A McMess

by Brandi L.

Americans love eating fast food. It is so simple to just order and pick up dinner in a matter of two minutes, but what is that meal really costing them? Most people are unfamiliar with what really happens behind the counter where they eat. Are people even concerned about what happens to their food or the employee who prepares it? I can describe, from experience, that working in a particular McDonald's restaurant in Texas can only be referred to as a "McMess."

First, I would like to present a vivid description of my former work environment to you. To start with, I will say, pest control has been a major issue. On several occasions, cockroaches have been seen scurrying along the kitchen floor attempting to collect remains of food. An even worse dilemma occurred when rats decided to invade the food storage. This was an on going problem for some time. One morning when I reported to work, shockingly I discovered that half of the store's supply of hamburger buns had been viciously gnawed by the rodents occupying our establishment. When I revealed the predicament to the store owner, she decided to resolve the matter by discarding the chewed buns and reusing the others even though they were all packaged together.

Another dilemma McDonald's employees encountered was the hazardous working conditions. Sure, we were provided with "slip resistant shoes", but did they actually perform as they claimed? I would say definitely not. For instance, one hectic Friday evening as a football game came to an end, countless customers swarmed to satisfy their late night hunger. Workers struggled to meet the rapid demands for hamburgers. Employees had to constantly dart through the store. As one worker rushed to the freezer, his feet slid on the slick floor and his mouth smashed into the ground. This accident resulted in painful injury and a broken front tooth.

Even cooking in the store has proven to be tremendously dangerous. When cooks prepare the hamburger meat, a large grill without any guards is used. Many of my friends have received severe scars from piping hot grease splashing at their arms and exposed skin. I have also experienced first hand the pain of being scalded when I unintentionally laid my arm on a French fry basket freshly heated at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The only advice from management at the time was to rub in aloe vera.

A enormous mistake, on behalf of the owner, was hiring such an inferior management staff, particularly one manager who was definitely under qualified for his position. At first Sam [name changed] seemed like the congenial manager of the group, the one with whom everyone agreed with and who exercised few rules, but rules needed to be enforced at some point. The misbehavior started very subtly and eventually progressed for the worst. In the beginning, Sam would only arrive late to work, an hour or two after his shift began. Then his drug dependency surfaced. Once he even made counterfeit money and exchanged it with legitimate currency from a cash resister. Soon he was even stealing money from the Ronald McDonald House charity donation bins. Finally, he was terminated when a large amount of money turned up missing from the store's safe one morning.

Working so late at night with school early the next morning was extremely arduous on all of the students (who were 75 percent of the employees). Many teens in school saw their grades drop below par due to their work schedules. I would even go as far as to accuse sleep deprivation for our lack of adequate customer service skills. Even when many parents protested that their children should be released from work earlier, the subject was nonnegotiable with the general manager. The choice for teens was between their job or their education.

What is your position as far as the quality and taste of McDonald's food? I find it to be very unsatisfactory. On hectic nights, cooked meat is in high demand. If any patties are dropped on the floor, many workers choose to continue using them while preparing your food. The same goes for chicken nuggets and even fish fillets. Even the tasty fries are often made with old, unchanged grease and the salads are assembled with any remaining stale lettuce or rotten tomatoes. Worst of all, before McDonald's released the new bacon cheeseburger, bacon was only made in the morning. This meant if a customer ordered a burger with bacon at 11 PM, the same bacon from 9 AM was used to produce his or her order.

Maybe you continue to believe McDonald's provides sufficient services. Perhaps the unjust hours of labor or unstable working conditions do not concern you. Possibly you are still pleased with their methods of cooking, but if you are like me, you will concur that changes need to be made or things will remain just a huge "McMess."