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McDonald's vs. Oxford English Dictionary

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Inky_Wretch, Mar 21, 2007.

  1. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    Proposed thread title:

    Live from McDonistan, it's Saturday night! Or, RickStain's on the grill!

    (This is in no way meant to compare working at McDonald's with fighting a war. Just trying to be funny.)
     
  2. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    But, will RickStain finish on the grill?

    If so, we'll probably be looking at a 5 year old Burger King thread tomorrow....
     
  3. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    There's no BK in my town :( The one thing I hate about it.
     
  4. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Why is there a RickStain on my quarter pounder?
     
  5. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    We call that a McRick
     
  6. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    I think this is Rick's answer to Boots' Next Door Neighbour Thread.
     
  7. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    Can I get a McSplooge with my McGangbang?
     
  8. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    Why do you think they call it "special sauce'"?
     
  9. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    Okay, showed up at 6. They didn't have a uniform ready for me yet. Got a quick tour, then down to the break room for about two hours of computer training programs. Enemy of the State was on the TV, which is a really crappy movie so it wasn't hard to concentrate. I felt bad for the people who came down on their breaks and had to listen to the repetitive training video. Prep, cook, pull, hold, clean. Prep, cook, pull, hold, clean.

    One guy tried to tell me how hard it is to work there. "They expect hard work, but they don't appreciate it." I tried not to sound too amused.

    Then it was time to go learn the grill. My trainer was a guy who everyone called Irish for some reason. I think his nametag said Kevin. I'm guessing early 20s? He's the kind of guy these places depend on. In theory, everyone should be equally competent, but in practice you need one guy who can do 15 things at once to make a fast-food kitchen work. The other two workers in the kitchen were teenage girls, a skinny redhead who flirted pretty incessantly with Irish and a girl named Mary or Maria who was a dead ringer for the dark-haired girl from the Breakfast Club.

    I worked the fryers for awhile, cooking Chicken McNuggets and Fish Filets and such. I baked some apple pies. I took some shots at the grill itself. It's a little smaller than the ones I worked with at Hardee's back in the day. Going to start wearing long-sleeved t-shirts underneath the uniform to keep from getting burns. Everything is very idiot-proof. You don't even set the timer for the meat on the grill. You just pull down the hood and it pops up automatically when the meat is done. The patties are a little flimsy when cooked, so it's tricky to pull them without breaking them.

    Like most places, the shiny kitchen and careful instructions of the training video look like a whole different world from the greasy equipment and shortcuts everyone takes. It was pretty dirty back there, but not in an unhealthy way. They were definitely pretty good about enforcing hand-washing and glove-wearing rules, and they did throw away any product that was past its official holding time, which a lot of places are lax about. The oil in the fryers obviously hadn't been changed all day, if not longer, but that's a taste issue, not a health issue.

    I finished my shift on "bun station." When an order popped up on the screen, it was my job to get a bun out of the tray, put it through the bun toaster, and set it out open in the appropriate box or on the appropriate wax paper for another person to put the sandwich together. It gets pretty fast-paced when people start ordering 10 McDoubles at a time, but it was not complicated in any way.

    At 10 p.m., I was shown how to clock out and went home. I put my clothes in a plastic bag before I put them in the laundry to try to contain the grease smell. I didn't get a break because it was a four-hour shift, but on Sunday I'm working 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., so I'll get to avail myself of their generous meal policy: 3 items from the dollar menu free, one must be a sandwich. I really don't want to eat that crud.

    After one day, I'm about $32 richer after taxes. I did the math, and if I work 12 hours a week there, in addition to my newspaper job, I'm grossing at a $30k/year pace for the first time in my life.
     
  10. Trey Beamon

    Trey Beamon Active Member

    Rick's post has me entertaining the possibility of working part-time at McDonald's because:

    1.) I did it for four years in high school/college and didn't mind it one bit.
    2.) The work was easy (although I didn't enjoy washing trays or reorganizing the freezer)
    3.) I was quicker than BYPinito on the mustard and ketchup guns.
    4.) For the amount of brainpower required, the pay really didn't suck.
    5.) I don't do much before my newspaper shift anyway.

    Then again, just thinking about the grease smell -- good idea regarding the plastic bag; I never bothered to do that -- is making me have second thoughts.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Couldn't you make more money delivering pizza or something?
     
  12. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Rick,

    Your post was a good read. I can tell you a good writer (not that my opinion matters). I bet you could make more money freelancing on the side, or doing anything with your writing skills. But, if you like your current side gig, more power to you.

    P.S. Please continue to update us. I like reading shit like this. I'm really interested in knowing the easiest way to scoring free food and if Irish lays the pipe with the skinny girl.
     
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