Hey OzBargain, just wanting to settle a question I had. How many of you clean up after yourself when eating at McDonald's or another fast food restaurant. I had this discussion with a friend who believed that while it is technically the job of the staff to keep the restaurant clean, as a customer it is important to be respectful and clean up your own mess. What do you think?
Do You Clean up after Yourself at McDonald's (or Other Fast Food Restaurants)?
Poll Options
- 1230Yes, I'm not a grub
- 26Sometimes, but only if convenient (bins/paper towels nearby)
- 35No, it's the employees' job
Comments
… Sophie Monk …
You seem to be confusing a Bogan with a poor person.
Exactly. Plenty of rich tradies are bogans.
@Munki: No, I previously chose my descriptive words "well to do" and "presentable", meaning affluent and caring of they are viewed in society,
As to specifically imply I am aware of cashed up bogans and that was not who I was describing.
Sorry, not completely directed at you Munki.
The poll is completely opposite to any maccas I have ever seen myself. Severe case of denial on Ozbargain, unless Ozbargain is not an accurate cross section of society, hence me being wrong.
Maybe you should check OzBogan.
made me LOL
I put my rubbish in the bin
It's good - shows me that OzBargain has a higher level of people than the average slob.
Could mean denial. I'm sure we can do a poll with the same result - except the question can be - Do you have a spending problem. Everyone will be saying, 'oh not me definitely no'
Shouldn’t bussing tables be a job, what is Maccas going to do if we all start leaving our shit behind, close down all their Australian restaurants because they can’t afford to pay a teenager $15 to check the cameras and clear the empty tables every now and then.
Because Ozbargainers never lie?
It can be confirmation bias. Ie 100 ppl eat at a table throughout day. 5 leave a mess.
The poll is flawed. People who clean up after themselves are more likely to respond to the poll.
Always clean up. It actually annoys me if the people I'm with don't take their trays / rubbish to the bin and I end up doing it for them.
I was brought up to be respectful of others and to clean up after myself.
Question is, who dines in? I run and eat, not eat and run.
If it's a food court scenario, always clean up. Like most people, my pet hate is sitting down where someone has left their mess. I don't put their rubbish in the bin, but I'll neatly stack it to to the edge of the table.
Yeah. I think dine in is more of a family meet up or quick lunch with a group of friends or work mates. I picture a food court scenario more when reading this question
I hate more when people throw rubbish on the ground next to a rubbish bin because it's easier to just extend the arm out the window.
Yes it is you. The self untitled twat that drives a shit bomb car with loud music that no one else appreciates.
as a customer it is important to be respectful and clean up your own mess
Its not because you're a 'customer', you do it because you're respectful of yourself and others. Don't be a pig.
But I'm guessing you're in the pig camp?
Yeah, I'm suspecting this too. There really shouldn't be a discussion to be had. You clean up after yourself - what's there to discuss?
I mean the fact that they give you food on trays, have bins around the store, have slots for the tray once empty. Really should be a pretty clear sign they want you to 'clean up' after yourself.
I was once in Asia, at a food court and we finished, then freaked out as there were no bins/tray slots around. Its like, YIKES what do we do now!?
So we sat for a moment and watched the 'locals' get up and leave the tray. So we did the same, still felt bad for doing it, but when in Rome!
In Asia, they normally have a dedicated staff whose job is to clean up the trays after you.
I tried cleaning after myself at one outlet. I was told by the staff to leave them on the table and she'll take care of it.
@fyeahm: Yup. Asia is different. Not only is labour much cheaper, but the cost/service range is also different.
Here, Maccas and food courts are basically at the lower/lowest end of cost/service. In Asia, that's taken up by street vendors, and fast food outlets and food courts are effectively middle class (almost a luxury for most people even), and so come with a higher level of service too.
See, here is the problem. You're labelling this as a concrete responsibility of the customer when it really is a grey area. As far as I know, there is no official McDonald's policy on customers cleaning up after themselves and the fact that every Maccas I have entered has been littered with rubbish seems to contradict OzBargain's claim that the vast majority of us clean up after ourselves.
