MrSchroeder
Lombard, IL
Male, 33
I *was* an assistant manager for a McDonald's Franchisee in Tucson, AZ from 2007 to 2008, and was hired with the explicit intention of being management and not a standard crew member. I worked hard in learning the procedures and processes of the corporation, with a goal of a much longer career than I actually had. My every day life evolved while I was there, starting from the least desirable position to overall operations. I wrote a blog detailing my experiences as well.
Look the person in the eye, like they are a human being. Smile at them genuinely. Start your order off with, "Hi! May I please have..." and end it with, "Thank you!" Compliment them, if you feel like it, in exactly the same way you would compliment any other human being you interact with in the world. There's no magic trick. That person might still hate you with everything in their soul. Or you may be the first person to treat them like a person all day. As to tips, almost assuredly no, McDonald's employees are not allowed to accept tips. The reason for this is varied, but mostly because tipped employees are paid differently than non-tipped employees and it's a terrible hassle when you have tipped employees. McDonald's wouldn't be able to have their prices so low and allow tipping. It's fine at more expensive eating establishments because that's built into their pricing. Also, low-priced mom and pops will always allow you to tip and they'll keep that part of it quiet, most likely. But anywhere that always has tipped employees has to have at least one accountant to handle the headaches.
Share Answer: 
This really depends on the franchisee's policies and the market. In some locations, they really only hire bright-eyed, fresh-faced, clean-cut and clean-recorded individuals. They do this because they have a volume of people like this to choose from. In other locations, a guy with forearm inks (like myself) and a minor record with no felonies might be the very best candidate they can find. Generally, I would say as long as it's not domestic violence and is not related to stealing, theft or robbery, a record should not inhibit you from being employed at a McDonald's.
Share Answer: 
First - not only have they considered it, they’ve been selling them for at least 2 years in stores that have a McCafe. http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/promotions/Smoothies.html Secondly, that statistic is, in my experience, hugely inaccurate. As I’ve explained in the question about why McDonald’s serves breakfast/lunch in separated segments, most McDonald’s restaurants are focused solely on breakfast food items during breakfast time. More importantly, most McDonald’s stores don’t have their ice cream or shakes machine running until about 9 or 10am (depending on the market, traffic and other factors). The prime reason for this is that the person who is generally assigned the task of "building" the machine - that is, takes it from its dismantled, clean state and puts it into operational condition - has other tasks before then, like recycling oil. This role is generally filled by a person with the title of "maintenance". They have a regular schedule of tasks, from cleaning the outside of the store (including pressure washing sidewalks, watering/maintaining flower beds, scrubbing and rinsing out the trash corral area), to taking out last night’s trash (remember, you never open the back doors after dark!), cleaning out the lobby (which also includes scrubbing out trash corrals and trash cans and cleaning all of the Play Place area), and making sure the bathrooms have a deep sanitizing clean (the bathrooms are touched up as needed throughout the day, and sanitized again if needed later). So, as I said, this person has a tight schedule with many tasks. It’s usually about 9 or 10am when they get to putting the shake machine into operational condition, which takes from 5 to 20 minutes depending on the quantity and types of machines. Then, the mix is poured in which takes about 25 minutes to become servable, making shakes and ice cream ready just a bit before 10 or 10:30am.
Share Answer: 
I think on the Store manager/Director/Owner Operator level this went on, but among crew no way. Like I said in another question - we knew where we were working.
Share Answer: 
Las Vegas Cab Driver
Do people ever ask you to keep your meter off in exchange for a cheaper fare?
Programmer
Is Mark Zuckerberg really a genius programmer? Or was he just lucky?
iPhone & iPad Technician
Do you think tablets are just a fad?
Very rarely will a McDonald's dining room be full. The longer people stay, the more often they'll come. If you make it easy and convenient for a customer to come hang out for an hour and a half, the more likely they'll repeatedly come in. Even if they just order a soda or a coffee - the profit level of those drinks is so high that it takes 10 refills before the McDonald's loses money. Also, if you come more often, you spend more money. It's pretty simple really.
