McDonald’s High-Tech Makeover Is Stressing Workers Out

[De Lupe]

You're probably working at McDonalds if you don't know the answer to that question.

In 15 years of working, some of the smartest people I have ever met worked at my first job; a McDonalds.

Minimum wage =/= stupid people. Only a moron associates a person's intellect with the job they have.

[Zan15]

Thats a shitty position to be in, but if we have millions of people overqualified for fast food positions and cant find work in careers they we laid off from, then we have other economic issues that Mc Donalds cant fix by paying $15 an hour.


They are real jobs, sorry, but working cashier at McDonalds will never pay the same salary as a solar panel installation tech.

and yet the corporation will make the same or greater profits than the solar panel installation tech....from such easy work.


15 dollars was meant to make up for the 20+ years of 0% wage growth. Not some kind of giveaway.

Funny how the CEO of mcdonalds went from 3.4 million to 17m+ in the last 3-4 years but workers asking for a few dollars more an hour causes people to protest and have hissy fits.

[plagueshard801]

Why would it be harder? You just select the option that says "No Cheese" easy and done. Change is hard...

Well let me run it down for you then...

Steps to place an order for a Big Mac Meal w/ no cheese, regular sized:

From the top:
- Press eat in or take out
- Press payment method
- Press meals
- Press beef
- Press Big Mac
- Press combo meal size
- Press drink flavor
- Press drink size

Start no cheese process (has to be done per item):
- Press button in your order summary that represents your combo meal
- Press Big Mac
- Press minus button next to cheese
- Press apply changes

[insert a couple more buttons to finalize order]

...now, I am happy to hear how any of that isn't a bigger pain in the ass, or more complicated, than saying "I'd like a #1 w/ no cheese, regular sized with a coke".

EDIT: I would like to add that customers being interrogated by a kiosk is actually HARDER for the employees to manage than taking the order themselves, as is the point of the OP. It's fucking brilliant what they have done here, they inconvenienced everyone, and are saving tons of money doing it.

[msdos]

I expected to see people shitting on fast food employees in this thread, to see them called stupid and lazy.
I was not "disappointed".

It's that cynical negativity Ornyx was talking about. You seriously see it everywhere.

I've met so many people who have degrees and their Masters who work 2 jobs, one of them being Mcdonalds. People are just using cognitive dissonance when they assume 'low IQ this, can't handle that', because they don't want to think beyond their simple conclusion. Period. They just don't want to think at all.

As for Mcdonalds hiring more employees. It ain't gonna happen. They waste too much money on marketing and lining the CEO pockets. Pretty sure Mcdonalds had a commercial during the Super bowl. I mean why wouldn't they? Doesn't everyone and their mommy all over the world need to know about the Big Mac, even though there's already a Mcdonalds on every corner?

Do you need marketing to tell you to buy a vehicle too? They're hammering that crap into people's heads so you will worship their products (mac sauce, szechuan sauce, fries that aren't good when you get them, etc).

[Super Kami Dende]

What these people see as complexities are pretty much standard computer literacy these days. Unless you are under an IQ of 85 you should be able to pick up simple computer input within a few days.

[msdos]

What these people see as complexities are pretty much standard computer literacy these days. Unless you are under an IQ of 85 you should be able to pick up simple computer input within a few days.

Sound like something a know-it-all with 16,000 video game posts would say.

[Super Kami Dende]

Sound like something a know-it-all with 16,000 video game posts would say.

TIL having standard computer literacy makes you a know it all.

Hows that McDonalds Job treating you?

[msdos]

Hows that McDonalds Job treating you?

Shouldn't I be asking you this? You were the one acting like you know all about Mcdonalds new work model and had experienced the new complexity for yourself? That's why I said know-it-all.

Oh and thanks for pegging yourself, I love when people tell me "Add me to your blocklist!!!" right away, saves a lot of time.

[petej0]

and yet the corporation will make the same or greater profits than the solar panel installation tech....from such easy work.

So? Its not about the profits its about the skill required for the labor. There is minimal skill required to work at fast food restaurants. As such they will always be at the bottom of the salary list. That is just economics, otherwise nobody would work in more demanding careers, it wouldnt be worth the effort.

15 dollars was meant to make up for the 20+ years of 0% wage growth. Not some kind of giveaway.

I didnt say it was a giveaway. All I am saying is salary is determined by the job market. $15 an hour sounds great, but pretty soon it will be moot as cashiers will be replaced with kiosks that they dont have to pay $15 an hour, plus Social Security and other payroll taxes, plus health care, tuition assistance or any other benefits.

Funny how the CEO of mcdonalds went from 3.4 million to 17m+ in the last 3-4 years but workers asking for a few dollars more an hour causes people to protest and have hissy fits.

McDonalds has 1.9 million employees, thats equates to $7.15 per employee a year. Thats a mighty windfall for those employees. That equates to the cost of a value meal each year, I am sure the employees eat more in "free" food during the week.

[EyelessCrow]

Shouldn't I be asking you this? You were the one acting like you know all about Mcdonalds new work model and had experienced the new complexity for yourself? That's why I said know-it-all.

Oh and thanks for pegging yourself, I love when people tell me "Add me to your blocklist!!!" right away, saves a lot of time.

