McDonald's Advises Its Employees To Stay Away From Fast Food

[dmcowen674]

12-24-2013

http://news.yahoo.com/mcdonald-39-advises-employees-stay-away-fast-food-225500247.html

McDonald's Advises Its Employees To Stay Away From Fast Food



A McDonalds website providing resources to its employees advises against eating hamburgers, fries and sodas. CNBC first noticed the latest in a series of strange pieces of advice provided by the fast food company to its employees. "While convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle," McDonalds says of its primary product, "fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight."

As strange as this seems, the bigger question seems to be how McDonald's employees would be able to afford healthier food on the wages they earn slinging burgers.



Earlier this year, a McDonald's worker recorded an employee hotline counselor telling her to apply for food stamps.



McDonald's also advises employees to break their food up into smaller pieces to stave off hunger and stretch their food budgets.



The company has some holiday advice, too: workers should return their Christmas presents for a refund to boost their budgets.



And then there's the company's budget advice to its minimum wage workers: get a second job to cover living expenses. That budget, by the way, didn't include money for heat, gas, or food.

 

[dmcowen674]

This would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Meanwhile the executives laugh all the way to the Cayman Islands.

 

[Sunburn74]

Basically this is how capitalism works. In some cases its just feels more wrong than others, but even if you're a 100K USD per year engineer at google, if your work is pulling in 50 million annually for the company, its not much different than the Mickey D's guys described above.

 

[ch33zw1z]

They're just trying to curb theft and make more money. If the employees stop eating the food, profit.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Basically this is how capitalism works. In some cases its just feels more wrong than others, but even if you're a 100K USD per year engineer at google, if your work is pulling in 50 million annually for the company, its not much different than the Mickey D's guys described above.

Really? working at McDonald's for minimum wage is not much different than making 100k as an engineer?

Ok....

 

[Tsavo]

Really? working at McDonald's for minimum wage is not much different than making 100k as an engineer?

Ok....

I'd rather go home at the end of the day smelling like math than french fries and stale burgers.

 

[BoomerD]

They're just trying to curb theft and make more money. If the employees stop eating the food, profit.

If the employees eat MickyD's food at work and get sick...do they get worker's compensation?

 

[Zaap]

So what? They're right. Its like a crack kingpin warning his dealers not to become crackheads.

 

[ch33zw1z]

If the employees eat MickyD's food at work and get sick...do they get worker's compensation?

Probably just get fired instead.

 

[ch33zw1z]

So what? They're right. Its like a crack kingpin warning his dealers not to become crackheads.

pretty much. the best dealers are the ones who don't use.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I'd rather go home at the end of the day smelling like math than french fries and stale burgers.

yea, and making $25 an hour more.

edit:, I didn't really do that math right, it's probably way more than that.

 

[nageov3t]

fast food is a sometimes food.

 

[Scotteq]

yea, and making $25 an hour more.

edit:, I didn't really do that math right, it's probably way more than that.

A slightly lowball, quick mental math is 2x the hourly, in thousands. I. E. $7 an hour is roughly $14k a year. Presuming no overtime, which salaried workers don't receive. $25 an hour more (33/hour) is about $66k. So your estimate isn't that far off.

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

Does anyone actually own a restaurant? I own two, and let me tell you that payroll makes up a huge portion of sales. A good restaurant will have about a 25% payroll, while most restaurants have 30%. That is of GROSS. Food costs are generally 25-30% of total sales. With payroll and food costs alone we have accounted for 50-60% of gross sales. Factor in rent, insurance, utilities, credit card charges and a variety of other items and you have a 15% profit margin, 20% if you are lucky. If you have a franchise, expect to put 5-10% back into the franchise as costs.

This means that if you put your ass on the line for a restaurant that does $750K in sales yearly you are lucky to put $50K back in your pocket for a huge investment and risk.