Is it possible for them to have a policy on what CUSTOMERS should do?
Maccas won’t ban him because it’s still profiible to sell to him and pay someone to clear his table. In the grand scheme of things the McTeenager Workers get paid the same whether they are making burgers or clearing tables. In fact they get paid more because they need to stay a bit longer now to bus the tables under OPs new world order.
I believe in the respect of others and myself by cleaning up. Because I'm an adult with a brain that understands it's the correct thing to do.
I’m pretty sure McDonald’s invented the concept, its genius really, get rid of the crockery and cutlery, wrap everything in plastic and paper, than make it socially unexceptable not to do the work previously done by a waiter. This has been replicated the world over. As for the trolleys I can remember long ago in the supermarket there was a staff member who packed your groceries and carried them to your car in paper bags. The checkout staff jobs won’t be around much longer either, they must save a packet in wages with those selfserve checkouts.
I'm still bitching because I now have to fill up my own car with petrol.
It's called fast food. It's also super cheap. You want to pay prices that include waiter service… well don't go to Maccas.
It's called fast food. It's also super cheap. You want to pay prices that include waiter service… well don't go to Maccas.
A large meal at Maccas can cost up to $15.
You can get pho and a sit down meal at places for less.
As for the trolleys I can remember long ago in the supermarket there was a staff member who packed your groceries and carried them to your car in paper bags.
Glad this no longer exist, with all the crazies, I wouldn't want anyones child getting abducted and molested.
huh?
Yes, can I help you?
It actually use to be styrofoam for the burgers. But I'm guessing you have to be over 35 to remember that.
I lost it today some young well dressed couple with a toddler walked out dropping a tissue on the ground. I really showed that 2 year old who was boss and the door when my site supervisor saw me and gave me "final warning" whatever that means only just started this job a couple hours ago and He's ridding me about everything and he's to stupid to realise the WiFi is crap in the staff toilet.
Frustrating when you are looking for a table to eat, and all the empty ones are covered in rubbish. So yes I always clean up my own mess, why should I expect the next person to use my table to clean up my mess.
I get take away and leave my rubbish on the train.
Do you live on the streets ?
Is a train station considered on the streets?
Based on the vote results, it's clear that OzBargainers don't eat in fast food restaurants, because everyone leaves their rubbish on the tables.
OzBargainers eat the paper products too.
Sure do, wasn't dragged up - I was taught manners.
It used to be that Maccas staff were supposed to check the restaurant and clean and wipe tables every 20 minutes plus sweep floors etc.
If my table is dirty or has rubbish on it when I arrive and isn't cleaned I leave my mess there when I leave. If Management doesn't care why should I?
If the table is clean when I arrive I bin my mess as I leave - if their bins aren't overflowing.
Why should you care?
Because the standards you hold yourself to shouldn't be dictated by others - and shouldn't be basically "As low as anyone else goes."
Hithere's attitude seems to be, If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
That's a fair attitude in some cases but not this one. You aren't in competition with other diners.
Instead my opinion is, If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Yes, I am a humble person.
Also when walking my dog in my local park, I hate doing it, but if there is someone elses rubbish or even their dog poo I pick it up. Otherwise I have to walk past it all of the time. Also I don't want dog walkers getting a bad reputation. Walk past one, or not pick up your own dog's poo, and karma (poo on shoe) will get you!
A small amount of effort for nice surroundings.God will repay you if not here, in the afterlife.
Dunno about god. But if aliens came to earth, and saw large bipedal animals following around small four-legged ones, and then picking up their excrement, they would wonder who the true rulers of the planet were.
as a customer it is important to be respectful and clean up your own mess.
I'd take it one step further - as a decent and responsible person, it's important to clean up after yourself. I mean, I don't get out a cloth to wipe down the table, but I wipe obvious stains with the paper napkins I get, chuck everything onto the tray or paper bag, and go chuck that in the bin. Who doesn't do this?
