The McDonald’s corporation is a big bully. The fact that McDonald’s will stop at nothing to make money at the expense of innocent teenagers, immigrants, the elderly and the handicapped sickens me. The abuse that the McDonald’s employees are forced to endure is outrageous and there is little to nothing that they can do about it, they are trapped.
Eric Schlosser writes, “The fast food industry seeks out part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have been the perfect candidates for these jobs, not only because they are less expensive to hire than adults, but also because their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control” (“Behind the Counter.” Fast Food Nation, p68). I believe that this quote relates to my point, because Schlosser clearly indicates the cruel bad intentions that McDonald’s has when hiring a new employee; utilizing the lack of knowledge and experience of a teenager for their monetary twisted benefit. I believe that Schlosser is using a very appropriate language to express his point, As a matter of fact, he actually quite calm. I can imagine a different person angered and agitated when discussing this idea, letting their emotions take over. But why not feel this way? I mean it’s a very sensitive topic. We are talking about the abuse of workers’ rights, more specifically teenagers’ rights.
When it comes to this topic I feel like the perfect candidate to discuss it. Being a former McDonald’s employee really gives me an insight look into the abuse that must be tolerated. I worked in a McDonald’s for 6 months; which was 6 months of a chaotic environment, low pay, very rude customers and managers that didn’t care if I had homework or school the next day. My lunch break was very short, if remember correctly it was 35 minutes. Not enough time to get any school work done and much less to catch my breath from the fast pace work. I shortly realized that I was working for a company that cared nothing about me or my co-workers. I think that the relation of my experience to my point is self explanatory; at the end what really matters is realizing the abuse workers have been enduring under the tyranny of capitalistic companies such as McDonald’s and hopefully eventually bring well deserved justice.
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I agree with your saying, I myself went through this experience
ReplyDeleteDamn man, tell us how you really feel... no, just kidding, I can tell you feel very passionately about this topic. I only wish we had you in our group on Thursday. It came down to just us and the other group, but we lost because they had Ryan who had a retail story and Carolina who had worked at McDonlads and told us personal experiences of uncaring management. We really could have used you because we had no real personal fast food employment experience and it seems the time you spent behind the counter would have definetely won us the extra points.
ReplyDeleteI also think its ccol that in my blog I compare the fast food companies to slave owners and you compare them to tyrants. I guess we both have similiar views on the way they treat the workers huh?
@ claude - don't be mad because you lost - just kidding.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely...the way you (carlos) and claude make the comparisons of fast food owners to bullies and slave drivers, respectively, is pretty much on target.
The thing that bothers me the most is that a lot of the managers who enforce those cold and uncaring rules used to be part-time employees themselves and, therefore, have to know what it's like, right?