Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 29


     
     1   Q.   Save on ordering stuff.  Moving on in your statement:
     2        "Hustle.  The first few years I worked for McDonald's,
     3        approximately 90 to 93, the word 'hustle' was used very
     4        frequently.  As a crew member, and later a Manager, it
     5        always meant 'get a move on', usually when business began
     6        to pick up.  The term 'hustle' was frequently used to
     7        justify running on the front during busy periods.  Those
     8        who were not running were told to 'hustle, hustle', by
     9        myself and all other Managers.  In the context of the work
    10        environment at Bath, the word 'hustle' meant speed up in
    11        the kitchen and 'start running' on the front (service)."
    12        A.  That was, I would say, on a Saturday, and most days,
    13        you were almost expected to run on the front.  On a
    14        Saturday, for instance, if you were on till 14, which is
    15        the closest one to the front door of the store, it is the
    16        furthest till away from the shake machine, so that till
    17        would normally to do the biggest hour and it was furthest
    18        away from one of the most popular products.  So people
    19        would obviously have to run.
    20
    21        On a Saturday, you used to have people dodging through each
    22        other, but they were definitely running.  They were not
    23        strolling or walking; they were pelting back and forth.
    24        There was a determined effort -- you would try and get
    25        people to compete on what they could take in an hour, and
    26        there were prizes for people who had the highest hour.
    27        There was also, obviously, the same the other way round:
    28        if people had a low hour -- on a Saturday, every hour you
    29        used to go and get a printout of each individual till's
    30        hours, and the lowest one would normally get a reprimand;
    31        it would not be anything serious.  But the highest hour
    32        would normally get a lot of praise.
    33
    34        I do remember we were running one Saturday on the front,
    35        and then a senior Manager came in the store, and I remember
    36        him reprimanding two of the people on the front for
    37        running, when the week before they had been running, and
    38        that day they just started as they normally did, and told
    39        off for running; and so that for that one Saturday
    40        everybody was trying to walk fast.  I do not know how they
    41        described it, but it did not happen, because people were
    42        expected to still take the same amount of money as they did
    43        before, but walk doing it.  As soon as that Manager left,
    44        and we went to the next Saturday, it just went back to
    45        normal; you ran.
    46
    47        People would physically sprint up from till 14, if you were
    48        being backed and you were going for a good record hour --
    49        and, you know, the record hour is something like £300 in
    50        one hour, one till has taken £300 -- the person behind 
    51        doing the backing, i.e. getting the food order, would, you 
    52        know, be running frantically back and forward trying to get 
    53        all the food, and they would just plonk it on the counter
    54        and start with the next order, because the person on the
    55        next till has already taken the next order.
    56
    57        You would just be trying to get them through as quick as
    58        you could -- because the queue on some Saturdays was
    59        appalling; it used to go out the door; it used to go up the
    60        stairs.

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