In Australia growing up, I've always noticed people generally clean up after themselves at Maccas. Not sure about it now. In Hong Kong when I was there one I know they never clean up after themselves. Culture I guess…
In Hong Kong, it's probably a combination of culture, people being super busy, and legitimately so that the cleaners will still have a job. They don't have a "check restaurant every 20 mins" level of staffing, they have a "2+ dedicated cleaners" kind of staffing from what I noticed.
Also - labour is cheap (much much cheaper) in Hong Kong, and Maccas is seen as a slightly higher level of food (and priced accordingly), so the extra service is also both expected and warranted.
I was shocked by the state of konbini's in HK. And yes they need dedicated staff to keep the place clean.
Yup I notice this as well, food courts especially. This was we learn to eat without making a big mess. Australians are courteous bunch, not in many other countries I visited. Its a great land to live.
Australians are courteous bunch
Not really.
its due to a servant Asian culture mindset- I know.
anyone that does not clean up after themselves in general, should hang their head in shame. Why expect another being to clean your mess.
When i see people leaving a mess even in maccas it sickens me. I have to say though Australia is MUCH cleaner than the UK.
Because if we don't, that "other being" is out of a job.
Ask Coles/Woolies how many cashiers they have let go since self checkouts were introduced.
Ask petrol stations how many attendants they used to have before you had to fill your car up yourself.If you don't agree, why not start cleaning after yourself after going to any restaurant? Offer to do the dishes too while you're at it. It really is no different.
I've worked in fast food. Don't put your rubbish in the bin or you are literally taking some kids job away. We have more unemployed than jobs available.
I'll chuck it in the bin if most tables are taken or still messy though to give someone a place to sit.
Just don't drop messy food on the table or floor i.e. keep gravy or mayo spills on the food tray and they'll be happy with you. If you spill a drink or something go let them know or ask for serviettes.
If you're someone that says "oh but I'm polite and do socially acceptable/PC thing" good on you but I'd rather support the workers, even if people look at me like a lazy bum.
PS, poll is totally worded to seek a response.
Well said.
When I worked fast food I actually enjoyed the distraction. Walk around, grab a tray, wack it in a bin and put it on top. Easy and satisfying.
The pain in the bum was when people spilt something or made a mess. Then I'd have to drag out the mop or get down low with a sponge.. not so fun.
It's very interesting how you've rationalised this in your head. It's not hard at all to tidy up a table and allow for another customer to sit down without waiting for a fast food employee to "do their job" and clean the table. Why would they leave an area to leave trays on top of the bin if cleaning up would have a negative impact on their employees? It might be part of their job to clean up tables after people like you, but at busy periods the increase in efficiency of having tables staying available and not having to send someone out to clean them every 5 minutes probably goes a lot farther in "supporting the workers" than your efforts in rationalising your laziness.
I'm not lazy, I find it easier to clean the table than to leave my mess there but that isn't the right thing to do in my opinion. It's easy to take the high road and talk down to me but that's just my opinion, even if it's not popular.
Yep, you're the real victim, and people telling you that you're lazy is is them taking the high road. Im lazy as (profanity), but I don't let weird persecution complexes affirm my indifference to being a considerate human.
@CaptainNewspeak: You're telling me I'm lazy but that I'm also not being judged… thinking. Have you considered you're the one with the persecution complex not me?
@voolish: no one is calling you lazy. You've put that on yourself, and that's why you have a persecution complex. Though the act is lazy, it doesn't make you lazy,just inconsiderate.
Also your argument has lost focus and now I'm not interested in this discussion any more. Thanks for helping me understand your point of view though.
I suppose that would be store policy / the managers doing this, not the employees like voolish.
Don't put your rubbish in the bin or you are literally taking some kids job away. We have more unemployed than jobs available.
That's ridiculous. Why don't we also pay people to dig holes and fill them up again too?
