Hey everyone 👋
I’m a current McDonald’s employee and have been for a few months.
Feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll respond in the best way I can :)
[AMA] I’m a Current McDonald's Employee
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Most managers are pretty good and honestly prefer older people (than teenagers) there
Just a job to tide me over for a while
…older people…
How old is "old"?
People 20 years old 😂 it’s pretty strange the world of McDonald’s
@bobbified: I don't know if the average person in their 30s would have the energy and stamina required to do that kind of work.
@AustriaBargain: some who try it in 30s no not in million again yelling at jack was not worth it. Stadum food in 2010.
"some who try it in 30s no not in million again yelling at jack was not worth it. Stadum food in 2010."
…….. umm, what!?
@AustriaBargain: In Singapore there seems to be lots over 60 in fast food. I think they don't have to pay older people more there.
do you wear gloves? i see different opinions on facebook, whats the rule in aus?
When producing food (burgers and nugs) then gloves must be worn. Any other food gloves are optional :)
I worked at maccas for 7 years. Yes everyone wears gloves, but those gloves can touch all sorts of filthy things and then touch food again. You're supposed to regularly change your gloves but most people don't bother.
Cross-contamination with gloves was pretty common (e.g. touching raw meat and then touching burgers with same gloves). The burgers are made by teenagers who don't care and often there isn't a manager in the back when it's not busy. You're supposed to wear a blue glove on top of your clear glove when handling meat but often you'd see kids not doing that.
Pretty true that :)
indeed, I once didn't eat food I paid for at a Maccas because I didn't want to make a fuss and seem like a germophobe… but I watched a young employee doing cleaning duty, spraying and wiping stuff, picking stuff up on floor then fussing with the bin, then when asked to serve food, immediately fetch my fires and like neaten it up the spilling fries etc with those same gloves and pack them down in the bag, put in the burgers and other stuff, arranging them in the bag etc (I ate some of that as it was in wrapping)… before that I thought cash handling with same gloves was bad enough but tolerate it - I now deliberately don't watch because ignorance is bliss.
What is the most selling burger of choice at maccas ?
Great question, we produce the most 10:1 beef patty, which goes on Big Macs, cheeseburgers and hamburgers. These are probably the best selling burgers at the moment.
The 10:1 ratio is a 10th of a pound. The 4:1 is a 4th of a pound, or a quarter of a pound, or a "quarter pounder".
And 3:1 is a 3rd of a pound of Angus beef :)
how much $ those kids get per hour ?
Lowest pay rate is around $12 per hour, but this is when you first start. The rate continuously increases as time goes on.
Was $4.92 back in my day. My day was about 20years ago mind you!
Luxury. Back in my day I had to pay the manager to work.
Get a job at Dan M. Nearly $30 an hour and they give 8 hour shifts. Gotta be 18 and RSA, but still. Pretty good casual rate if you ask me.
That’s from a front counter perspective. I work in food production which gives a whole other view of McDonald’s :)
Given that …. do you eat the food?
Not often but I will occasionally just to use my staff discount
@jdeals1: Back when I worked at Maccas the managers would let me eat for free. Just before the end of your shift you'd make a special ultimate burger for you to grab on the way out. Pro-tip: Spray a bit of butter on the clamshell grill and fry some onion slivers on it (without activating the clamshell).
@AustriaBargain: Yeah, really depends on the franchise or managers. I’ve always wanted to do this but my manager doesn’t want to ‘waste’ any food.
@jdeals1: Food you enjoy wasting isn't wasted food.
It probably helped that I was older than the managers at the time :( And that one of the managers had a crush on me :)
@kiitos: I can't really remember, it's been too long. It was big and messy though. It used some ingredients that were in the wraps McDonald's used to do so it can't be made anymore. It did have fried onion slivers, which can still be done with the liquid butter and quarter pounder onions.
How is that even a response?
"A similar topic has been done before, almost 4 years ago, therefore this post is redundant"
Do you see the price a customer pays for an order in the kitchen?
Eg I buy a $2 BigMac™ as an app reward, get a free large fries with reward points and a $1 large frozen coke. Do you see that I only paid $3 for a large BigMac™ meal deal?
Usually your order will have ‘paid disc.’ as a note underneath however this shouldn’t affect how your food is made or the quantity you receive.
Great. Just thought you might put extra saliva in the tightarse buyers burgers.
