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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

#371

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

Cldfire wrote: post #276
monoideism wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked several years in both retail and waiting/busing tables (full-time, not just as a part-time college job), I have a great deal of empathy for folks stuck in these minimum wage jobs. That said, if I could get a retail job that paid what I make as a dev, I’d definitely consider it. Retail was grueling, but at the same time much less psychological pressure, and much less mentally exhausting. I always say I’m…

I share this view myself, neat to see someone else feels the same way. I'm a CS student and I've been working at a Panera for about a year now. I love my particular store and the work environment is great; I genuinely look forward to going to work every day. I'll miss my coworkers when I have to quit soon to start my programming career. That being said, I understand why those jobs could never realistically pay anythi…

I work in cybersecurity now, but worked retail for 7 years, fast food (Subway) for 6 years, and a ride op at a major theme park (Cedar Point) for 2 summers.

If I could work the ride op or fast food jobs at my current salary, I'd take them in a heart beat. Hell, I might even take the ride op job for half the salary because the job could sometimes be a lot of fun.

But retail? Hell no. You could offer me double my salary and I'd still hesitate before accepting it. People treat retail employees like utter garbage. We once had a customer berate a cashier to tears, yelling at her and literally calling her an "incompetent stupid bitch", because his credit card was being declined and he was insisting she was just entering his card wrong.

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

#372

Post by npo9 »

thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #368

One thing that made her life so difficult is the difficulty of getting to and from work. It's pretty crazy that we spend nearly 15% of GDP on transportation costs. I mean sure, we can all reduce the expenses by buying a 10 year old Prius and get our travel costs down. but, a big part of the problem is that housing is always so far away from work. 500 years ago, people lived within a mile or less of their work places.…

A great short term solution would be to increase the investment in the local bus system. Full buses have a much better carbon footprint than single passenger cars.

The article highlights a real need for more bus stops and 24/hr bus service.

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

#373

Post by irrational »

jackhack wrote: post #207
derg wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

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…

Recently I had to try to do a task using our software because the person that normally uses it was not available. The process sucked and I quickly made changes to make it much more useable. The person was nearly in tears after trying my fixes. I asked the person why they never said anything and they said they thought it would be too hard to fix (it wasn't) and that I always seemed busy so they didn't want to bother me.

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

#374

Post by seem_2211 »

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…

My first job was working in a supermarket, on the register and collecting the trolleys. You got a break roughly 90-120 minutes. You REALLY miss one / notice when you're running late.

Now I work in an office. It's nothing to go 4-6 hours without stopping. But of course I can stop and pop out for a coffee or a snack, or lunch whenever I want.

$4 extra an hour would change this woman's life (and a lot of other people like her). $4 extra an hour.. I don't think I'd notice it.

Many of us are SO SO fortunate, we can't even begin to imagine how good we have it.

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

#375

Post by npo9 »

dekhn wrote: post #272

I was a McDonald's cashier many years ago in high school. I could not figure out any possible way to make it work (in the sense of being able to rent a minimal apartment and feed myself). At the time I think my salary was $5/hour and they wouldn't schedule more than 20 hours a week ($400/month). the managers (all of whom had gone to "hamburger U" in Chicago) didn't seem to be doing well, either- they worked 80 hours,…

It’s funny how people will try to make you feel guilty for walking away from a bad deal.

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

#376

Post by scarface74 »

This by far not a popular opinion, but some jobs aren’t worth $15 an hour. We shouldn’t force social policy on private corporations. Sure she needs more than $9.15/hour to live as an adult and pay for insurance but a teenager staying at home doesn’t.

I am strong believer in a social safety net but I think that should be the role of government. She shouldn’t have to depend on private corporations for insurance, that should be the taken care of by government like it is in every other first world country.

We already have a program where the government (instead of corporate America) recognizes that the monetary needs of an adult is different from that of a teenager staying at home - the Earned Income Tax Credit. We as a country should both make that more generous and easier to be distributed through out the year. Historically, the EITC was supported by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

It shouldn’t take her two hours to get to work, we need better public transportation. Heck barring that I wouldn’t be opposed to subsidizing private transportation solutions like working with Uber and Lyft if it’s cheaper long term.

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

#377

Post by reaperducer »

city41 wrote: post #286
reaperducer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonald's around me have already replaced cashiers with kiosks Here, too. But usually half of them are broken in one way or another, like the touch screen doesn't respond or the receipt printer is out of paper, or something I saw in a TV commercial isn't in the menu structure, or the pricing isn't the same as in an ad, etc... These are things a cashier is still needed for. As an aside, I find it curious that my loca…

> These are things a cashier is still needed for. Is a cashier needed, or just an on call tech who oversees a dozen restaurants? I would imagine working on the kinks in the kiosks and improving their reliability to be doable.

Is a cashier needed, or just an on call tech who oversees a dozen restaurants?

And while the store waits a couple of days for the $75/hour tech to show up, $10,000 walks out the door. Better to pay for a $15 cashier.

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

#378

Post by blotter_paper »

jdkdnfndnfjd wrote: post #320
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…

This is an excellent policy. I think people should also be forced to live in a dangerous ghetto before voting to take away my guns and capital punishment. I wasn’t a staunch supporter of either of those things until I had experience with situations that they are relevant to.

Wanting guns to protect yourself with seems like a position that could come from this experience. Why capital punishment? IIRC it hasn't been shown to reduce crimes of passion, and there are other ways to keep dangerous people off the street, so I don't see how it follows. I'm not fundamentally opposed to capital punishment (though I recognise that it's more expensive than life in prison given the current system), I just don't see how it relates to living in a shitty area. I have lived in neighborhoods where I was accosted by strangers on a fairly regular basis, and those experiences have made me glad to own a firearm, but they haven't moved my views on capital punishment in either direction.

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

#379

Post by amatecha »

jniedrauer wrote: post #310
eyepea2007 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and imagine if the moonlighting software devs were only getting paid what the warehouse workers were receiving, instead of their normal developer pay.. the work becomes a lot "harder" / more thankless when your pay is 1/3 or 1/4 as much.

Add on the stress of wondering where your next meal is coming from, or how you're going to pay rent this month... every day, for the rest of your life, and your quality of life sinks dramatically.

Yeah this stuff literally changes your life in pretty much every aspect. I have personally observed the shift in peoples' way of living and thinking as they move from one financial situation to another, whether upward or downward. I try to regularly reflect on my situation and recognize how comparatively lucky I am to be in the position I am in, and how it's never "set in stone".

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

#380

Post by technotarek »

sebringj wrote: post #32

Before I had a programmer job when i was younger, i completely 100% empathize with her in having those types of thankless jobs and constantly being tired. I can't imagine being trapped in that going forward. I bootstrapped my situation but I had a nice parents, a middle-class upbringing and a decent school to start everything, and a knack for programming... but I know/met so many who do not have this leg up in whatev…

I give a lot of credit to my success to my work ethic, which was nurtured by my parents encouraging me to work at a young age. Paper route by 10, then a soccer referee, then a janitor in a public ice arena. It’s amazing what you learn about hard work from cleaning a hockey locker room. The thing is I didn’t even “need” those jobs. The money was largely spent on a massive CD collection (which I eventually sold to buy an early iPod). Still, those jobs have had a tremendous impact on who I am and give me respect for labor of all kinds.
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