At first, it was not bad, I do the occasional packing of things. Our store IS actually a fairly hygienic and decent bakery. I have no horror stories to tell you about the actual goods we sell. The staff are generally nice people… but there is nothing nice about their work. It is horribly boring and in my opinion unrewarding. We are considered the blemish on the store, outcast from the rest of the stores social networks.

In terms of accomplishment, it is possible that I have one of the least rewarding jobs ever created because the majority of my work is Cleaning. I will clean the place, come back the next day and find the bakery looking like an absolute mess again. I work alone most of the time as well, but that can be seen as a good thing.

For the most part, an average shift would consist of cleaning the benches, the floors, organising the utensils and apparatus, possibly packing some things away and reducing prices on bread. I have to do temperature checks and sanitise a bunch fo things too.

I think of quitting almost every day. I wanna quit now… but then there’s the problem of finding work that fits so perfectly to my lifestyle. Because as much as I hate it, this truly does fit perfectly into my schedule. I would rather be doing almost anything, but probably not factory work. I one day hope to become a journalist, as I am a media student majoring in politics, or hopefully my music will be more than just the small time gigs that I have now and I will be able to support myself through it.

I’m 15, and go to school near where the store I work is. The best thing about the store is that it’s in a shopping centre. Yes, no toilets to clean, no tables and customer area to clean, just our store. The other good thing is that normal after school shifts finish at 8 pm cause that’s when the store closes (11.30 on Thursday nights).

Over the 1.5 years I’ve been there, I’ve worked with heaps of different people, and in general, with the exception of 1 manager, they have all been friendly and co-operative. Heaps of people who write these kinds of stories complain about “not getting breaks after 4 or 5 hours”. Well so what? It might be required, and at our store we always get our breaks for 5 hour shifts and over, but if you don’t, then just build a bridge and get over it. Many jobs in the world require longer hours without a break.

I work in both customer service and out back, and in both areas it is rare to see a manager get pissed off at employees and yell at them, etc. I believe the stories you hear are isolated, and in general, do not reflect all stores.

Now, you’re probably thinking I’m some loser who wants to pursue a career at Maccas… and no, I’m not. When I do leave school I do want to go to university, and study policing. But until then, maccas offers me some cash, and I enjoy working there.

My advice: give it a go, yeah, it’s hard when you start, but once you’ve been there for a while, and get to know everyone, it’s great fun, and a decent job. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it, but I do.

The corporation remodeled their menu and BAM we are busy as hell out of nowhere. I am not complaining about being busy; in fact, in my mind I believed (coming from my managers) that the more money we made the more raises were given out. WRONG. No matter how slow or how busy we were I have ALWAYS been a hard worker and still am. I am now a shift manager and have been since I graduated college last year. I make eight bucks an hour to bust my ass, get harassed by customers, and don’t get a single full break during an 8-9 hour shift because according to my boss I am a manager and I no longer reserve the right to even a 15 minute break. I live in NY and the labor laws are tight here and I still only manage to get maybe 5 minutes for a cigg and that’s about it.

I have been burned out from this job for so long now and the eight dollars an hour I get is not worth the effort I put in to make things ideal. I have panic attacks, crying jaggs, and I am so irritable because of my worthless, incompetent boss and the way he runs things while he sits on his fat ass most the day playing on the internet. The stress has spilled over so bad that customers can clearly see I can barely deal with it. I even get yelled at once in a great while for being bitchy. I agree with these customers. I shouldn’t be acting in any way rude to anyone. I want the customers to have a great experience and I wish they could understand the shit I deal with daily. New problems or old problems every day. Most of the time, I force myself to be friendly because I am a nice person but I am usually a miserable young woman acting and putting on a nice show for the customer so I don’t have to deal with any hardships from them.

I’ve worked 11 day stretches without a day off. I have covered useless employees shifts a million times. I have had 4 different GM’s in the last 5 years and each one gets worse after the last.

