocking the stairs and not being able to do the more important job of clearing the tables Luckily it was one of my last shifts so I told her what I thought of it

Really store managers can get tens of thousands in bonuses? I didn't realise that- would definitely help explain it! That would make sense, to encourage them to motivate the staff, but the problem is that crew members don't have any real incentives, with no bonuses, minimum wage, long hours, no overtime and no respect. And then the franchisee comes in every few weeks in his expensive car and suit (financed by the said conditions of employment of crew members - maximum labour minimum cost), and everyone is expected to treat him like some kind of king. That's capitalism I guess, but it's bound to create resentment.

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't actually had a reply yet, but I'm just thinking ahead. Does anyone know what the story is with facial piercings? I have a labret which has been there for over two years now. Does anyone have any experience? Would I be expected to take it out for shifts or is it OK to wear a retainer?

Cheers

One question:

I've just started as a crew member, but my restaurant is quite a way from where I live and I'm doing really late shifts. I've seen that there is a vacancy at my local restaurant, so do any of you know whether I might be able to transfer. I was thinking of talking to the manager of my local restaurant tomorrow to see if this is possible.

Any advice would be really appreciated. Cheers

Fries is horrible xD I can cope with medium volume (in terms of customers) but if it goes higher I just crumble and someone has to do all the fries work by outing them down and lifting while I get everyone's fries boxed

My store manager is quite cool, and the 2nd assistant is there on my next shift and I like him too so I'll give it a go asking, hopefully I'll get quarter grill though I'd need to learn how to do Tasties...