McDonald’s High-Tech Makeover Is Stressing Workers Out

[Cthulhu 2020]

Which was my original point in this thread. McDonalds workers are used to collecting a paycheck for minimal effort.

I see someone's never worked in fast food or retail.

[Wiyld]

Thank you for proving my point. Demand did not increase.

All this does is change when/where the customer waits... and insures that the company gets their money faster. Because the longer you make a customer wait to give you money... the more chance you have of losing that customer.

Now instead of the customer waiting to place their order. They wait longer (the amount of time saved ordering) to receive their order.

You don't seem very clear on how fast food service works.

Food service is not a factory, you cannot take a set amount of time, divide out volume of demand and just fix a time frame for employees to perform. Like all food service, the customers tend to show up at the same time.

Employee performance is rated on time to service. Not only are they timing the customers experience in total, they entire experience is broken down into segments. Time to get to order board, time to go from board to payment window, then time from payment to leaving. Just getting people in line then letting them sit, completely fucks up your numbers.

Even in the dining room, the customers time is measured from the time the order begins to when the order is submitted, then timed from submittal to the food being delivered.


So...put yourself in an employees shoes. You usually show up at 9am to prep for the lunch rush...once it starts you can usually keep the order queue down to about 5 at a time, working quickly you can hit your 'time to service' goals as the goals are a result of YEARS of study to find what are realistic levels of expected output from a kitchen.

Then one day, some pencil neck at corporate sits through a super awesome seminar from some IT firm about how they did a study showing how customer managed POS can speed up order intake by XY%. Emboldened by what is surely a home run idea, said pencil neck replaces half the employees in your kitchen with computer screens. Now when the lunch rush hits, you start getting orders in XY% faster then before...now your order queue sits at 12 orders by the end of the rush...you did your best but it just isn't realistic to keep up with the new rate of flow.

Now your numbers are complete shit...as the OP article pointed out service times are up 30 seconds across the board.....I don't know if you realize how significant that is....total service times used to be under 40 seconds....thats almost TWICE as long. The great new idea has now doubled the time to service, which is mcdonalds own way of measuring employee performance.

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Love to be proven wrong. Look forward to seeing your proof where a rocket scientist is heating up burgers at McDonalds.

I'm an electrical tech....used to manage at mcdonalds and wendys.

Wife is an aerospace, astrospace engineer.....she waited tables for like...15 years...the last couple were after graduating while trying to get a job.

[Kathandira]

Love to be proven wrong. Look forward to seeing your proof where a rocket scientist is heating up burgers at McDonalds.

Totally. If you aren't a rocket scientist, you have a low IQ.

[A dot Ham]

After re-reading your earlier post, I get your position now.

McDonald's used automation as a means to reduce employee labor compensation (by eliminating some employees). This reduces their cost, which should either increase profits, or allow McDonald's to reduce prices and maintain profits.

You aren't seeing the employee position though - individual employees are being asked to perform a higher volume of work, work which requires interfacing with an automated system that they are 100% aware will replace them eventually, and they are given no increased pay for doing so. Of course McDonald's is seeing high turnover, their position is untenable.

When McDonald's can effectively (in terms of both cost to implement and resulting level of service) replace ALL those positions via automation, they can do so without issue, and fire all the employees. Until that point, they should expect that the remaining employees are going to be exceedingly disgruntled.

But as I said to another person on this thread... isn't that the reality of the world we live in? More work, or same amount of work but more difficult for little or no extra pay? I've experienced that in my jobs where automation had nothing to do with it.

Lets look at it this way. What if instead of automation McDonalds made the decision to make the cashier a "senior level" employee (this guy/gal is a rockstar by McDonald's standards) the goal is then to process order quicker and with better accuracy... I mean this person a John Henry of cashiers (better than the machine). So you don't really need those cashiers anymore... so you fire them. Now your in the same boat. You have increased expectations on the remaining staff, and no one else can match the performance of your rockstar.

The problem for McDonald's is at what price are they willing to lose that rockstar? Good employees get paid more, but there is a limit to how much you can pay them. Turnover is costly, and likely that rockstar will always be in danger of being poached by companies willing to pay more.

Automation means that you can achieve a constant level of output and not have to worry about it leaving, or needing more money. ("it" being the machine)

The low skilled cashier, is supposed to be a position of high turnover. A trained monkey could/should do it. Its not supposed to be a position that lasts long or that requires an increase above the bare minimum pay.

Additionally higher wages doesn't necessarily have a positive effect on turnover, or employee happiness. Numerous studies out there on that... you can look that up.

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I see someone's never worked in fast food or retail.

Look's like someone can't tell their elbow from their asshole.

I have worked retail and the food industry actually, both from entry level to management.