I know it's ridiculous but everyone does need a job. Our politicians are basically criminalising the unemployed. BTW they already do this in work for the dole. Once when I was on welfare I had to pick up pebbles (by hand) for two days, not kidding.
Hahaha what? Criminalizing the unemployed? How? Australia has one of the best social welfare systems in the world.
Once when I was on welfare I had to pick up pebbles (by hand) for two days, not kidding.
Right, then I hope you'd agree with me that purely making work for the sake of having work is stupid.
@HighAndDry: it is good and I want to keep it that way. Yes making work for the point of it is dumb unless you compare it to the alternative of nothing.
I'm against useless jobs but we're talking about people who are very willing to pick up rubbish for money not unnecessary middle management or bueurocracy (I've also worked in companies with more managers than employees).
Just because you've never been in a situation where you couldn't find work doesn't mean others haven't (myself included).
If there was universal welfare then I'll clean the whole cafeteria for you, I'll even put your rubbish in the bin personally.
It actually does bother me that I DON'T put my rubbish away.
You are absolutely right that if everyone puts their rubbish away they have no need to hire someone to do it.
That doesn't mean you have to make a huge mess: just leave everything neatly in the tray and so be it.
In the same vein nobody should be using the self checkouts too.
Thanks for the insight. I thought I was being helpful moving my shit after I eat. Didn't know I was taking jobs away from people, I'll leave my things neatly on the tray on the table from now on.
The cleaning kid can still grab the spray and wipes, give the tables a clean, sweep the floor. There's plenty that can be done.
I'm going to stick to cleaning up after myself, and judging those who don't as crappy humans.
I put my rubbish in the bin, clean down the table with a wipe (kids one), clean down the high chair and pack the chair back in place.
I pick up rubbish and recyclables on my way to the shops. No one else is going to keep the walk clean, but im capable of doing it.
i dont eat at fast food restaurants that attract customers that cant look after themselves or their environments.
Ohh I see HJ/McD/KFC trash all over our neighbourhood. Beer bottles too. Some unbroken!
On the rare occasions that i go to McDonalds(usually at night time on weekends) the bins are always full and you cant put anymore in
So I have always neatly packed everything in the bag and leave it, they don't seem to provide trays after 10pm anymore otherwise I would leave it in the tray. They are a big company with lots of staff and always busy no matter what time of the day you go, i don't see why it would be an issue for McDonalds.Other restaurants that serve food in plates with cutlery don't make you clean up after yourself so i'm surprised after so many years this question keeps getting asked over and over and people that don't clean up are considered grubs and made to feel guilty.
Lol no more trays after 10. People in there done up civics doing mad skids caused this lol.
ofcourse, alwasy, respect!
Many years ago I had Mcdonalds with an off-duty Mcdonalds worker.
I was going to throw our rubbish away but he said "leave it here, it's their job to clean it up"I always do, just habit from living in Japan.
Always clean up after myself - same goes for food courts etc.
Nothing worse than trying to find a table at a food court and finding one littered with rubbish.
Even worse is when you can see people getting up and you are waiting for the table and they just get up and walk away leaving their mess right in front of you.Yes, there are cleaners that sort the mess out, but during busy periods the cleaners can't always get there in time before the next person wants/needs the table.
N/A - I don't eat at fast food joints. When I do eat there once every 4 years or so, I do clean up any mess that I create.
Having worked at a McDonald's, I typically found that the people who were the rudest were also often the ones to leave their rubbish behind (no surprise there). The very people who would throw a tantrum because they couldn't get some free extras, or because they didn't get a serving of fries that were bursting at the seams, and wanted you to bend over backwards for them because they're an "important paying customer" would then be the same people leaving an absolute mess; gee, how 'important' were they?
