Lola R
Auckland, NZ
Female, 18
I've been working at McDonald's part-time for over a year. My job involves the basic obligations of a crew member, while also training new staff and assisting managers to execute shift goals and targets for the store. Despite the drama, the stress, and the general annoyances of customer service - I love my job, and the opportunity to develop as a leader is what I love the most.
Sure, what are the questions?
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Completely depends on each person, how hard you work, and the needs of the restaurant. If you work hard as a Crew Member, I think the average amount of time it would take to move up to a Crew Trainer would be about one year. Most managers I know only became managers after a few years, however there are always exceptions. If you have a great management team looking out for the crew's best interests, then they will most likely put your development as their top priority. It's not really that desirable to move up too quickly - there's a LOT to learn, and you need to know everything if you want to be able to effectively run a restaurant - but jobs like this have high turnover rates, and waiting until your staff are 100% ready to be promoted isn't always possible. Crew Trainers exist as an "intermediate" stage between Crew and Management because it allows crew to take on minor leadership roles in a restricted way.
If the restaurant has a McCafe, then being a barista is probably a step up from a standard Crew Member. I don't know much about the selection process for cafe - I got my cafe uniform after working for about 5 months, and at that point I barely knew how to make coffees. Pretty sure I lucked out there because we just needed baristas.
After management, you can become an Assistant Restaurant Manager, and then like, a legit Restaurant Manager, if you're good enough and they need one. If that's not enough pure power for you then you can get snatched up by Head Office after that, but that's a whole other barrel of fish.
My own aspiration would be to become a part-time manager, gain a little more experience, and then quit. I love McDonald's, but I don't see myself here forever. I've seen far too many managers who stayed too long and regretted it. It can be a great career - but the key word there is career. If you want to stay, go all the way to the top. Our current franchisee started as a Crew Member, and now he's like, a millionaire or something. It can happen. But don't get stuck in the middle.
The best advice I've ever received from a manager was this: "Don't stay in this job too long. Do you know what happens to fries after their 7 minute holding time? They get old and gross. That could be you."
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Yeah, absolutely. It's a first job for many people, and although there are a lot of people who take it seriously and understand that it can be a great stepping stone to whatever career you really want, there are lots of kids who think they're "too cool" for it, and just think of it as something they have to endure to get their paycheck at the end of the week. It's immediately obvious when someone has this attitude - it's disrespectful to the customers and to your other employees. Yes, it's not exactly a dream job for most people - it can be hard work with seemingly little payoff - which is exactly why your attitude towards it is a total reflection of your character. Luckily we don't have many people like this at our store anymore - they've all moved on to bigger and better things *cough* leeching off their parents *cough*. Good question! :D
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Personally, I find chicken nuggets disgusting. They make me feel sick. They sit around in the UHC for ages and they're all greasy and don't even taste like chicken and ugh. I also never eat fries - they're covered in an insane amount of oil and salt; once you prepare them yourself they won't look appetising to you anymore.
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Do you think it's just a matter of time before all U.S. companies move their customer support overseas?
Sometimes. It has a lot of negative connotations and when you say you work there, people tend to assume the worst about you straight away. Let's be honest here, McDonald's doesn't always attract the best and brightest employees - however, I do work in New Zealand, and the attitude towards fast-food places is a little different than it is in America. Actually, if you went to Australia, heaps of people would be proud to say they worked at there - their pay rate for crew is incredibly high, their service is amazing, and their staff actually look geniunely happy to be there. Weird.
It doesn't bother me much these days to say I work at McDonald's. It's a part-time job while I pay my way through school and it doesn't have to define who I am in the slightest.
When I first started working, I tended to avoid serving customers who went to my school. Even the most ratchet little pricks look down at you if they see you in uniform, and I preferred to just not get involved with that. But one day, I was sweeping the lobby, and this chick a couple years younger than me walks in. I knew of her because she was kind of infamous for being a heinous bitch. She was particularly infamous as of late, because she had some kind minor violent outburst in class with her craft knife. Anyway, she looks me up and down apprehensively, then scoffs and says, "You work at McDonald's? Wow."
Without missing a beat, I'm like: "Didn't you stab someone last term?"