I'm also a customer of McDonalds (they have cheap iced tea). I can tell you that I probably have a 75% chance of getting my order right. Which seems ridiculous to me that you can fuck up a single order for tea... but somehow these folks (who you apparently feel put forth great effort) manage to fuck it up. From a CUSTOMERS perspective... automation is a welcomed change, because the caliber of employees being hired at McDonalds aren't worth even minimum wage... good luck finding work elsewhere.

[Wiyld]

From a CUSTOMERS perspective... automation is a welcomed change

Except the OP literally shows a very very dramatic decline in the customer experience......




You know...if you offer to pay more...you get better people /mind blown................

[Sorrior]

I went to the McDonald's across the street from the train station last week. Wanted a glass of orange juice. Hadn't been in a McDonalds in ages so I was totally shocked how it changed from the last time I remember. They had flat screens that you order from without ever having to talk to a person. You even pay at the kiosk and they send you a ticket via email.

It was honestly the best McDonald's experience I ever had.

I am pro whatever keeps that going. Humanity free of necessary labor is the only goal of civilization.

Agreed completely but the way things are going i fear a dystopian result as opposed to the utopian it should be

[Wiyld]

The current trend is a world full of megacorporations which become as powerful as government, and as rich(or richer) as nations. That could be good for some people, and bad for others. Will be a mix of both "dystopia" and "utopia".

Apple and Amazon are both slated to break the 1T$ market value this year..............

[A dot Ham]

Except the OP literally shows a very very dramatic decline in the customer experience......




You know...if you offer to pay more...you get better people /mind blown................

Sounds like reasons to automate the entire process... not pay you more.

I must be missing the part in the OP that discussed this "dramatic decline in customer experience"... cuz I have to tell you that my experiences with McDonalds with flesh, blood, and supposed brain... are probably the lowest of any industry. I'd rank it up there with tech support from India, or Malaysia.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

I have a friend who's an area director for a fast food chain, he oversees 8 stores. The biggest problem they are having with unemployment being so low is the labor, trouble finding and keeping people as has been said, but the more specific issue is that to stay competitive chains need to keep costs down, which means keeping wages down. Now the problem they're running into is things like call centers and telemarketing offices are popping up and offering comparable wages. So for the same wage you can either work over a hot grill or dick around on the phone annoying people in an air conditioned office. Which would you pick?

The flip side is what do we then want as customers? Everyone hates telemarketers, but do we hate them enough to pay slightly more for fast food so they can pay employees more?

[Wiyld]

Sounds like reasons to automate the entire process... not pay you more.

I must be missing the part in the OP that discussed this "dramatic decline in customer experience"... cuz I have to tell you that my experiences with McDonalds with flesh, blood, and supposed brain... are probably the lowest of any industry. I'd rank it up there with tech support from India, or Malaysia.

Already, drive-through times at McDonald’s slowed to 239 seconds last year -- more than 30 seconds slower than in 2016, according to QSR magazine. It’s also pokier than Burger King, Wendy’s and Taco Bell.

McDonald's lags some of its fast-food peers in average drive-through times from last year

An order of a Bacon McDouble, small fries and an apple juice took about two-and-a-half minutes, faster than the average drive-through time, but the drink was missing and the employee seemed confused when asked for it.

“The biggest risk when you have a lot of employee turnover is the customer experience,” said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst for Edward Jones. “If that starts to wane, then this turns into a bigger problem.”

At another restaurant in Chicago the same day, McDonald’s staff rushed to keep up with the dinner crowd. Cars lined up at the drive-through and curbside pickup spots were full. A mobile-app order for fries, an Egg McMuffin and McFlurry for curbside pickup took just over five minutes.

Did you even read the damn article?

[Antiganon]

But as I said to another person on this thread... isn't that the reality of the world we live in? More work, or same amount of work but more difficult for little or no extra pay? I've experienced that in my jobs where automation had nothing to do with it.

Lets look at it this way....[snip]

Additionally higher wages doesn't necessarily have a positive effect on turnover, or employee happiness. Numerous studies out there on that... you can look that up.

"Is" and "Ought" are not often similar.

Expecting the employees to just sit there and take it is the height of ignorance.

Every person in a position like this needs to fight for fair wages and better working conditions. Nobody else is going to fight for them.

Higher wages don't necessarily improve employee happiness or reduce turnover, true. But higher wages in exchange for additional responsibilities shows the employee two important things:

1) The company trusts you enough to give you additional responsibility. This makes you feel positively about your performance. Employees who think they are doing a good job are much happier at work than those who think they are doing a bad job.
2) The company is willing to reward you for working harder. This makes you more likely to seek additional responsibility and generally try harder in the future, because you already have concrete evidence it will be rewarded.

