Any Mcdonalds Employees Out There?

[Baby Bethany]

Having tried to survive on minimum wage myself I pity anyone that has to survive on it. However, as Underwhere says increasing minimum wage is not the answer, because it would just make things more expensive to buy. The other option would be for companies to cut their profits, meaning less money for the board of directors and share holders......and you know they won't do that. Besides, money isn't everything and just being paid well will not make you enjoy the job.

The reality is that any of us do the job we do because we choose to do it, no other reason. So if you earn minimum wage year after year it's through your own choice. Sorry, but it really is.

I used to stand there at 4am in the morning unloading frozen turkeys, in the freezing cold, and boy did I curse. I cursed about the company, my boss, my lousy wage, my duties, my hours, the customers, the government. If cursing was an Olympic event, I could have won Britain a gold medal. But none of that helped me get a better job, that only happened when I went to night school after work to get qualifications, and did voluntary work at the weekends to gain experience. Because the only difference between getting a lousy job and getting a good job is qualifications, experience, and opportunity. But none of us were born with a rich mommy and daddy, so we have to go and seek those things. However this is hard, it's hard going to college after a 12 hour shift, it's hard using your day off to do voluntary work for no money, it's hard putting yourself out there and seeking opportunity. It's much, much easier to just get on with your job and spend your evenings watching tv, or having a beer, or playing a game on the net. Just don't grumble when you're 65 and still doing that lousy job you always hated because you couldn't be bothered working toward something better.

Beth

[dlinmsp]

Minimum wage is not meant to be a career. While most of you think this is no big deal to large companies, you have to consider what it does to small companies.

I have owned a small business and contrary to what many think, it is not a gold mine waiting to be dug into. I averaged 80 hours per week, often worked 7 days a week (many times open to close) and once worked more than 3 months without a full day off.

Because of taxes, fica, unemployment and other obligations, in the entire time I owned, I took only 3 paychecks. Each time the government forced big businesses to do something the affect on me was 10 times worse.

I have read that far more people work for people like me and this "stick it to the big guys" mentality that we have in this country is very counterproductive.

Minimum wage jobs do not require many skills, that's why most are entry level positions into the work force. They are meant to be a starting point. Education is the key. Without one, you will be stuck at minimum wage.

[underwhere]

Here is the real kicker though: for those of you who do work your fannies off and always do the best job you can possibly do in an effort to try to convince somebody to care that you are worth being paid more for your time and effort even if you do learn all of those necessary things to advance in your job or industry, you'll be rewarded less for that than the person who does nothing while becoming best friends with the boss. Honestly, I'm not at all convinced anymore that there is any value in working hard. You could be the single most productive person in the company, but if you don't do your share of kissing a$$, you'll get no more from the company you work for than the beggar on the street would get from an ostrich.

square duck, I'm all for learning new skills and applying them, and I would do that anyway, but when, as an employee, I do not get treated fairly for doing so given the efforts I put forth so that I can literally run circles around my coworkers who are always treated better on the pay scale because of their social connections and not because of their work skills, I just have to ask what the point is anymore.

I've been unemployed for a long time now, and most of that is because I haven't been looking for work due to my own personal issues with depression. I'm now trying to launch a business where this ever present game of oneupsmanship won't apply since I will essentially be my own boss. I won't mind kissing or kicking my own a$$. I'm prepared to do what I need to do. I just hope that this time, unlike when I worked in retail, I will reap the rewards for my hard work rather than letting somebody else get paid more and become more advanced for doing less work than I do.

[Baby Bethany]

I read an article in the Financial Times recently that surveyed bosses from various organisations about giving their staff promotion. The general view was that the number one thing that will get you promotion isn't hard work, or relability, or even how good you are at the job. It was visability!! In other words the guy that quietly gets on with his job day after day, with minimum fuss will get nowhere.

I agree that you are more likely to get promotion if you play golf with the boss, or if he is a friend of your dad. I've seen many truly awful people getting promotion, people who were lazy or couldn't even do the entry level job. I've even seen someone promoted because the boss couldn't stand to have them in his office anymore, so he promoted them to palm them off on another managing. There is also the aspect that if you do a job really well, the manager will not want to lose you to promotion.

I can only speak about the UK, but I think the major change I've noticed in the workplace since I left school is the lack of respect or even care with which employees are treated now. My dad used to talk about a job for life, well there is no such thing now........no job has that much guaranteed security anymore. Your job description/contract means nothing, as your manager can add anything he wishes, even the workload of a collegue in addition to your own. You are expected to work through your lunch hour (eating at your desk) and stay late everynight (all unpaid.) If you don't, you are seen as being lazy or lacking ambition. Mainly because everyone else in the office does these things. To my mind however, if your manager is allowed to change your hours/duties as he or she see fit, regardless of what it says in your contract of employment, just because they pay you a wage. Well that makes you little more than a wage slave.