Recently, my owner (who is a cheap jerk that runs 8 stores but can’t manage to give the hardworking employees a raise) posted online 2 shift manager full time positions that need to be filled immediately. Oddly enough, sounds a lot like my title and my shifts. Funny thing is, he claims they will make anywhere from 8-12 dollars an hour. I have been there 5 years and have managed to only be promoted to 8 dollars and they consider that good and a lot of money.

Worse thing is at my Fast food job, we get as little as 2 to 3 people working for a lunch. You alone are working as 3 other people within a fast pace. All because the cheap owners don’t want to pay out or let labor go above 20. It’s ridiculous and if they fire me, I hope I may have the opportunity to better my life. It’s hard when you apply to the better jobs and there are none there for you because of our stupid economy and greedy assholes that run our country into the ground. I am glad I am not the only one who feels this way.

Part One:

www dot youtube dot com/watch?v=j_c9PiTmo7c

Part Two:

www dot youtube dot com/watch?v=RKEPoQ54PsM

It was unbelievable the respect I was automatically given for the simple reason I could say I worked in real estate. Unlike the reaction I get from people when I say I work at McDonalds.

Can someone please tell me why it is so unacceptable to be employed at McDonalds?

Well, for those of you who want to look down on or judge McDonalds’ employees, let me tell you something. A day at work is not a walk in the park, its down right hard work. And I can guarantee that MOST of you who do look down on us wouldn’t know what a hard day at work is.

So when you come through our drive thru in the mornings to get your daily coffee, dressed in your suite and tie or those high heels, just remember that we are people and deserve just as much respect as anyone else. We work just as hard if not harder then you do, sometimes putting in 10-12 hour days.

I have done the whole 9 till 5 sitting in an office job, BORING !!!!!!

I would love to see just how long any of you would last running a shift at McDonalds.

Well, feel free to comment.

Today I kinda flipped out on two of my managers. I’ve been working for this company for about a year now and I think I’ve dealt with a lot of B.S. in that time period. First, a delayed opening, leaving me jobless for a couple of months. Then, massive layoffs. Which I survived but was suspicious of the secretive nature in which they made and executed the decision. Followed by numerous manager changes, uncomfortable working conditions (kitchen is TINY!! Plus, dishes were washed outside with a hose or in afore-mentioned tiny kitchen. Either way, rather uncomfy.) and, last but not least, promises of a raise or promotion with no follow-through.

Desperate for recognition, I asked to be relocated to another restaurant owned by the same people. This restaurant was more of a fine-dining atmosphere and much busier. Finally, I thought, I can really show off my skills, this is what I was made to do!! Right? Then why did I want to cry everytime I was in the middle of a rush and a dessert plate would come back with the complaint that the zig-zag decoration of raspberry sauce was “messy”? Shouldn’t I have been able to reply “Yes, Chef. I’ll re-make it right now.”? That’s what they wanted to hear. I just feel like if I were that customer waiting for my cheesecake, I wouldn’t care if my zig-zag under the cake was in perfect lines or if they were imperfect a little, like human beings.

I like to think I care more about the customers than the presentation. Maybe I’m just making excuses for my mistakes? Plus my co-workers didn’t speak much English, making it hard to make friends or even communicate during shifts. After just a couple months, I felt drained of all hapinesss. I didn’t want to go out, or talk to anyone, I just wanted to get through my next shift and sleep the rest of my life away.

Feeling defeated since I hadn’t impressed anyone and was realizing my new-found friend, depression, was over-staying its welcome, I asked to go back to the first restaurant. The one I had stuck with from the very beginning; I forgot to mention it was a brand new restaurant and I had been working there since it’s opening. As luck turns out one of the cooks quit and they needed someone to fill his spot. Maybe this was what I needed the whole time: to go work in a fine dining restaurant so I could appreciate my laid-back bar job.

I work a couple closing shifts with another guy, again doesn’t speak much English but enough, so I can learn all the sidework involved. A couple days later I close by myself. Now I know the kitchen manager there is a dick. One of those ” you’re Zig-Zag is messy, do it again!” kinda guys. I cook the drunks food until 12:30, cleaning as I go. The night was unexpectedly busy, giving me little time to do all the cleaning but somehow I made it out by 1:30 feeling proud but anxious of what the manager would think of my closing. I soon found out!