But the truly funniest thing is when people of….'sub-par' intelligence couldn't draw the logical link that was effectively like two dots on a dot-to-dot spaced 2mm apart - complaining about their food taking so long to arrive when there are 1-2 staff forced out into the dining room cleaning up the pigsty left behind by previous customers, and then subsequently contributing to it, themselves. One might suggest that the pigsty was appropriate given their cognitive deficiencies, but I wouldn't want to insult farmyard animals like that. Sure, the manager should be rostering more people on to accommodate for such rushes, but if you think fast food managers care about anything other than the bottom line (often to their detriment, since improving service would improve profit at some point along the cost/profit continuum), then you're dreaming.
It's not hard to put it in the bin, especially when they're at the exits. These aren't restaurants no matter how many times they try to claim the identity for themselves. This is no different than if a restaurant cut all their waitstaff, leaving only a couple bar and kitchen staff to run the place - do you really think you'd get the same level of service from the chefs and bartenders if they had to keep coming out to clean up after you? Of course you wouldn't. You're not paying much for an entire meal (although this is changing as the prices climb - particularly at McDonald's) so spending approximately 5 calories on activating the musculature required to take your rubbish with you on the way out isn't hard when you've just packed down 1000+.
If the restaurant is always dirty with rubbish all over, people will eventually stop going there. Not to mention food hygiene issues means they probably will get fined if they don't clean up enough.
So yes, the manager WILL roster more people. That's how it's been done in the past and that's how it should be.
Either that, or put your support behind Centrelink. Don't ever bitch and moan about how everyone on Centrelink is freeloading, or that too much of your tax money is going there, but you don't believe in generating jobs for people.
There's a difference between productive jobs, and jobs which are basically make-work. Someone freeloading, and someone doing what is unnecessary make-work, are contributing exactly the same to society - F_all.
So tell me, how do you decide if a job is productive or not?
Or if it contributes to society?
Or if a job is "make work"?
Their job is to clean up after you, a service provided to you after you dine at the restaurant. Are you saying all waiters don't contribute to society or their jobs are "make work"? Or maybe you're saying they might as well be freeloading.
Pray tell, what do you do that's so important that you contribute so much to society that you can tell others their job is as good as a freeloader?
@CMH:
if it contributes to society?
Yes, what other criteria would you have? This is the only one that differentiates actual jobs from just walking down the street throwing money at people. You can do that of course (hopefully with notes, not coins), and it'll have the exact same benefit to society as 'make work' jobs.
Waiters perform a service - they take your order and bring you food, in restaurants which charge for that service. If I wanted to pay more for that and better food, I would go to those restaurants. I go to McDonalds for cheap food and minimal service - if they started hiring more people, prices would have to rise, and that would defeat the purpose of it being a "fast food restaurant".
Pray tell, what do you do that's so important that you contribute so much to society that you can tell others their job is as good as a freeloader?
I haven't said anything about the workers themselves. I'm only commenting on your logic of "people should litter so that we have to employ more cleaners". We will always (until robots become advanced enough) need cleaners, etc. But that's because there will be people who are slobs, not to mention unavoidable accidents, spills, and general cleanliness.
Your logic would be akin to telling people to commit crimes so that police won't lose their jobs. We need police because there are bad people. We should not encourage people to be bad people just so that police can have jobs.
what's more concerning to me is when i finish a meal there (probably 5-6 times a year) the recycle bin only accepts the drink cups, seems to me just about all of it could be recycled
Make Australia great again, leave the trash at the tables. You create more jobs!
By the same logic you should litter on the streets, piss all over public bathrooms, crash into as many utility poles and traffic signs as possible, etc - just to create extra work.
Who eats MacDonald's?
Couldn't call it food there.
$10 - 12 for a meal , you're better off going to a fish and chip shop ,
+free lemon & chicken salt, yum.Do you take your plates and forks to the kitchen after you eat at a restaurant? McDonald’s wants to, and markets themselves as a restaurant (they even bring food to you now) so perhaps we should leave it for then to clean up.
I'm with you, I don't clean my plate and fork when at McDonalds.
Bogan is not limited by financial status or geography, There are plenty of cashed up bogans around