I went freelance and it was the best thing I've ever done. Either do that or start your own business.

Beth

[BriGuy]

I always say, if you are un happy with the place you are employed seek refuge else where. I have had so many jobs its ridiculous. Everything from construction to parking enforcement officer. I am a bartender now, and granted it is work so I don't like it much but its a job. I don't think there is such a job where you are paid enough for how much you work. lol

I look at it this way, every company you work for is going to try to get every last drop of soul out of you. If you let them break you they will, if not then they can't own you. I worked for Jack in the Box and Carls and I understand where you coming from. Fast food likes to wear their people down. I was a shift leader at the Box and couldn't take graves anymore. I was a college student and they wouldn't give me any days off for finals. I was up for 72 hours straight. On the last day I asked why they wouldn't give me the time, they gave me some bs answer and I walked out the door. To this day I find it difficult for me to eat at the Box. Back then I was paid 5.15 an hour in Arizona. Good times.

~Brian

[hidden]

omfg! the one crappy manager was caught stealing $350-400 USD from the till and wasn't fired! this guy is the kind that gives mom's boys a bad rep. he keeps acting as though she is his suggar daddy and talks about how she is going to buy him a cadilac and acts like a spoiled brat. the only reason he wasn't fired is that she wrote the owner a big fat check. he performs worse than a new person on their second day! at least he got demoted to regular crew...

another person that was promoted to managment was throughing a fit last night over stupid stuff and was throwing stuff around. the other manager taht was there got after him at least.

the grill area was filled with people but when i got there, nothing was stocked! NOTHING!!!! there was even a crew trainer in grill so he should have known better!

[storey]

Here is the real kicker though: for those of you who do work your fannies off and always do the best job you can possibly do in an effort to try to convince somebody to care that you are worth being paid more for your time and effort even if you do learn all of those necessary things to advance in your job or industry, you'll be rewarded less for that than the person who does nothing while becoming best friends with the boss. Honestly, I'm not at all convinced anymore that there is any value in working hard. You could be the single most productive person in the company, but if you don't do your share of kissing a$$, you'll get no more from the company you work for than the beggar on the street would get from an ostrich.

square duck, I'm all for learning new skills and applying them, and I would do that anyway, but when, as an employee, I do not get treated fairly for doing so given the efforts I put forth so that I can literally run circles around my coworkers who are always treated better on the pay scale because of their social connections and not because of their work skills, I just have to ask what the point is anymore.

I have to agree with you here. I worked my tail off at my last job (Circuit City) and I got passed up for a supervisor position about 3 months before the company closed their doors. Like it matters now, but I know why I did not get the position. It was not because I didn't know how to close out in the new computer system, or that because my husband was already a supervisor and I had free babysitting that I told them I couldn't work past 7pm. The management team (most at least) new that I'd help them out whenever they needed it, granted I might have my son with me. I bent over backwards for the company hoping to move up in the company again. For awhile I even only worked 4 days a week. And you know what? in that time I did more productive work than any of my other co-workers combined. So what was I lacking that I didn't get the supervisor position? I did not smoke.

Yep you read it right, I didn't go take a 10 minute smoking break every hour with one of the managers. I did more work than bullshitting with any of them while on the clock. My philosophy was I was getting paid to work so I worked. Now I look back I got treated so shitty it's no wonder I had not quit yet. I had thought about it many times but I was making above my "cap" and I knew I couldn't switch jobs because I would not make what I made.

We all say it's easy to go from one job to the next if you don't like it. For some it is, but for me being with a company for 5 years it's tough.

[singner]

Lucky folks, you are. I have a job at which there is no structured pay at all and often times it ends up constantly being waaay under minimum wage. I get $20/day and the rest is pure commission. <sigh> and it's a very small commission... I fix computer's and remove viruses for a living.

[Andy]

Minimum wage is not meant to be a career. While most of you think this is no big deal to large companies, you have to consider what it does to small companies.

I have owned a small business and contrary to what many think, it is not a gold mine waiting to be dug into. I averaged 80 hours per week, often worked 7 days a week (many times open to close) and once worked more than 3 months without a full day off.

Because of taxes, fica, unemployment and other obligations, in the entire time I owned, I took only 3 paychecks. Each time the government forced big businesses to do something the affect on me was 10 times worse.

I have read that far more people work for people like me and this "stick it to the big guys" mentality that we have in this country is very counterproductive.

Minimum wage jobs do not require many skills, that's why most are entry level positions into the work force. They are meant to be a starting point. Education is the key. Without one, you will be stuck at minimum wage.

Indeed. It gets worse though when you have to employ someone because of the amount of work. It is the brutto wage plus 50%, at least over here in good ole Germoney.

It is something where you really have to decide if you employ someone or if you can afford to leave out an order