[Faroth]

I don't get how the mobile app and kiosks are confusing....

The customer enters their order. Their order is itemized on the receipt. The itemized order is on the screen. You just make it. Nothing has changed between ordering in person vs ordering on the app or with the kiosk. Nothing.

What are they having to deal with in terms of increased responsibilities? The article says they're not getting paid more despite doing more... what more, new, tasks are they having to do? It doesn't actually say any specifics.

On the flip side....... "the order took 5 minutes"
BOO FRICKIN HOO, people! Oh my word, 5 whole minutes to get my fast food, such an inconvenience. Gimme a break. Learn the tiniest form of patience and show some civility and kindness to the other human beings making a meal because you don't want to do it yourself.

Tip for those who occasionally hit a fast food restaurant - don't go to the drive through. So many people have bought into the pitch that it's more crowded than inside most of the time. When I do go to McDonald's, I pull in, circle the restaurant and see all these cars in the drive through. I park near the exit and go inside. Order the food at the register or kiosk, and the majority of the time I'm leaving by the time the last car I saw is pulling up to the final window.

Plus, despite it being minutes, you're not burning gas idling outside. Just park and walk inside. Plus you can fill your drink with the drink to ice ratio you prefer. I never use a drive thru anymore, regardless of the place in question.

[Antiganon]

I don't get how the mobile app and kiosks are confusing....

The customer enters their order. Their order is itemized on the receipt. The itemized order is on the screen. You just make it. Nothing has changed between ordering in person vs ordering on the app or with the kiosk. Nothing.

What are they having to deal with in terms of increased responsibilities? The article says they're not getting paid more despite doing more... what more, new, tasks are they having to do? It doesn't actually say any specifics.

On the flip side....... "the order took 5 minutes"
BOO FRICKIN HOO, people! Oh my word, 5 whole minutes to get my fast food, such an inconvenience. Gimme a break. Learn the tiniest form of patience and show some civility and kindness to the other human beings making a meal because you don't want to do it yourself.

Obviously there is a process that occurs between the customer entering the order on the kiosk and the order appearing on screen. I imagine if you asked a McDonald's employee about the specific details of what the process entails, the answer would be highly specific and exceedingly boring, in other words, the first thing cut from an article in editorial.

Tip for those who occasionally hit a fast food restaurant - don't go to the drive through. So many people have bought into the pitch that it's more crowded than inside most of the time. When I do go to McDonald's, I pull in, circle the restaurant and see all these cars in the drive through. I park near the exit and go inside. Order the food at the register or kiosk, and the majority of the time I'm leaving by the time the last car I saw is pulling up to the final window.

Plus, despite it being minutes, you're not burning gas idling outside. Just park and walk inside. Plus you can fill your drink with the drink to ice ratio you prefer. I never use a drive thru anymore, regardless of the place in question.

Drive thrus are often quite a bit faster depending on the specific business and their target times. My wife was a shift manager at Starbucks for a couple years, and the target times for drive thru were HALF the target times for in store.

I guess they figure if you are in the store they can make small talk and you forget you have been waiting (since it's only a few minutes regardless), while at the drive thru you are just sitting in your car fuming at any additional second you aren't driving away.

[unbound]

Sounds like an issue with training, rather than employees simply not liking it. If you are going to revamp the workflow, then there needs to be training and exercises to ensure the staff is efficient at using the new equipment.

McDonalds in particular has a terrible track record in training.

There was an eye-opening event years ago where a McDonalds and a Chick-Fil-A opened within a month of each other right across the street from each other. Both companies hired from the same local pool of workers. However, my wife couldn't get a happy meal for one of our kids because none of the cashiers understood enough English beyond simple numbers. My wife spent 10 minutes trying to get a manager to get that happy meal.

Chick-Fil-A had no such issues as they sent their workers to learn English, and we were able to put in modified orders with no issues whatsoever.

This becomes the real problem with change...the corporations are not willing to part with a small share of their profits to train workers. And, in fact, will spend even more money than that on PR to convince the masses that it is the workers fault.

[Rotted]

I don't work for McDonald's but the one closest to us has just been massively refurbished with these machines and just one server at front of house with 1 till.

Food flies out, it's always hot (you know you get those shit chips sometimes because their the last of the batch, that doesn't happen any more). Everything tastes fresh. You can actually hear the staff in the back having a laugh and talking, generally having fun. Where as before these machines they were a miserable lot and you could only hear people barking orders

I also love the hate McDonald staff get here, it's adorable.

