Why do people think working fast food is easy?

[Sidhe]

That's certainly true just because anyone can do a job it doesn't mean anyone can do it well. My jobs fairly menial, more semi-skilled(takes a moth or two to learn but a year to really get to grips with) But I do it very well because I use the sense god gave me to preempt situations and to smooth the work for myself and others.

Joshi your a working class hero

 

[Lambert Simnel]

So what's the point of the thread, kingjoshi ? Any time anyone comes up with a view suggesting that working in a fast food place is easy, or at least not tricky to learn, or not as challenging as other work, or whatever, you just try to shoot them down.

I guess you did say in the original post "Where do these false perceptions come from?" - clearly, you're not prepared to entertain alternative views, you just want people to know that their views are wrong.

(For what it's worth, I think Fifty and JerichoHill nailed it - but as I disagree with your basic premise, I doubt if you'd be interested in my opinion.)

 

[Abaddon]

Because you have to be an egit not to have found a better job?

 

[Irish Caesar]

Because it doesn't require any college (or high school) education?

 

[superisis]

working in the fast food industry is much easier than working in the restaurant industry. And that is easier than working as a bar tender. I must admit however, that my arguments are based solely on personal logic and experience.

 

[tombeef]

Because it doesn't require any college (or high school) education?

I would say it requires being able to communicate more then actual education. I'm just a junior in high school, so I don't have my diploma. After my senior year when I move out, I probably will never work at a McDonalds again, it's just too low of pay.

 

[Sidhe]

Because you have to be an egit not to have found a better job?

I have a friend who has Ph.D who works as a litter picker, less respect than garbage men. I myself work in a menial job, despite being wasted there, **** happens.

Not every bright spark is caught by the net or remains in it. Einstein was a patent clerk, a semi skilled worker of the times(as in you had to be at least literate) And he came up with the most revolutionary physics of the 20th century. You are not your job, you are the job idiots force you to do by default of being too stupid to recognise talent, Einstein a case in point.

It's fairly simple, you recognise talent only by bits of paper and not by actual talent, by numbers by the route of rule, that is of course meaningless. Still you have to play the game even though morons run it. Beureuacrats is there anything more worthless on planet Earth?

If everyone's talent was recognised then Buereaucrats in their thousands would lose their jobs. Clever people have jobs that ignore bureaucratic morons. You don't have to be smart to go into management, it helps but being an anal fool with no regard for reality is also a factor, the best managers know this is triteness should be avoided, but don't pass their skills on when they get into upper management, after all, if you give all the secrets away your job is in jeopardy. I like to call it the morons ladder. Selfish and self defeating

Gotta love information retrieval and information dispersal, if you get too efficient your job is jeopardised so your create more of that magic that gets you further, or as we like to call it Beureaucracy, the self sustaining BS.

Only of course in companies that are heading for oblivion. And most usual do.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Easy to do. Maybe. Easy to do well? Not at all.

As a high schooler I worked 6 months at a BK, the most competent workers were another high school honors student, and me. To go through the motions was easy. To really nail it - remember that those customers are deaf, figure out that that guy is trying to stiff us, get all the orders out ASAP - was quite tricky, and hard work.

And this guy (N.B. this is from The Onion, so it is not real) proves that there is no real correlation between skill at the job and real skill. I would have been glad to have another coworker as competent as him.

 

[Leonel]

The day I think working fast food is easy is the day I work at a call center and actually do an excellent job while maitaining my sanity. i.e. NEVER.

 

[Abaddon]

Sidhe- i would rather litter pick than fast-food! But it is worrying your friend has got himself into such a situation.

Being in a hot,greasy,busy and cramped spot all day aint my idea of fun.. atleast litter picking your outdoors, and the pay usually isnt too bad (fast-food usually minimum wage)

 

[Sidhe]

His anxiety lead him there, he was fearful of travel and could not board a train( serious phobia) considering he wouldn't drive either with his fears. Basically anxiety brought him to the bliss of no responsibility. Now he's applied to become a student nurse. Another friend of mine who was a maths lecturer, went slighlty mad and was kicked out, some people have problems that are inherent with intelligence. The point is talent is rarely encouraged, it encourages jealousy and pressure for the sake of demeaning those better able than yourself. Alot of people experience it and it's sadly petty and leads to ruin. But most people can't abide feeling small, and those who get to a place where they are big are often forced to feel small, by small minded people. It happens, basically there are a million and one casualties of human nature, it's so very sad.