Unless you get a pissed off manager then it should be fine :)
There was sadly a time when there were free chips + drink when you ordered a standalone McSpicy.
Then I was given just the burger and I'm like where's the chips+drink. Then they said I see you didn't pay for it (I ordered on the app and specifically was shown the promo in my basket).
I still got my chips + drink in the end, but just saying some people out there seem to question what's shown on the screen.
How much care do you put into slapping a burger together? ie. spread the sauce evenly?
How do you feel when customers complain about a poorly constructed burger and ask for another? There was a topic on this recently…
Great question.
We put as much care into making your burger as the time allows us to; ie if we’re in the middle of a dinner rush then standards may slip slightly.
Of course if something is wrong we’ll try our best to rectify the problem.Your managers are understaffing rushes just to make a few more bucks. The right answer to the question should be "there is always enough time to assemble the burgers properly".
Yep, pretty much every shift is understaffed to save the cost of a single Big Mac meal being spent on an extra staff member, and therefore the end product suffers
[Insert question regarding Ice Cream Machine Here]
I’ve actually never seen the machine broken…
That’s from a front counter perspective. I work in food production which gives a whole other view of McDonald’s :)
obviously never been to front counter!
Exactly…
There's a YouTube video explaining why they're always broken.. McDonald's own the company that has an exclusive servicing contract for the machines and their warranty is voided if franchise owners look elsewhere.
It's not necessarily that the machines break down but they are incredibly temperamental and no one is ever trained how to properly maintain them for resolve routine errors.
iirc it's not that McDonald's owns the company, but more that the people who control McDonald's and own a lot of McDonald's shares also own a lot of shares in the ice cream machine company. So when the ice cream machine company is doing well their shares are worth a lot more and they get more dividends or whatever. It doesn't benefit other McDonald shareholders and definitely doesn't benefit franchise owners.
Which section of the back area do you like working best?
Grill-fry (cooking beef and chicken products). Much less stressful than assembling burgers.
Relatable. Brings back memories trying to remember the order of assembling the burgers.
That’s so difficult sometimes especially in the middle of a dinner rush
Do you get to choose your position or do you move around to different roles if needed?
We typically change roles throughout the shift, it just depends on where the most demand is.
what's the turnover for staff like at the store you work at?
It varies quite a lot but usually around 2 staff members will leave every week
wow, do they just walk out during their shift? any particular reason why the high turnover ( imo)
There’s some sort of process to it but the main reason people leave is because we are overworked and underpaid.
@Gowrie29: that rate would be for the youngest legally allowed to work there.
The “minimum wage” is only paid when someone turns 21. A 16 year old or younger can be paid less than half of that.
@I like freestuff: Still underpaid, legal or not. I'd leave to if the person next to me was getting paid double for the same work
is there a rivalry between other fast food chain workers? e.g hungry jack's, kfc..
Not that I know of, I’m pretty good friends with some other chains’ workers
Have you ever seen anything unsanitary occur with food that went out to a customer?
Occasionally yes, but it’s very rare and nothing too bad.
Like what specifically?
Sometimes cooked products are kept for longer than they’re supposed to as otherwise food wastage would be very high. It’s still ok to eat however not the greatest either.
Other stuff has happened too but I probably can’t disclose it here.
How are fries made? Do you actually make them from potatoes, or are they pre-made and you just deep fry them?
Fries are pre-made out of restaurant and are just fried as needed
Thanks. Are they frozen?
Yep :)
@nomadspartan: Fries have completely seperate oil to other meat and are prepared away from burgers :)
As a customer, can I ask my chicken nuggets to be freshly cooked? If yes, what is the best way to ask of this?
You can ask for this, however don’t expect them to be produced in the same time as you usually would receive them. It’s best to ask for them at the counter or drive-thru speaker. Keep in mind the request may also get lost if we’re very busy.
I would hope someone doesn't ask for that at the drive-thru speaker. We shouldn't have to wait in line longer because of special requests that take longer.
Waiting bays?
The order would be ‘parked’ to make sure everyone can keep going through quickly.
no such thing as freshly cooked man, u do know that nugget u eatting is already half cooked then frozen during the manufacturing process, sent out to the franchises….i use to work as a process worker/packaging manufacturing their nuggets and beef paddies
Yeah, sorry I meant ‘freshly refried’
An employee for few months? How long before you'll be made redundant because you're too old?