Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A lot of attention recently has been paid to protests for higher minimum wages for entry-level work. The pressure has gotten to McDonald's, Target and Wal-Mart. Wages will be going up. Minimally. What I want to know is why there are some that continue to deride these workers that just want to get paid fairly for what they do?
I worked in fast food for almost 10 years before I moved to a better manufacturing job and will be going onto college next year. I understand the work that people put in at these places. There is little to no training done before you're just thrown into the mix.
It is hard, physically demanding, hot, dirty, stinky and requires a tremendous amount of skill to do well. I've seen "professional" people come in (during the recession especially) when they lost their white collar jobs and were forced into "degrading" fast food work. Hardly any of them made it. They were slow and could not hack it. They, with their college educations, could not work that hard or fast. I don't purport to be able to do the professional white collar jobs either. I couldn't make it in a busy stockbroker's office or running a regional logistics company.
Fast food isn't the same as those kinds of jobs. But it isn't any easier. Yes, you don't have to have any education or experience to work in fast food. But you do need skills. And you must learn them infinitely faster.
By not valuing the workers that run their business, the owner's of these businesses are creating a culture of replaceable, lazy, nearly useless workers that really have no reason to want to change. There will never be the American dream for them. And the vicious cycle will continue until someone steps up and treats workers like they ought to be treated.
LOL OP, you couldn't hack it in their job believe me. And you complaining about being thrown into the mix flipping burgers? Try being an Nurse, yes, you get training but real life is very different than real life. You must learn real life the now!... someone's life depends on it. Try working as a any medical position and believe me, flipping burgers is nothing compared to the responsibility others are required to carry.
There are a lot of jobs that not only require higher skills but require you to work many more hours. And try making a mistake there is real hell to pay. If you screw up my burger, no big deal, I'll order another.
If I had proper training, I'm sure I could make it as a nurse or any other medical profession. "Flipping Burgers" is really simplifying things. How about "handing out pills" to describe nursing?
That's exactly what I'm talking about. I have nothing against medical professionals. It's just the way people flippantly dismiss fast food workers as somehow completely classless and subhuman.
The op is partially correct. Fast food and other minimum skills jobs are hard work. Where he is wrong is forgetting that you can just throw anyone into these positions and you will have 80% of a long term employee in less than a week. After a months their is no difference between someone you has been their a month or a year.
Other higher skill positions require much more knowledge before even hitting day one. Not to mention how long it takes to get someone to 80% efficiency, let alone 100%. Plus the stakes are much higher, many times thousands of dollars are on the line every day, sometimes even more if a mistake is made. Not to mention someone's life. Or in fast food you just make the hamburger again without the pickles.
In the end backs are cheap because they are plentiful, minds are expensive because they are not.
A person with higher education and training has more leverage in negotiating pay, because there are fewer with his skills. Not so for fast food work. You don't even need to be a high school grad to hired. That goes for many low end jobs. That doesn't mean that the work isn't hard or that it doesn't require some basic work ethic, but the fact is that there is a high supply of unskilled workers that can easily take that job so the pay is comparatively low.
Can you describe in more detail the "tremendous amount of skill" that's required to work fast food?
So you either listen to a person and press some buttons that correspond to what they are saying or you read a screen and put stuff in order on a piece of paper. Or you mop and take out the trash.
Fast food jobs are hard because you have to be on your feet for long period and work quickly. It's draining mentally because the work is repetitive (boring) and customers can be difficult. It does not require any special skills though.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