Friend of mine started working in one 4 years ago just flipping burgers. She volunteered to do the night shift, just under two years ago she got promoted for her efforts, two years ago she took over management, half way through last year she's on a training course with the company for area management, with the possibility of a UG degree in a location of her choice to further promote her in future. She's earning as much now as I'd earn after 7 years of higher education (UG through to PhD) and getting into a well paid job in Australia.

Before she started this job (at 18), she was a selfish stuck up little cunt. She had absolutely 0 respect for anyone, hell she trashed my room plenty of times when she was 16 (my best mate is her brother, and their father is my god farther) when she threw a tantrum because she couldn't have one more little vodka or that dress she wanted. She didn't give a shit off anyone and leeched from boyfriend to boyfriend (including one going into a pro sport). All ways been used to having things given to her, never earned, just throw a tantrum till she got it.

The job completely turned her around and she's now a pleasant young lady. Successful lady. If she can pull a career like that out of McDonalds then anyone can.

[A dot Ham]

Did you even read the damn article?

Ya did you?

Can you point to this "dramatic decline in customer experience"? I see a 30 sec increase in time in comparison to peers. That doesn't equate to a poor customer experience, and definitely not a drastic decline.

“The biggest risk when you have a lot of employee turnover is the customer experience,” said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst for Edward Jones. “If that starts to wane, then this turns into a bigger problem.”

Risk... not a reality (as of yet).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrest.../#553d2f866a68

The demand for automation, is CUSTOMER driven.

[Airlick]

Why would they be low iq. How would you even be able to tell?

I've worked at McD for a while during college and man, 90% of the crew that weren't also students working half-time were 100% idiots. Lacked basic knowledge and had no skills other than flipping those burgers and chugging beer after work. They also usually took ages to learn new stuff that was possible to memorize in a minute, which by all means is an indication of low IQ. I mean, I mean them no disrespect, but I'm not afraid to call out that if you're working at fast food joint for years with no plans ahead, something is clearly wrong with you.

I also love the hate McDonald staff get here, it's adorable.

Friend of mine started working in one 4 years ago just flipping burgers. She volunteered to do the night shift, just under two years ago she got promoted for her efforts, two years ago she took over management, half way through last year she's on a training course with the company for area management, with the possibility of a UG degree in a location of her choice to further promote her in future. She's earning as much now as I'd earn after 7 years of higher education (UG through to PhD) and getting into a well paid job in Australia.

Hard work pays off, but that is not the usual path of career at McD. This is quite literally a 1 in 1000 situation. She probably had the luck of someone taking a liking to her and pushing her forward. It's not like they have metrics of every employee's performance and pick managers based on that. Not to mention, at least here even managers (the lower ranked ones) are paid shit compared to the payload and responsibilities they have. So first she had to work her ass off for 2 years before she got promoted to a manager, and then she worked even harder before she got promoted again. It may have been worth it for her, but the majority of people, even the ones who do try to put in the effort, won't get this far. They only need as many managers and even fewer area managers.

[Zan15]

I doubt most of these workers will be "needed" 5, or 10 years from now:

CaliBurger has robot flipping burgers at Pasadena restaurant
http://abc7.com/food/caliburger-has-...urant/3182090/

Don't know but walmart still has millions even though they have had automated almost every part for the last 15 years. Self checkouts will only get you so far.

We even have Stop and Shop, automated check out and you can scan your groceries and bag them while you shop and then 40 second check out.....these have been around for 10+ years yet the employees are still there. 10 check out lanes open during the busy times with employees.

They said the same thing in the 80's and 90's.......


We are not talking about 20-40 dollar an hour workers. At least in those industries even if there is problems with the automation you are still saving 10-20 dollars an hour per head. with the cost of robots and automation, what are they saving in fast food joints a few dimes tops per hour per head???

[Paperfox]

For me robots are best in stories and movies. I would rather interact with a human and I do so whenever I can. People do need jobs.

[Zan15]

I've worked at McD for a while during college and man, 90% of the crew that weren't also students working half-time were 100% idiots. Lacked basic knowledge and had no skills other than flipping those burgers and chugging beer after work. They also usually took ages to learn new stuff that was possible to memorize in a minute, which by all means is an indication of low IQ. I mean, I mean them no disrespect, but I'm not afraid to call out that if you're working at fast food joint for years with no plans ahead, something is clearly wrong with you.

i worked for MCD in the late 80's. half school aged kids and half adults. Then i went to work at a large healthcare/insurance corporation.

Guess what. Same mix of people. You had smart people working and total idiots whom could do the one thing they were trained to do and outside of that they were total idiots.

Most of these people whom work at MCD could be trained to do half of the menial jobs at large corporations paying 2-3x as much in the same time the people currently working there were.


BTW how do you plan on getting out of the fast food industry when they do not even pay a wage to survive on? How would you pay for school? How could you afford to plan ahead? Please do tell.