She never came back. lol
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It's a high pressure environment sometimes, and people are dependent on me occasionally. I'm not going to talk up McDonald's like it's the most stressful job in the world, because it really isn't - it can be stressful, and difficult, but most other jobs can be too. Something which was hard for me to get used to was the idea that every second counts. Cars need to be out of the drive-thru within 210 seconds, fries have to be thrown out after 7 minutes...everything is supposed to be really precise, and that in itself is stressful. The pressure can come from managers, but customers, too. No offence, but customers can be assholes. I mean, I'm usually pretty nice to customers. If you didn't like your coffee, I'll make you another one. If you're a dollar short, I'll pretend I'm mathematically incompetent. But a large part of the pressure comes from customers who find it necessary to constantly berate and degrade our crew. If a customer complains to your manager, you're screwed. Even if the customer is lying, you could absolutely get a written warning. I can't even count the number of times I've been yelled at by a manager for something I didn't do. But we have this thing, that if a customer is unhappy, you have to do your best to suck them off- I mean, transform them into a loyal, happy consumer. So often you'll get a situation where a manager yells at you in front of a customer to prove that they're on the customer's side, regardless of what you did or did not do. Pretty sleazy.
I'm not that of person. I understand it's a business but it's obvious when a customer is being disrespectful on purpose. There are many places you can go be a dickhead for free. McDonald's should not be one of them. As a customer of any store, you have the opportunity to take some of that pressure off the staff. Just smile and be polite, and you'll make everything much easier.
As for dependence, I kind of like it. Crew trainers are the backbone of the management team. Feels good to be valued.
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Nope, I don't have the authority to fire someone or seriously discipline staff in any way, and I would never want to. If Crew Trainers see crew who aren't following procedures in some way, we have the right to tell them what they're doing wrong and how to fix it, but actual serious discipline is usually left to managers. I have occasionally had to "train" crew who are older than I am, or tell crew who have worked here longer than I have that they're doing something wrong - it can be difficult, because I don't want to come across as obnoxious. I'm a little different to many Crew Trainers because I avoid telling crew what to do - instead I tell them what needs to be done, and then help them to do it.
But back to the firing thing...if a crew member was ever in serious trouble, I would be standing by their side. Crew Trainers are your allies! :D
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Employees get a 50% discount if they buy food just before or after a shift, or during a break (excluding combos). If you're not working, it's 10%. Filter coffee/tea and standard drinks are free.
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So the starting rate for new crew is about $13.75 (NZD). I think that's about $11.50 in USD. Your pay gets reviewed every six months, and is also subject to performance - so if you work hard, they will increase your pay. Personally I think the starting rate should be at least $14.50NZD, and larger increases with promotions. I can't really comment on wages in the US because I've never worked there or even been there, but I've heard a lot about strikes for higher wages, like $15/h. This seems a little ridiculous to me but yes, $7 an hour is definitely not enough and it's sad to me that people wonder why McDonald's employees are so miserable.
We have a retail outlet here in NZ called The Warehouse (similar to Walmart), where they recently adopted a policy in which employees could earn well over $20/h after working for more than three years - these are retail positions. Even new staff are paid fairly generously. The Warehouse says they hope this will lower turnover rates, increase productivity, and change the public's perception on choosing retail as a career.
Seems impossible until someone does it.
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Yes, but how much of a pay rise you get is dependent on your performance and your particular franchise.
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I can only speak from personal experience, but in my case, you had to apply. I started at a new store where a majority of the crew were new to McD's, and after about 6 or 7 months, the management team was starting to look for crew trainers. Anyone could apply - you would just sit down with the restuarant manager and explain why you wanted the promotion - an informal kind of interview. There were originally about 5 people picked to go to CT classes, but many more who weren't chosen. It also came down to the recommendation of the managers. Anyway, it's not too hard to become a crew trainer, honestly. It's obvious straight away which people suit the role, and if they want it enough, it will basically be thrown at them.
As for actually formally training new employees, this should be done by just crew trainers and managers. Not every McD's worker has to train new employees, and getting promoted to a crew trainer isn't like, a natural progression. As with any other job you have to work hard for a promotion. Some people stay crew members for years, it's totally up to you if you want to try and move up or not. Personally I find that it makes the job much easier if you're working towards a goal, otherwise you will be miserable. Trust me.
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Definitely not qualified to answer this, but our franchise owner is pretty well off. He started as a crew member and now owns about 5 different restaurants.
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These are the procedures crew trainers use when training employees on particular stations, and is mostly related to completing SOCs.q
Prepare - get all your resources, SOCs, training cards, etc.
Present - this is where the training actually happens - explain to the crew member what their role is at the station, how things should be done, etc etc.
Try Out - leaving the employee alone for a little while to let them work without you holding their hand the whole time. This step is important because they won't learn/remember what you told them if they don't have the opportunity to make their own mistakes.
Follow-up - coming back to your trainee to see how they're doing, give feedback, and answer any questions they may have.
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It's different for everyone, and there's lots of things to learn. I would say most crew members know the basics after a few weeks. As a new employee, you won't really be assigned to any station without any help for at least a month or so in my experience
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