“I love my job at McDonald’s” is not a sentence I thought I would ever say a year ago. In fact, I’m not sure it’s something any person who works in fast food would ever say. But it’s true for me.
I would like to start off by saying that I hate the stigma around people who work in fast food. When I tell people where I work it is often met with responses like “oh, I’m sorry..” or the classic “ew, that’s so greasy..”
It’s insulting. It’s rude. But most of all it’s frustrating. I’m not defined by where I work part time as a student who needs to pay her car insurance and gas each month. And even if I was, there are worse things I could do than work at one of the Top Employer Companies in Canada.
McDonald’s seems to have this unfitting, unjust reputation for being some horrible place to work when it has been by far the best place I’ve ever been employed at (and this is my third job.) My coworkers have become people I hang out with on the weekends and in my free time during the week, and there is so much room to grow in the company. McDonald’s has also shaped itself to be the perfect place for any adolescent to work with its benefits and opportunities that come with the job, like:
-A fully adjustable and customizable schedule, meaning YOU decide what days a week you work, the maximum and minimum amount of hours you receive, the longest you want to work during a shift, etc. They stick to your schedule, and they completely understand that SCHOOL should always come first to a student. This is important when it comes to working in high school, where some managers expect you to put school behind a job.
-Exceptional training, where you will get to have an orientation AND training shifts on the floor so you are prepared and confident in your ability to work.
-“Employee of the Month” and other award programs to keep you motivated and reward hard work.
-Benefits such as competitive starting rates, various employee discounts and free uniforms.
-Many opportunities for scholarships to help employees stay motivated in their studies and promote a healthy balance of school and work.
At McDonald’s, I don’t feel like just another unrecognized worker. I feel cared about and respected because we act as a team. Hard work is not taken for granted there, and we function as a well oiled machine that handles rushes and stress like pros as we deal with the fast-paced (and often hectic) environment with grace. We get the job done and we do it with a smile, too. That’s more than I can say for a lot of other places.
So please, remember all of this when you criticize someone based on where they work. They’ll always be the last one laughing when their university education is paid for by their employer.