It started out constructive, stock up the line (though in my opinion, I did!), clean….. then, it started to piss me off. “This job is not hard for everyone. It’s easy. Some days you work for hours and sit around for hours, I mean not you but everyone. That’s why you must always be kepping busy.” His English isn’t the best either. So it took me a while to understand what he was saying. Was he assuming that I hadn’t been busy and maybe forgot some things out of laziness? I don’t know but I’m pissed! I squint my eyes at him, putting all the anger I can behind them. I was honestly slammed that night! Most guys there would’ve asked for help but I got all the food out properly and on time. So now I was starting to feel all “rage against the machine” and “don’t let the man keep you down!” I mean, why do people have to be condescending? I’m still your peer even though you are a manager.

Well, back to present day, me, flipping out on two managers. I go into work at 9 a.m. for prep. There’s quite a lot to so I get to it. Two and a half hours later, I go outside to find my two managers outside sorting crabs, laughing, and basically enjoying their day while working. I ask to smoke a cigarette and they look at each other. “What have you done?” they ask. “I don’t know… breaded chicken, cut up lettuce, tomato, and onion for sandwich setups….” This wasn’t looking good for me. “I don’t know, what do you think Fernando?” asks Matt, my normally easy going manager. “No, it’s too early. Go finish the sandwich setups then come back and ask. Anger behind my eyes that are so squinted at this point all I see is blurry faces staring back at me.

As I turn to walk back in, Matt says something about how I can’t smoke five cigarettes a day. This set me off so bad it was like he were my husband making some smart ass comment behind my back. I turned on a dime and yelled that I only wanted one and that I wasn’t one of those employees who take advantage of breaks. I stomped back inside and told my co-workers my problem, hoping to rally them on my side. I’m completely aware of how immature this sounds but i was beyond the point of maturity. In my mind, I’m a hard worker. I don’t disrespect anyone unless I feel disrespected. I care about my restaurant and the customers who support it. I just hate how my management have sort of an overkill attitude towards expectations of employees.

So now, when all is said and done, I’m left feeling angry, unappreciated, embarassed and hopeless. My hope that I can work while enjoying my time there is gone. Like a child who has just been told the Easter Bunny and Santa don’t exist, I’m left to contemplate whether or not hapiness in the workplace is a story my parents told me, so I would grow up ready to work for some asshole who is happy to buy hours of my precious life for the bargain price of 10$/hour! I love restaurants, but managers and owners lose touch of why we love restaurants: they’re one of the oldest professions, they’re always in need, and working there comes with a family of coworkers moving around each other in ways and speeds that make it look like some choreographed dance. The feeling you get when a person walks out happy because of the time they spent there and the food you made for them.

No, managers are puppets manipulated by the owners. They’ve made it to the point where little to no physical labor is needed so they spend their time piling the labor on those below them. ugh. Is my outlook on work just a lazy and self-deserving one, or am I right to request common courtesy from my management and a cigarette break every now and then. Honestly: Is that too much to ask?

I lost my fingertip at McDonalds and it has caused me alot of pain and suffering. I can’t do things like I used to. I hate working for McDonalds. I have never had a job treat someone so bad. They never let us call out and if we do it is a big hassle, and forget about having a life. They don’t care about anything that goes on in your life let alone care about you.

And as far as all of you RUDE McDonalds customers, screw you! I don’t care if you don’t have enough BBQ sauce or that your french fires have to much salt. If you don’t like it, go somewhere else. If you think you can do my job better than me, put a damn uniform on and try. Don’t yell at me untill you know what I have been going through all day long.

Sometimes I wish the managers would just leave me alone. I have been here for 4 years. I know what I am doing, and if you don’t like what I am doing and how I do it, that is me working to the best of my ability, so screw you too.

