Why do people think working fast food is easy?

[kingjoshi]

I've got years of experience working in the industry. Most of the people I've worked with needed lots of training just to be mediocre. And many friends I've had in college and graduate school wouldn't be able to cut it at all. Finding good workers was difficult. Where do these false perceptions come from?

 

[Padma]

"It must be easy. After all, only teenagers and old retired people actually do it."

 

[Fifty]

It's not perceived as easy, it's perceived as menial and degrading.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I've got years of experience working in the industry. Most of the people I've worked with needed lots of training just to be mediocre. And many friends I've had in college and graduate school wouldn't be able to cut it at all. Finding good workers was difficult. Where do these false perceptions come from?

From the fact few fast food chain workers reach to the lofty heights of mediocrisy.

 

[Mathilda]

Pay is too low for anyone capable of choosing something else to opt for it -> fast food has to employ people who can't get other work -> hiring anyone they can get must mean the job's really easy.

Serving other people who don't have any repect for you for crappy wage is far from easy IMO.

 

[El_Machinae]

I do know that a teenager with a couple years at a McJob on his resume has a good chance with me. Because it means that he's willing to work for money. I've got money for those willing to work, easily. Whether or not he's suitable for the position is a different matter, but the McJob is always a plus.

 

[CartesianFart]

I've seen people with down-syndrome working in Mcdonald.Trust me,it have to be easy.

 

[JerichoHill]

Its menial labor that almost anyone can be trained to do. Easy, maybe or maybe not. Easy to learn? Yes.

 

[kingjoshi]

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

 

[Urederra]

Tedious is how I would describe it.

And is not easy to get over the tedious(ness?)

 

[The Last Conformist]

No, but I've got poor service from fast food personnel many a time.

I have been involved in some large-scale cooking and kitchen work, however, which I suppose can't be completely different.

 

[Fifty]

kingjoshi there is NOTHING hard about fastfood. I've worked in the food service industry for 2yrs, and been around it my entire life (my dad owns a foodservice rep firm). I realize the difficulty of keeping a highly structured and rule-bound environment alongside the hectic pace (especially since you guys have a turn time of about a minute). However, I still don't think it qualifies as "hard" anymore than any other menial unskilled labor job is. I've been in scenarios where 200+ people need to be hand-served at once, and served QUALITY food. This is far more hectic than even the fastest fast-food moments, and although I wouldn't call it easy by any means, I also would hardly call it HARD in comparison to other labor-type jobs (hanging drywall for instance).

Training employees is only hard because, well, your employees aren't exactly the most enthusiastic, well trained, and experienced bunch on earth. However, large chains are so incredibly rule-bound that it makes the job of the trainer relatively easy. Corporate will nearly always have extremely planned out procedures with regard to training new employees. You don't even have to think! After that it's just a matter of getting some efficiency, which is just a learned process and not something that can be "trained" in a day.

 

[Godwynn]

Fast Food sucks seriously. It is hard work when there are only two people making the food on a busy Friday night. People get the misconception that it is easy since teenagers do it, it is not easy, it is unskilled labour, which is why teenagers are the main workforce of it.

I quit after 1 month. Now I got a much better job in a grocery store stocking milk and cheese .

 

[JerichoHill]

KingJoshi,

I have worked as Crew Chief at McDonald's when I was 16-18 years old.

The people that they hired for cashier/cleaning, and my grill crew were freaking idiots, but they could be trained...and they mostly wouldn't burn themselves.

 

[kingjoshi]

@fifty, I never said it was hard or harder then whatever other jobs. But people have the impression that it's easy and anyone can do it.

I knew people who could code in their sleep and not have the ability to take orders properly. Taking orders on a drive through and multitasking (getting food, running register, handing out food at the drive through, etc) is not some most people can do.

Yeah, anyone can hit the register and hand out food. But quality of service, speed, friendliness, etc is not the same. I mean, anyone can hit keys on a piano, doodle on paper or whatever, but people don't say art and music is easy.

 

[nonconformist]

My experience is that the people who work there aren't the best educated people in the world.

And noone's linked to this yet?

 

[kingjoshi]

I don't know if people are aware of this, but the world is full of idiots.

College is no exception. I've had classes with idiots that could be trained to take tests. Their only 'smart' quality is in figuring out which professors are easy and learning how to cheat the system.

An easy job is working at the library. Everyone that's been in college knows that. Or all those people that can 'work' and come on forums.

 

[tombeef]

having worked at McDonalds for 8 months now, I would say it isn't exactly challenging, but it can get somewhat hectic at times, and there are a lot of, well, not so bright customers, like the ones who pronounce "bagel" "bag-ol" or who order there food, then realize they forgot their wallet, or, who order at the first window, then go to the second one and try to order some more (and then there' is that lady who wanted a raw chicken sandwich). Granted, sometimes the customers are right to complain when our service sucks, and most of the customers are good people.

Hard, not really. But it still is work, and its hot back there.

 

[Sidhe]

I've got years of experience working in the industry. Most of the people I've worked with needed lots of training just to be mediocre. And many friends I've had in college and graduate school wouldn't be able to cut it at all. Finding good workers was difficult. Where do these false perceptions come from?

You pay peanuts you get monkeys, trite but true.

And there's nothing easy about doing a job that has little regard, pays little and is therefore degrading.

I've done my share of menial jobs, people will work hard given incentive. Me I work hard anyway, I found being lazy got me nowhere fast and no end of grief. Do the job go home and gain comfort from the fact you are contributing to someones day and your own.

 

[kingjoshi]

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?