www.fusecon.com

[dmw]

From: Dave/Kristin Hall
Posted-Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 13:39:56 -0700 (PDT)

When in high school, I worked under the Golden Arches. Now, almost 15 years later, I still avoid McDonald's. Why? Well...

- One particularly slow night, a couple of co-workers were throwing around a plastic space shuttle from a happy meal in the spirit of "Fly, be free!" On one throw, the shuttle landed in the deep fat frier used for the french fries. It quickly sank. To retreve the shuttle would mean that no fries could be served for a few hours as the grease would have to be drained. Fortunately (for us), no managers were immediately present and the individual who threw the shuttle also happened to be the guy who was normally scheduled to clean the friers every week. In summary, that hunk of molten plastic sat in the frier until the end of the week; at which time it was removed and discretely disposed of. What sort of chemicals might have been disolved into the hot grease? I have no idea...nor do I want to know.

- The worst part of working at McDonald's is the lunch time rush. During this time, speed is everything. Each crew member is part of a well oiled machine that includes all crew memebers. In other words, if one person screws up something, it slows everyone down. And if everyone slows from the pace for any reason, management comes down hard. Thus, there is extreme pressure and incentive to "cover" any mistakes. The most common cover was simple: If a (typically) hamberger patty were to be dropped on the floor, the "dropper" would *quickly* bend down to pick it up. A co-worker would then yell, "Woah, good catch!" The reason was simple: People object to being served food that has been dropped, but not to being served food that was "almost dropped." As far as anyone standing out front (read: customers, managers) could tell, the employee had dropped a patty, but caught it before it hit the ground. Thus, it was still "OK". And so, no food was wasted (also something management came down hard about), the pace was maintained, and nobody was the wiser.

- Child labor laws were routinely ignored. Specifically, when cleaning up every night, anyone under the age of 18 (the majority of the employees) were required to clock out; regardless of the fact that there was still an hour or so of work to do. While this tidbit isn't "unhealthy", it might be interesting just the same.

I later worked at a Burger King...Never served anything there that I wouldn't be willing to eat myself (neglecting the fact that I don't like catsup/mustard/mayo).

[dmw]

Reply 1: Posted on 7 February 1999 - Matt Conrad (mconrad@indiana.edu)

>One particularly slow night, a couple of >co-workers were throwing around
>a plastic space shuttle from a happy meal in the >spirit of "Fly, be free!"
>On one throw, the shuttle landed in the deep fat >frier used for the french
>fries. It quickly sank.

When I was in high school and working part-time at Wendy's, one of our managers amused himself by melting a Kids' Meal toy in the fryer. He placed in the metal basket that holds the items being cooked, so he was at least able to remove it when he was finished.

Reply 2: Posted on 25 June 1999 - Anonymous

Heard of a "Grid Special"? When a particularly nasty customer would visit our Wendy's, we would marinate a patty on the floor drain "grid"-both sides, then fry it up and serve it. UmMmmmm Gooooood!

We had a manager once that, when a lady ordered a hamburger "rare", he threw some raw meat on the grill, flipped it over real quick, then served it immediately-through the drive-through window. She came back through a few minutes later. Over the speaker, "I wanted it rare, not RAW!" Everyone in the restaurant could hear. It was the funniest thing I ever saw there.

You know where the chili meat comes from? Well, never mind. I wouldn't want to ruin your appetite.

Reply 3: Posted on 6 August 2001 - bertha paprika

Once I ate at a McDonald's and asked for a grilled chicken, plain! what I got was a raw grilled chicken with bun . the worst part was that I didnt realize it was raw until I took about three bites! I will never eat there again!

[Zeus]

bertha, you said

"Once I ate at a McDonald's and asked for a grilled chicken, plain! what I got was a raw grilled chicken with bun . the worst part was that I didnt realize it was raw until I took about three bites! I will never eat there again!"

Got news for you, not even possible, I worked at Mcdonald's for almost 3 years and the grilled chicken comes in a box precooked and frozen.

Hmm so you like to lie, oh wait your user name is bertha, and that brings to mind the a song a really old song,... Bertha, bertha... one of the butt sisters... so are you one of the butt sisters?