But honestly Mcdonalds is terrible. We don’t get the right amount of breaks. They want you to eat, sleep, and breath McDs. And we sure as heck don’t get paid enough to deal with what we deal with, and I just wish they would care more about people, especially the employees cause they don’t. So please, if you can find something else besides McDs, please do not put yourself through the aggravation.

I worked from McDonalds from March and only recently quit in the the end of June. The way they treated me was horrible. I was blamed for things I didn’t do; I was verbally abused; I was expected to do things I wasn’t trained in; and then I was yelled at for maikng mistakes. I was expected to stand up for 4 and a half hours every staurday with no breaks, cleaning the floors, puttng up with customers rude remarks, taking ten kg bins down to dark alleys, and then straining my back changing them. I was paid$7 an hour, which is pretty good compared to other people, but the work I did was 10x harder.

The first day I got there, they were just like: “Here’s the register, Talyah will show you how to use it.” So I stand there for about 2 minutes trying to work this thing out, but I can’t so I ask Talyah and she’s like “just improvise.” Because she was more experienced than me, I did what she told me to, but I kept giving the customers the wrong orders, so I asked her for her help again. She ignored me. By this time the manager came back to check how I was going, and when she saw me struggling, she got frustrated and was just like “ok, you’ve had enough, go to dining. Talyah will show you.” In my head I was just like: “Talyah isn’t going to show me anything.” SO I go to dining, and she hands me 3 bin bags, and tells me to go change the bins. No gloves. At this stage the bins were purging with half eaten burgers mixed with coke. When I asked her for gloves, she was just like, “You’ll do.”

At this stage I was already hating my job. Not because I didn’t like the job, but because I wasn’t given clear instructions on what to do. Soon my shift was over and I went home.

The week after that, I was rostered from 4-9, ON A THURSDAY, despite me clearly telling them that I wont work pst 7 on a school night & that I wont work for more than 4 hours at a time at all. However, this was one of my first shifts so I unwillingly accepted. This time the manager put me on dining again, and every 5 minutes she would call me to get her cups, when the storage room was closer to her. HFDKJSH. [sorry, this is making me very emotional]. After two hours of tiresome bin changing, mopping the floors, cleaning the table, scraping the gum off the bottom of the tables, putting my hand in the bin to squash it down, I ask her if I can go on the register now because I was very tired. She said yes. So I go on the register, and after 5 minutes, as I was slowly getting the hang of it she was like: “you know what, go back to dining.” SHE GAVE ME NO REASON AS TO WHY SHE WANTED ME BACK TO DINING, or what I did wrong, all she said was “go back.”

By this point I was furious, so I took the big red bins down to the dark alley covered with rats, and tried to spend as long as possible there. When I go back, she tells me make a medium fries for her because she needs to pee. I told her I needed to wash my hands, but she was just like: “quickly, we dont have all day.” So I relulctantly did it for her, and I apologized to the customer in my mind for giving her those fries. [sorry]. I went home with a strained back.

All my shifts after this were on Saturdays for 4.5 Hours. About two months afer my fisrt shift, I plead again, just as I do about every other week, if I could use the register, and you know what she said? “You’re not experienced enough.” How am I supposed to be experienced if you wont train me, huh?, How am I supposed to know what to do. So I ask her if there is anything else I could do, and she tells me to fill up the fry machine. Because I thought she would think I’m useless, I fill it up, not knowing what the hell I’m doing. I wasn’t trained properly. GAHH.

This is was my first job, I didn’t know how the whole work thing works & you still hired me despite this. Manager, I have urged you many times that I was inexperienced, yet you still choose to hire me, and then you neglect to teach me the necessities. If you wanted someone experienced, who knew what they were doing WHY DIDNT YOU HIRE SOMEONE ELSE. What, did you want to save 2.50 an hour which child labour?