None of my employees make minimum wage, although some are close. How much should a dishwasher in High School make? I try to be fair to everyone. The fact of the matter is if minimum wage doubled, like these assholes want, then I would not have a choice but to close my two restaurants because the profit margin is not that high. If payroll is 25-30% then with the new rate of $15/hr I suspect it would be 45% (since many make above minimum wage already.)

Here is a tip: don't try to support a family working entry level in any job, especially food service. Try to make better choices in life. I remember flipping fries when I was 16. It isn't hard. It is a mindless job a fucking monkey could do so don't expect to make the same wage as a CNA or a receptionist.

 

[nageov3t]

I think there's a disconnect between McDonalds corp vs McDonalds franchises.

to the best of my knowledge, the franchises set/pay wages and benefits. while McD's corp may be making money hand over fist, that's not necessarily reflective on the individual franchise profit margins -- and increasing payroll costs would presumably impact them far more than the corporate offices.

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

I think there's a disconnect between McDonalds corp vs McDonalds franchises.

to the best of my knowledge, the franchises set/pay wages and benefits. while McD's corp may be making money hand over fist, that's not necessarily reflective on the individual franchise profit margins -- and increasing payroll costs would presumably impact them far more than the corporate offices.

I think there is a dosconnect between your average workers and the businessmen that open these. Do they understand that a McDs franchise costs around $1.5 million to open? Do they realize that payroll costs account for 25-30% of gross sales?

I think people think success is overnight because all they see is a succesful opening. When I opened my first restaurant I had been working on it for almost 2 years, paid a shitload of my own savings, and have a loan with a lien on all sorts of shit. Should I be compensated? Yes. What will happen if minimum wage were to jump to $15/hr? Well, I would be out of a half million dollars, lose my house, and all my employees would be without jobs. I would get to stand in the unemployment line with them.

 

[davmat787]

I'd rather go home at the end of the day smelling like math than french fries and stale burgers.

I dunno, there is an ever increasing amount of shitty math out there these days. :awe:

 

[rach3l]

Here is a tip: don't try to support a family working entry level in any job, especially food service. Try to make better choices in life. I remember flipping fries when I was 16. It isn't hard. It is a mindless job a fucking monkey could do so don't expect to make the same wage as a CNA or a receptionist.

The 2010's are not the 1970's, man. You cannot assume that conditions are the same for people today as they were in your youth. There are college-grads who can't get jobs anywhere, not even at McDonald's, because there aren't enough jobs anymore. A college degree used to guarantee a lifetime of white-collar employment. This is no longer the case. Plenty of people made better choices than you did in their youth, but are still unemployed for economic reasons entirely out of their control.

Stop projecting and try to walk a mile insomebody else's shoes for a little while before you write them off as a poor decision-maker. Bad things happen to good people every day. It's easy to write off the un-/underemployed as poor decision-makers. But that only happens because people who are gainfully employed in good jobs need to think, "That's never going to happen to me." It's called the just-world fallacy.

 

[CrackRabbit]

They're just trying to curb theft and make more money. If the employees stop eating the food, profit.

McD's throws more food away than employees could even think about stealing.
Seriously, once things reach EOL in the hot boxes (where things go after they're cooked but before being served to you) they are trashed.

If they gave the food to the employees I would think better of them.
When I worked at one in high school there was a guy that got fired for making a burger from things that were going to be thrown out.

 

[Zstream]

The 2010's are not the 1970's, man. You cannot assume that conditions are the same for people today as they were in your youth. There are college-grads who can't get jobs anywhere, not even at McDonald's, because there aren't enough jobs anymore. A college degree used to guarantee a lifetime of white-collar employment. This is no longer the case. Plenty of people made better choices than you did in their youth, but are still unemployed for economic reasons entirely out of their control.

Stop projecting and try to walk a mile insomebody else's shoes for a little while before you write them off as a poor decision-maker. Bad things happen to good people every day. It's easy to write off the un-/underemployed as poor decision-makers. But that only happens because people who are gainfully employed in good jobs need to think, "That's never going to happen to me." It's called the just-world fallacy.