Luckily there are some people who ignore the morons.

Anyway I see it often and it sickens me, that people don't encourage talent but fear it and chastise it. In all echolons of society from wrapping burgers to creating modern science by your genius, your boss recognises you could do a better job than you, they try to keep you down, instead of encouraging you. Your friends worry that you might out perform them, so they chastise your success. You are bad at most things but so good at another that the person who knows you best who is also good at it can't get over the fact that he is being outclassed, so he mocks you about all the bad stuff. pointless people with no real merit, but they are the majority, after all that's why they are called average, fortunately the average isn't the average in most cases, just the pointless.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

Or all those people that can 'work' and come on forums.

So say for example a fireman that is between calls and comes on the forum to post somehow isn't 'working'? Not all jobs require your full-time attention.

How easy or hard a job is often has little to do with the rate of pay. The question is how easily can you be replaced? With fast food the answer is obvious.

 

[Drewcifer]

My "glorious" culinary career began with two months at Pizza Hut washing dishes and making pizzas. At times when it was busy you had to move fast, and washing dishes for 8 hours can give you horrible dish pan hands, but I wouldn't say it was hard - just unpleasant and boring. Working a 12 burner saute station in a busy fine dinning restaurant for a chef who is a borderline sociopath and trying to get on the food network is hard.

 

[Abaddon]

Your friends worry that you might out perform them, so they chastise your success.

Wow, your friends SUCK! I would expect my friends to support me!

 

[luiz]

I mean no insult to anyone who works at a fast food, but that job does not strike me as particularly hard. Maybe it is not "as easy as it seems", but it sure isn't rocket science either.

 

[CamBot]

I mean no insult to anyone who works at a fast food, but that job does not strike me as particularly hard. Maybe it is not "as easy as it seems", but it sure isn't rocket science either.

I worked closing shift at Wendy's my last year of college, and it was hell, though I made good friends during the time.

Our shifts typically started at 2:30 in the afternoon and ended at close- "close" meaning that you didn't get out until everything was stripped down and clean after business hours. If you were busy during the shift, there would days we wouldn't get out until 2 or 3 in the morning, exhaused and reeking of grease, food, and cleaning solutions.

That and we were robbed twice at gunpoint after the store close. So, no its not easy at all.

 

[skadistic]

While not a complex job after having done it for 2 years in my past I can tell you it isn't easy. Not only do you have to cook food but stock shelves, clean everythig many times a day, make sure there is enough food ready to suit the time of day and day of the week, unload trucks( my torn up back reminds me daily how heavy a big box of beef patties is), you also have to know how the machines work so if they go bad you can quickly fix them and you have to deal with the heat and moody customers along with the dead end jobbers called managers. And you do all this getting paid diddly squat.

Why do people think working fast food is easy? Because they have never done it.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Anyone can follow a recipe, that doesn't mean cooking is easy.

The 'excellence' in the job is going beyond what's expected. I mean, knowing how to handle customers. Knowing where they're looking at the menu, at each other, looking for help, wanting you to remain quiet, knowing when to intercede with a joke, etc.

It's knowing how to help new customers (not a real problem at McDonalds per se, but at the Chinese restuarant was different), recognize and converse with regulars, handling rude customers. It's memorizing the prices, knowing how to save them money and still maintain a good profit for you company.

Sure, anyone can just do what they're asked and the technical skills are nothing. But the same is true for many professions even. Finding people that understand the depth of the job, understand the effort and practice it takes and doing it?

I neither get nor expect good service from places like McD.

Honestly, if I came across a fast food employee with the sort of expertise you're hinting at, I'd think him or her a ****ing idiot for not putting his/her talents to work at a "real" restaurant.

 

[punkbass2000]

Has anyone worked or trained people to work in fast food?

I have. I was the only trainer at the last place I worked.

 

[kingjoshi]

So what's the point of the thread, kingjoshi ? Any time anyone comes up with a view suggesting that working in a fast food place is easy, or at least not tricky to learn, or not as challenging as other work, or whatever, you just try to shoot them down.

I guess you did say in the original post "Where do these false perceptions come from?" - clearly, you're not prepared to entertain alternative views, you just want people to know that their views are wrong.

(For what it's worth, I think Fifty and JerichoHill nailed it - but as I disagree with your basic premise, I doubt if you'd be interested in my opinion.)

I'm sorry. It's a bad habit of mine, to be adversarial. I meant no offense.