Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 73
1 asked to carry these boxes. Under 18 year olds
2 were regularly carrying 40 lbs of burger around
3 the store. Other duties involved washing steps,
4 mopping floors, preparing food and washing up.
5 We always used diluted washing up liquid.
6
7 I am amazed that there were no major accidents
8 in the store. People could slip easily, and if
9 they placed their hands on the grill if they
10 slipped they would be burned for life. There
11 were tiles loose on the kitchen floor and the
12 floor was often greasy. There was regular use
13 of salt scattered on the floor to absorb the
14 grease in order to try and prevent slipping.
15 I think that the design of the floor was very
16 poor. It was very easy to slip on the type of
17 tiles that they had put down. It was quite easy
18 to slide right across the floor. In fact, crew
19 regularly did this intentionally when moving at
20 high speed. If you watch carefully in a
21 McDonald's store when it is busy you can often
22 see staff skidding intentionally around the
23 kitchen in order to increase their speed.
24
25 As well as working on back room jobs I also
26 worked on all the stations in the front of the
27 store. I never received any training
28 whatsoever. I never saw any of the training
29 videos they were supposed to show. So far as
30 I was aware, nobody had any formal training at
31 my store. There was a video screen in the
32 Manager's office but it was never used for
33 training. I went to two rap sessions but
34 thought they were a total waste of time. They
35 achieved nothing. They were completely designed
36 to suit the interests of McDonald's. If anybody
37 complained, this enabled management to see who
38 the troublemakers were. Nothing good ever came
39 from a rap session. The only things people
40 discussed at these sessions were staff discos
41 etcetera. People were just too scared to air
42 their grievances. Anybody who wished was
43 allowed to attend a rap session. Approximately
44 25 employees used to attend each one and were
45 paid for their time.
46
47 "One had to pass exams in order to get badge
48 stars. The exams were ridiculously simple.
49 There were also monthly assessments, and if you
50 did well in the assessments and the exams, you
51 were supposed to get stars. Management used to
52 generally hand out the stars as and when they
53 fancied.
54
55 "By the time I left, I had a yellow badge
56 awarded to all employees after a month of
57 employment. I never got any stars.
58
59 "Only about five per cent of the staff at my
60 store disliked the job as much as I did.
