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A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

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Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#431

Post by larrywright »

rconti wrote: post #338
larrywright wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The restaurants are almost entirely owned by franchisees and run on fairly tight margins. You can argue that the corporation makes too much money or whatever, but they’re not the ones who will be screwed if I’m right.

Are you arguing the franchisees are hurting as well? Or are you just arguing that the franchisees are also getting rich by paying people as little as possible?

I’m arguing that the restaurants aren’t especially profitable and their margins are thin. It’s a bit like a rental property, in the sense that you have to have more than a couple in order to make much money at it.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#432

Post by formercoder »

taurath wrote: post #411
formercoder wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a capex vs opex question. Raise minimum wage enough and firms cross the border to investing in capex such that they replace employees.

If they’re on the fence already, then they should be doing it. A few hundred dollars a day means next to nothing to McDonald’s, and everything to the workers. Don’t hold the threat of automation over them, if it’s gonna happen rip the bandaid off.

It’s not a matter of a few hundred dollars a day. It’s a matter of whether the decision to replace workers is NPV positive. It’s clearly only so up until the point they are at now with the kiosks.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#433

Post by scarface74 »

freeflight wrote: post #430
jackhack wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Walmart does something interesting for their software development process. Say a developer is working on a warehouse automation system -- that dev. is then trained and works in the warehouse for a month. Same goes for checkout/cashier, or customer service, or whatever. You WORK that job for a month and you'll un…

> Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Imho that's trying to solve a symptom, not the actual problem. Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$? Instead, it somehow has become completely normalized that these kinds of jobs exist, and anybody who doesn't want to work them is considered "too entitled", which all goes back to this not…

So are you saying that we shouldn’t have any jobs like the ones at McDonalds, the convenience store, etc?

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#434

Post by hurrdurr2 »

rb808 wrote: post #130

In the old days middle class kids all had real service/manual jobs as teenagers & college students. Its scary that now the new generation has to read about what it is like.

McDonald's was my first job in high school. I took it because I wanted to get away from being slave labor to my parents who owned a liquor store.

I worked there for a year with a rotating cast of characters including those from first generation immigrant /low income backgrounds such as myself. One thing that year taught me? I needed to get into a good college and learn something useful.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#435

Post by xyzzyz »

freeflight wrote: post #430
jackhack wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Walmart does something interesting for their software development process. Say a developer is working on a warehouse automation system -- that dev. is then trained and works in the warehouse for a month. Same goes for checkout/cashier, or customer service, or whatever. You WORK that job for a month and you'll un…

> Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Imho that's trying to solve a symptom, not the actual problem. Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$? Instead, it somehow has become completely normalized that these kinds of jobs exist, and anybody who doesn't want to work them is considered "too entitled", which all goes back to this not…

> Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$?

We do strive, which is why we have non-shit jobs now. After the advent of agriculture, overwhelming majority of people has worked mundane, tiring, repetitive and straining jobs. It’s only recent increases in technology allowed us to produce immense amounts of wealth, finally allowing huge swaths of population to enjoy light, interesting and fun jobs. We still have lots of shit jobs out there, but don’t worry, we’re working on that.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#436

Post by soperj »

freeflight wrote: post #430
jackhack wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Walmart does something interesting for their software development process. Say a developer is working on a warehouse automation system -- that dev. is then trained and works in the warehouse for a month. Same goes for checkout/cashier, or customer service, or whatever. You WORK that job for a month and you'll un…

> Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Imho that's trying to solve a symptom, not the actual problem. Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$? Instead, it somehow has become completely normalized that these kinds of jobs exist, and anybody who doesn't want to work them is considered "too entitled", which all goes back to this not…

They were saying that people complaining about their good job and how they were overworked had never worked a shit job. If you eliminate the shit jobs, people will still complain.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#437

Post by redpilotfoztail »

derg wrote: post #144
duxup wrote: post #112

I worked a pizza (among others) job through high school and college. I've been overworked at many professional technical jobs in different roles before. I'm paid a great deal more now, and yet I was never more tired or worn out or found it hard to study than when I worked the ovens at the pizza place. I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their tim…

>I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their time in the fancy break room with all the perks. Many I suspect have no clue. Not that it's a realistic idea but damn if everyone had experiencing working in the demanding, underpaid, crappy jobs in the service industry, we might be more empathetic and better off as a whole.

This could be part of highschool. Large swathes of content are ultimately useless and forgotten, there's room to force an off campus job at a dominoes or elsewhere. The main downside would be that these students would be competing against people who actually need the money.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#438

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

scarface74 wrote: post #433
freeflight wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Imho that's trying to solve a symptom, not the actual problem. Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$? Instead, it somehow has become completely normalized that these kinds of jobs exist, and anybody who doesn't want to work them is considered "too entitled", which all goes back to this not…

So are you saying that we shouldn’t have any jobs like the ones at McDonalds, the convenience store, etc?

It's pretty obvious that @freeflight mean these jobs don't necessarily have to be shit.

They can be low / lower pay and still be a fairly reasonable place to work with fairly reasonable people to work with.

But, if we accept that work conditions fit some kind of natural distribution / bell curve, it's probably unrealistic to believe there will be no shit jobs.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#439

Post by TomVDB »

scarface74 wrote: post #433
freeflight wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Imho that's trying to solve a symptom, not the actual problem. Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$? Instead, it somehow has become completely normalized that these kinds of jobs exist, and anybody who doesn't want to work them is considered "too entitled", which all goes back to this not…

So are you saying that we shouldn’t have any jobs like the ones at McDonalds, the convenience store, etc?

He's saying that those jobs at McDonalds etc should be made easier on the employees.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#440

Post by PhasmaFelis »

scarface74 wrote: post #433
freeflight wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everybody needs a &^%$ job once in a while to reset their empathy scale. Imho that's trying to solve a symptom, not the actual problem. Why does society tolerate &^%$ jobs in the first place? Why not strive to make jobs non-&^%$? Instead, it somehow has become completely normalized that these kinds of jobs exist, and anybody who doesn't want to work them is considered "too entitled", which all goes back to this not…

So are you saying that we shouldn’t have any jobs like the ones at McDonalds, the convenience store, etc?

I believe they're saying that we, as a society, could make some effort to make those jobs less soul-sucking.
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