Working At McDonald’s Sucks
This is a paper I wrote in 20 minutes for my Engineering Psychology class. It’s kinda drafty, but, um, whatever.
Indi Samarajiva
indi[at]indi.ca
Describe a work situation from the point of view of Engineering Psychology. 2 pages.
When I was 14 I worked at McDonald’s. I was too young to flip burgers, so I either worked the cash or at the drive-thru window. The job was menial and boring, yet surprisingly easy to mess up. My job could be described in 3 steps.
1. Take verbal order from customer
2. Enter order on touchpad, which transmits a ticket to the Kitchen
3. Collect Cash
My argument here is that the customer can perform the 2nd step and possibly 3rd step themselves and spare me the trouble. Then I could work in the kitchen or elsewhere and speed up the service. Or they could eliminate my crappy job altogether. Simple self-serve kiosks have already been set-up in places like Durham, North Carolina (http://www.wral.com/technology/2350512/detail.html), and I think that this is a good idea.
McDonalds runs an Information Processing system. It takes verbal orders from customers and converts those orders into written tickets. Those tickets were the language of McDonalds.
It was my job to use the touchpad to translate from English to McDonaldese. The customer would say, “Number 1, with a Coke” and I would push “Combo #1″, “Coke.” That would transmit a ticket to the kitchen. The touchpad would get confusing, especially with special orders (no pickles, etc), but it wasn’t that bad. The operations involved were not especially complicated, and they have since been simplified into easy to use photo menus. Sometimes I would mess up the order and people would get grumpy, and I’d be like ‘Why don’t you use the damn touchpad?’ And, now, people are beginning to do just that.
It is better for everyone if the customer could interface directly with the kitchen without me. If I entered the order correctly nobody was at all impressed, but if I messed it up people got mad at me. It was not a very rewarding job. I was never applying my human intelligence to solve problems or be creative. I just felt like I was performing the job of a computer, badly. Having a human interface between McDonalds and the customer just introduces errors into the system. It would be better to allow the customer to interface directly with McDonalds. It makes for a more efficient workplace.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
I was just thinking that anytime a Company or Government can interface directly with Consumers/Citizens it’s better. Administration and Bureaucracy should gradually be replaced with Technology. I think real democracy is coming soon, Global Forums and Global Free Speech. On the Net.
I remember working at McDs when I was 15 (I’m 25 now) I fully agree with you it WAS a suckass job, dealing with irate customers, I still remember some of the customers and would still like to shove a Big Mac and large coke up their cheap Cuban welfare sucking asses.
Lanta (also 15) had a cool job he was a lifeguard in South Beach. After work I always used to go to the beach and sit next to him on the lifeguard stand. It was fun watching him blow his whistle and wave and gesture at the jackasses who went too far out of his sight. Sometimes he would even have to go and rescue some dumbass tourist from Missouri because he doesn’t know how to swim in the ocean and got pulled the fuck out into the ocean by a rip tide. YOU HAVE TO SWIM PARALLEL TO THE WAVES YOU ASSCLOWN!!!
do u have a picture so ican learn how to do it for McDonalds
I love that the Google ad for this comes up as “end procrastination now!” and is for self-hypnosis. And Rachel, I’m sorry mate, good luck!
i currently work at mcdonalds as a back grill person flipping burgers and shit. it does suck ass. all the employees are fucking assholesand they only give me fuckin 6 or 7 hours a week.
Interesting comments.. :D