You insult him, he insults you...you block him. Talk about thin-skinned. I also like how you gotta tell people you block them.

[Orlong]

McDonald's has been upgrading, adding new machines and automated cashiers. All this new stuff is stressing out the employees and in this job market a lot are quitting rather than putting up with the changes.

With all of the talk about automation taking jobs, is worker stress going to be typical?

Employees aren't getting raises even though McDonald's now makes $25K more off of each employee per year.

McDonalds the corporation might make $25k more but not your neighbor Bill who owns the local franchise. McDonalds the corporation doesnt pay the employees, the franchisee pays them

[Shadowferal]

workers quit as mobile-app orders and new offerings create chaos

Employees are handling more tasks, in many cases, they say, without pay raises or adequate staffing. So Dickerson, 23, handed in his spatula.
"They added a lot of complicated things," Dickerson said. "It makes it harder for the workers."
A lot of fast-food employees hop from job to job. But with unemployment so low, turnover is becoming a problem. Workers are walking away rather than dealing with new technologies and menu options.
The result: Customers will wait longer. Already, drive-through times at McDonald's slowed to 239 seconds last year — more than 30 seconds longer than in 2016, according to QSR magazine. It's also pokier than Burger King, Wendy's and Taco Bell.
Turnover at U.S. fast-food restaurants jumped to 150% — meaning a store employing 20 workers would go through 30 in one year. That figure is the highest since industry tracker People Report began collecting data in 1995.
"Quick-service restaurants are having a little more trouble with job openings and finding workers," said Michael Harms, executive director of operations at People Report. "It's the pace of work, the pace of technology and the lower wage rate."
------------------------
Makes me glad I don't eat fast food...

[Super Kami Dende]

Shouldn't I be asking you this? You were the one acting like you know all about Mcdonalds new work model and had experienced the new complexity for yourself? That's why I said know-it-all.

Oh and thanks for pegging yourself, I love when people tell me "Add me to your blocklist!!!" right away, saves a lot of time.

Because they are systems I've seen before/used before in other Jobs. It's literally all basic Computer Skills. If you can't use a fucking interface at a McDonalds Kiosk you are a straight up retard level IQ. Doesn't take "knowing it all" to know that.

[Mafic]

Automation means corporations are going to have to pay more for people to understand how to run and operate the automation. In other words, pay up.

[The One Percent]

If automation is stressing you out now, you haven't seen anything yet, baby.

[Zan15]

So? Its not about the profits its about the skill required for the labor. There is minimal skill required to work at fast food restaurants. As such they will always be at the bottom of the salary list. That is just economics, otherwise nobody would work in more demanding careers, it wouldnt be worth the effort.


I didnt say it was a giveaway. All I am saying is salary is determined by the job market. $15 an hour sounds great, but pretty soon it will be moot as cashiers will be replaced with kiosks that they dont have to pay $15 an hour, plus Social Security and other payroll taxes, plus health care, tuition assistance or any other benefits.


McDonalds has 1.9 million employees, thats equates to $7.15 per employee a year. Thats a mighty windfall for those employees. That equates to the cost of a value meal each year, I am sure the employees eat more in "free" food during the week.

It this was job market driven vs corporate control of the market then wages would not have been stagnate since the 90's with a 350% increase in production and wages of the 1%/CEO-Execs.


They said the same thing about 8-9-10-11-etc and it has not created this mass exodus you are speaking of.

Now take that CEO salary and add in the CFO, COO, Board members, and the rest of the top 1%. Throw in their stock options, benefits and pension/retirement. I bet you can get to 40% of the total salary cost for 1% of the company. It would add up to way more than 7.15 per employee.

[Dald]

Working in food is fucking horrendous, long hours on your feet, shithead costumers and shithead bosses breathing down your neck. I feel bad for anyone working that shit that keeps getting more and more stuff piled onto their workload and no pay increase.

In before someone says it's temp work, you do it a bit and move on in your youth. You're a moron if you think it's that simple. There will always be a need for food service workers of all ages. It's a revolving door covered in shit, it sucks doing it and it sucks managing it because you're constantly replacing missing cogs because it takes too long to advance anywhere, if at all and the pay blows for the amount of stress you're under.

[Christan]

i work for McDonald's and that's bullshit

You probably work for a franchisee of mcdonalds(a private owner) not for the corporation itself.
That being said, experimental rollouts like new tech take time, as in, how to keep someone who paid via kiosk/app from not having their bag taken by simeone who pretended to order?

Its likely going to be slow going rolling out everything,

Thumbs up for the burger bot, does it put the sandwich together also or just grill the meat?
Last i heard it was shut down because of problems, might be the same article.

[DrStiglit]

I agree with your sentiment but I worry that it just means only a few will have resources and the rest will have nothing.

With how politicians handle things it’ll be a wasteland for most and a utopia for very few. Quit the opposite of the actual goal..

[Lahis]

If they're having problems with employee retention because employees feel they're being paid insufficiently for the workload or because they can't keep up with the requirements, there's a really fucking obvious solution to that problem.

Pay your employees more.

Sorry, can't feel bad for McDonald's; they have the capacity to fix this all by themselves and don't need anyone's help to do so.

Or they can just keep burning through employees. It's not like big D has ever really cared about them.