Share Answer: 
Generally people would plan when they were leaving and give adequate notice. I do remember several employees who "walked out" or quit with no advance warning. Some had good reason such as being treated poorly by other staff members (one woman walked out after being propositioned by the late-night manager), managers being disrespectful when someone who was not trained to a task could not accomplish the task as expected, and one crew member that I remember in particular had requested months ahead for a week off to go on vacation with her family and the scheduling manager scheduled her anyway, told her if she didn't show up she's fired and so she didn't show up and the manager in question tried to claim it was "quitting". I however backed up the crew member and made sure she got unemployment because the manager said she was fired - and I'd heard it, there was no quitting involved).
I myself walked out with no warning, but my case was pretty special and quite frankly it was a poor decision when I made it, but I felt right about when I did.
I was moved into the store I did my very initial "crew" style training at. I elaborated in my blog and in this thread elsewhere, but the short of it is I was clearly not welcome, and when I addressed the fact that I was constantly verbally abused and was threatened repeatedly by the management team in that store, the Directors of the franchise and Owner/Operator told me I was lying to them. It came to a head one day when the Training Manager (essentially a Director level in the franchise company) was present, and watched three women surround me, screaming at the top of their lungs calling me every anti-white racist cuss word that exists in Spanish and English. The reason for their displeasure was I was following the policy and procedures in regards cooking breakfast sausage 15m before the end of the Breakfast period. Really.
So, finally the store manager grabbed a big metal pan used to bake biscuits and pies and smacked me with it. I tried to walk away but she followed after me screaming at me. It was about the 3rd or 4th time she hit me in the body with it that the Training Manager (who was literally 5 steps away the whole time) stepped in and told us all to separate. I turned to her and said something like, "This is exactly the type of treatment I was describing that you told me was a lie". Her response was, "Go calm down" and I said, "No thanks, I quit instead".
It was very difficult to be put in that position, but the harsh reality is that even though I demonstrated excellence, and helped to grow the store I was originally in for about 15 months into an operation that developed several top crew members and several management trainees/candidates, and in the first month I was assigned handling inventory in full I negated the previous year's losses, and I was able to do a myriad of other tasks far more accurately, efficiently and effectively than my peers, the Owner/Operator intentionally ignored my reports of harassment and abuse, violence in the workplace, and overt racism - I was one of two non-Hispanic employees in the store out of approximately 25 or 30. Now, a white guy claiming racism is a bold thing to say. I speak relatively fluent Spanish and know what I was being subject to. As you can read through my blog and all these posts, I almost exclusively had positive experiences and tried to be a positive influence. Except this.
In the end (I shall not discuss it) I was compensated relatively fairly well for the whole incident, although I have not continued my career with McDonald's after that. I may one day return, but it seems unlikely to me as there are in fact several better applications of my capabilities, knowledge and experience than in a McDonald's restaurant (although I did love it. Never had so much fun, got fit, and was in a position to develop people and a workplace environment more thoroughly than any other before or after).
Share Answer: 
This is entirely dependent upon the franchisee and the market. In general, standard crew members do start off right at or barely above the minimum wage. Managers have several pay brackets and most of it is based off experience. You might have two people with the exact same job title and responsibilities working in the same store with a $2/hr difference. Depending on the market the store is in, and how many qualified applicants there are, pay might be as much as $9 for crew, or it might be bare minimum wage. Store managers might make anywhere from $27k to $75k a year depending on the market, performance, and many other factors. As far as raises, there were 6 months reviews for crew and lower tier managers, annually for store level managers. At these reviews someone would receive anywhere from nothing to 25 cents an hour pay increase. Usually it was about 5 to 10 cents. For assistant and store managers, the range was nothing to $1 per hour, with 50 cents being the norm. Keep in mind, assistant and store managers also got bonused (as explained in a previous post).
Share Answer: 
-OR-
Login with Facebook (max 20 characters - letters, numbers, and underscores only. Note that your username is private, and you have the option to choose an alias when asking questions or hosting a Q&A.)
(A valid e-mail address is required. Your e-mail will not be shared with anyone.)
(min 5 characters)
By checking this box, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to Jobstr.com’s Terms and Privacy Policy.
-OR-
Register with Facebook(Don't worry: you'll be able to choose an alias when asking questions or hosting a Q&A.)
Browse Jobs
Host a Q&A
Search
Submit Your Question
Host a Q&A
Last 7
