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.