The first time was for 5 minutes on my first day. Jess didn’t even bother explaining to me how to use it and just said: “You’re on front counter.” After about 5 minutes she got annoyed with me and sent me straight to dining. I asked her why, and she said: “You are too slow.” WELL FUQ YOU! It was my first fucking day you skank. How the hell am I supposed to know how to use the machine if you don’t fucking tell me how. I’ve never done this before. I have no experience. I’m not some 19 year old high-school drop out like you who has nothing better to do with her life so she makes fricking burgers all day. It doesn’t have to be an in-detail description, just a small guide maybe? PLEASE?

Okay, so maybe she was annoyed at me, but she had no right to yell at me when I was on dining. When I was changing the bins, she was like: “OMFGZ, wtf are you doing, the bins are leaking.” WELL I CAN FUCKING SEE THAT. I HAVE EYES YOU FUCKER. YOU HEARD OF A MOP BITCH? Maybe if you had told me to take the whole bin rather than just the bag to the dumping area, this wouldn’t have happened? Maybe, just maybe if you explained to me, just once, how to do anything? GARHHHHHHHHHHH.

After about two months, she gave me a shift at the front counter. I was so happy that I didn’t have to change bins all day – so fucking happy I could cry. I’m not kidding. That was my second time. (Technically it was my first, because the first time was only for five minutes, and only one person ordered.) I wasn’t confident after Jess yelled at me the first time I did it. I kept pressing the wrong buttons on the machine, and some stupid system doesn’t let you change the order without the manager card. So every time I did that I had to call her, until she was extremely annoyed. FUCK YOU CUNT. (Sorry, had to get that out.)

She sent me to dining again for four hours, until I had back pains. Until my shirt was covered in bin juice. Until I could clean no more. After that day, I ws sure I was going to quit. The next time I did front counter was today. I did it for a total of 7 minutes and 55 seconds. Yes I kept a timer on my phone bcuz I felt like it. I was hoping she would let me stay on the counter for the remaining hour like my roster said I would. (Ok, I get why she took me off front counter the first two times – because my roster was for dining – but this time my roster was actually for a full 4 and a half hours of front counter.) BUT NO, SHE JUST COULDNT HANDLE ALL THE SLOWNESS OF ME. FUCKING HELL. She was like to me: “OMGZ honestly why are you so slow” and I WISH I said: “Honestly Jessica, impatience isn’t attractive on a 30 year old woman. How the fuq am supposed to be fast when I only did it one other time huh?”. I SWEAR, I FUCKING SWEAR. kjHD KJSHA.

Now she just makes me change bins 24/7. I am quiting tomorrow. I don’t see a reason why not to . Pay’s shit ($7.40/h), people are even worse, and I get blamed for things I didn’t do. Tell me a reason why I shouldn’t quit. Oh and I don’t know why but the apostrophies are coming out as like 3 slashes. I dont know why. Its not my fault. DONT BLAME ME JESS, DONT FUCKING BLAME ME.

I stayed way to long. All of the employees I liked quit. New ones got hired and we got bought out and became a franchise. This is where all the problems started. Things went well the first year, until we hired more new people.

After we got comfortable with working with one another, the male Hispanic swing managers would make sexist comments towards me. They never said anything to anyone else. I was alone in this. I told them to stop and hoped the situation would end. I knew how vindictive my coworkers could get. I had sexual comments made at me daily. They made me cry even when I would walk home. I was told once that I looked like I could “Suck a dick.” I finally put a stop to it. I called my boss. He came in and talked to the person who did it (We’ll call him Joe). Joe has some issues keeping sexual comments to himself. He often would make comments to other employees that were disgusting, and to customers as well.

Other employees saw he got way with his behavior and it was likely that I would be groped by another manager. When I voiced my dislike of this, they didn’t stop. If I threaten to tell upper management, nothing would change. On a daily basis I hear sexist comments and am groped. I am terrified of working at night because of the stories I hear from female employees.

The other illegal and unjust things that happen in our company are the people who work overtime (plus 40 hours a week) don’t get paid time and half. 14 and 15 year olds are allowed to work more than 8 hours a day. I refused to ask a 15 year old to stay longer than 8 hours and was reprimanded for it. I can’t stand this job. Something needs to get done.