Hi My names Julie and I'm an ex McEmployee. I did 8 years hard time there. Somedays were bad. Somedays were downright terrible. And yet I loved McJob. I graduated high school in 2005, my city is small and two of the major manufacturs we had previously had just moved to other states. Jobs were scarce. Jobs with benifits were all but nonexistant. In highschool I had an afterschool job at McDonalds, and when I was ready to go find a better job I quickly learned I was lucky to even have a job at all. So I stayed. This was a great decision. I was quickly promoted after graduating high school. I started college in the fall and continued working at my McJob as an hourly manager. By the time I was 19 I had a 401k set up, better health insurance than my mom whom makes over $100k a year, and I was making more money than my dad who'd had the same job for 30 years. I had awesome employees! Old ladies that only worked a few hours a day for something to do(one lady was 94 years old and one of the only females to serve in WWII. Her stories were amazing!) I met tons of high school and college students whom have moved on to impressive careers these days. I loved working with them, and I'm so proud of what they have become. Over the years I watched them grow up, get "real jobs", get married and start famlies. I met parents whom would take an extra job to save up and take their kids to Disney World. I met engineers whom had lost their jobs in the recession and were doing anything they could to survive. I got to know so many people in the communites of stores I was sent to. McDonalds was my first network. And I'm happy to say it was a great learning opportunity about life in general. McDonalds is also a fantastic company! I've an associates in business, they sent me to school for. On top of that, they paid for my degree in Hospitality Management & Culinary Arts. I won a National award through them and they sent me to Vegas to celebrate! The people I met through McDonalds came to my wedding, threw my baby shower, and are some of my best friends to this day. Fight for $15? I think that's bs. Anybody working at a fast food restruant has tons of opportunity for advancement in their restruants or not. They hand you to tools, the attitude, and the network to succeed even in a crappy economy. It's up to you to use what they've given you. Get a "real job"? Sorry to tell you but fast food can be, and is a career path for many many people. These are huge coorporations with huge opportunites for advancement. And I've never had such good benifits as I did back in my McDays. Sterotypes are just that..Sterotypes not facts The fact is, I loved my McJob and I even have the T-shirt that says it. They shaped me into the adult I've become today. I'd go back in a heartbeat but I fear I've grown lazy working for myself the past few years. What's the point of this thread? To stop some hate and enlighten you on some facts. Fast food is a huge industry, it's doing nothing but growing, and you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year there. Next time you make a joke about flipping burger remember...your ignorance is showing
I've worked for a large supermarket chain for what will be 23yrs come November. Nothing to brag about working retail. People gotta eat. Also has some of the best benefits of any competition.
There's no shame in any kind of work. People who make fun of it, probably got everything on a plate in life and didn't have a real job.