LMAO!! Can't get a job at McDonald's? I've now heard it all.

 

[ch33zw1z]

McD's throws more food away than employees could even think about stealing.
Seriously, once things reach EOL in the hot boxes (where things go after they're cooked but before being served to you) they are trashed.

If they gave the food to the employees I would think better of them.
When I worked at one in high school there was a guy that got fired for making a burger from things that were going to be thrown out.

I spent 8 years in food service. I was working at a hospital for some of it, and we would throw away tons of food. I asked why we don't give it away, and apparently they used to. They would truck it down to the soup kitchen that the hospital ran. It ended when a homeless guy choked on a small chicken bone and sued the hospital for a large amount of money. That was the end of that.

Not much like your situation, but we were told never to steal food...even if it was going into the garbage. We would be fired.

 

[Munky]

The 2010's are not the 1970's, man. You cannot assume that conditions are the same for people today as they were in your youth. There are college-grads who can't get jobs anywhere, not even at McDonald's, because there aren't enough jobs anymore. A college degree used to guarantee a lifetime of white-collar employment. This is no longer the case. Plenty of people made better choices than you did in their youth, but are still unemployed for economic reasons entirely out of their control.

Stop projecting and try to walk a mile insomebody else's shoes for a little while before you write them off as a poor decision-maker. Bad things happen to good people every day. It's easy to write off the un-/underemployed as poor decision-makers. But that only happens because people who are gainfully employed in good jobs need to think, "That's never going to happen to me." It's called the just-world fallacy.

And whose fault is it that the college kid decided to "pursue their dreams" and major in Post Modern Gender Politics or other such bullshit? That's called poor decision making. If some college degree is not conducive to finding employment, then chose a different degree, and maybe a different college. Or maybe even pursue a different line of work instead of having $50K in college loans debt because all the other sheeple are doing it. Adapt or die. Darwin's evolution 101.

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

The 2010's are not the 1970's, man. You cannot assume that conditions are the same for people today as they were in your youth. There are college-grads who can't get jobs anywhere, not even at McDonald's, because there aren't enough jobs anymore. A college degree used to guarantee a lifetime of white-collar employment. This is no longer the case. Plenty of people made better choices than you did in their youth, but are still unemployed for economic reasons entirely out of their control.

Stop projecting and try to walk a mile insomebody else's shoes for a little while before you write them off as a poor decision-maker. Bad things happen to good people every day. It's easy to write off the un-/underemployed as poor decision-makers. But that only happens because people who are gainfully employed in good jobs need to think, "That's never going to happen to me." It's called the just-world fallacy.

I was born in the 80s. Way to assume.

I am not writing them off. I don't think it is a just world. I have rainy day funds and backup plans and none of them involve trying to support my kids flipping burgers for minimum wage. Things can happen...like some asshole could make minimum wage $15/hour and crush my businesses.

 

[BoberFett]

LMAO!! Can't get a job at McDonald's? I've now heard it all.

The one near me has a HUGE sign out front "Now Hiring All Shifts".

Frankly, I've considered applying for a part time overnight job there just to see what all the brouhaha is about, and what these people "endure" for their $8/hr.

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

When I worked at one in high school there was a guy that got fired for making a burger from things that were going to be thrown out.

This is an avenue for theft. At one of my restaurants my partner caught someone walking out with about two dozen meatballs. He asked him and the guy said "We were gonna throw them out anyway." Our meatballs get cooked then heated in a crock-pot. You drop a couple and when you need more, put them in the crock pot. Why were 24 of them cooked? So they could be "waste" and taken home.

We put an end to that. He made him throw them away. We had several staff that were making a lot of food at the end of the shift then taking home the "waste." Not cool.

If people weren't dishonest I wouldn't have a problem with it. People game the system.