Golden Arches

A while back I mentioned that McD's have put free wi-fi access into many of their stores (don't ask me how many I work for a franchisee.)

I happen to be in Bolton this morning so popped into their for me employee brekky and have my laptop so hooked into the wifi system.

Out of morbid curiosity I ran speedtest.net to see how fast the connection is.

7 Mbps

I'm impressed, that's a lot quicker than I have at home! They just need to sort the service out here, bar al the riff-raff and get comfier seats and I'll be hooked!!!

So, it's all doom and gloom, the economy has hit the buffers and I've not contributed here for a while.

But the people behind the Big Yellow "M" in the UK have knocked out a record year (sales wise) and basicaaly embarrassed the Americans (after all it's their business)

So, how are McDonald's succeeding in such piss poor times?

Simple, it's cheap and cheerful. All of a sudden we are tightening our belts (figuratively speaking) and Frankie and Benny's is now out of the question. But we have become accustomed to eating out from the good times. Wel I say "we" I'm glad you have but I don't ever seem to have enough spare cash to eat out as much as some seem to!!!!!

But this Christmas, just about every store operating normally has knocked out record after record.

Who'd have thought it, I've just found a recession-proof business!

One of my very first blogs was about how the company at a regional meeting were singing the praises of franchising and how it is the way to go.

I knew then that it was only a matter of time before it came to our little sleepy corner of the northwest.

And sure enough on Monday it did.

My ops con and ops manager walked in to announce that we are being sold off with the store.

Guess this renders my blog obelete now!

I said, jokingly, earlier in the year that we had been through more products than Tesco stock.

I don't actually see the funny side anymore.

Another month, yet another frigging promo.

This time, camembert bites with caramelised onion dip, mincemeat and custard pies (which bizarrely some customers actually think contain ground beef!!!!), a sage and onion type tortila wrap, and the biggest fucking cheeseburger that you'll ever see!

I'll be honest, I struggle to train my staff at the basics of day to day shit, these items are just adding extra work to my already creaking jobs list.

But, I still don't blame work, I blame you, the customer.

After all, you ask, you get.

For the love of all that is good, McDonald's is a burger bar!!!!! Just roll with the punches and buy a bloody Big Mac and a Coke!!!!!!!!!

I try to credit my customers with some level of ................ intelligence, credibility ................ anything to not make me consider you a complete cretin.

But right now I'm struggling.

I recently had a family death, and although I will never bring personal matters to work, I'm struggling to find patience for stupid or difficult customers.

After all, if something that McDonald's does upsets you so much that you feel compelled to abuse the manager then maybe, just maybe it's time to reassess the issues in your life that really matter.

Take, for example, the complete bonehead that decided to give me grief at 10.40 because we had no breakfast items left (we stop breakfast at 10.30 for those who don't know)

After 2 attempts to be as polite as possible in explaining why he couldn't have his beloved Egg McMuffin and getting abuse in return, my patience wore out,

"I can understand why you feel aggrieved that you can't have what you want, but I have to ask, what was wrong with the four and a half hours that we were actually serving breakfast to come in for it?"

Silly thing to do, but I was on a roll,

"I mean, do you have some insight into how we should serve breakfast all day, or when we should ideally switch over to our main menu?"

Can't wait to see that complaint hit our system! Gonna have it framed!

I love my job.

Don't get me wrong, it is great that the company is offering English and Maths qualifications through the employee website, OurLounge.

But, glancing through it today (sad I know) I saw a position open at head office for a property administrator.

Reading through the job description it all looked good and well until I saw some of the requirements which included being able to copy type at 40wpm and knowlege of some fairly specialist software.

Not really that open then.

McDonald's has rapidly evolved its employee practices over the years to actually be recognised as a respected employer in the UK (contrary to some opinion.)

But this isn't enough as far as I'm concerned, I want more.

If these types of jobs are available through Our Lounge, then why the hell can't they offer me training for the skills for that job: after all, there is no better experience than that of those who are currently on the front line.

A demand for extra specialist training may seem a lot to ask, but is it really?

It is used as a sweetener to recruit bus drivers and apparently helps keep them where they are.

How about in the big, bad world of burgers?

I spend a good chunk of my life in my store doing everything to keep things runing smoothly (you seen that BT ad with Gordon Ramsey playing with a PC and his kitchen in total chaos? That's what things are like if the managers are off the shop floor at mine for any length of time!!!!!!!)

The McJob ads say that half the boardroom started as Crew  - but it doesn't mention how many of them were part time whilst at university. I'm not university educated but very capable and frankly, like any other manager very expensive to replace. So why not give us extra skills and keep us busy with different roles?

And lastly, many law firms put their trainees through uni,

So just how unreasonable is it to demand specialist training in different areas of the business?

I'm becoming increasingly concerned for the state of mind of the McD Marketing team.

Promo after promo they put out bizarre (and usually crap) adverts to market the products that the rest of us make and sell.

Take the American thingy that we are doing at the mo.... WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!

When I see these adverts I become instantly irritable and overcome with a desire to burn down the weird octogan in East Finchley.

I hate to think what paying customers think of the ads!

Until now a majority of restaurants offered internet access through BT Openzone.

A few months ago the company had a falling out with BT, by moving the ISP for all company restaurants over to The Cloud (perhaps this was a hint that I should have noticed.)

So, for daring to move our ISP, BT took their bat and ball home and withdrew the Openzone service (how the fuck childish can you get?????)

But, just for once, one of the company buyers had been very shrewd, and The Cloud jumped in the breach and not only said that they were going to provide a Wi-Fi service in the restaurants, but a FREE wi-fi service!!!!!

It started to go live on 8th October (takes a while to have phone lines installed in 1300 restaurants, especially when BT are responsible for installing them) with all restaurants live by the end of the year.

So, soon you'll be able to enjoy a coffee, free internet access and get to watch a parent beating their children in the play area (the cabaret is free!!!)

Nope, not the track from Pink Floyd's 1973 DSOM album, but a growing mentality to be found in many store based staff and managers.

This is the second of my entries given over to answering Sparkly_diamond's comments in my Mc6a.m. entry,

I know thats customer demand according to the bigwigs who sit in central office and who incidently will not be working due to their "office" hours.

The context of sparkly's comment was about the proposed opening times over the Xmas and NY period, but they have actually hit on something that is more endemic in the company.

Many of our support services (supply chain, restaurant services, marketing, HR, construction, estates, payroll, accounts, banking, customer service) etc are based in our Head Office (East Finchley) or Regional Offices (Sutton Coldfield, Oakwood, Glasgow and Salford) and our hierarchy also live out of these offices. With the exception of customer service and supply chain, the departments work ordinary office hours.

Usually store based managers get on very well with the other departments (with the exception of the jobsworths at Customer Service) but there is a growing level of general animosity from store based teams.

And, in my view, it is not at the different working cultures (as far as I'm aware, store based grades attract a premium over office based, but I could be wrong.) Instead, it is at the lack of consultation or invitation for input that store teams are given.

Twice a year I sit in some corporate suite in a hotel or stadium and listen to my senior managers and other department heads tell us what will be happening over the next few months.

I don't recall once being asked by one of my managers,

"What do you think we should be doing?" to any real business issue.

I find this to be a liitle strange: we are trusted to run a multi-million pound business yet we are never invited to offer input on its' development. There is a fledgling system in place where crew et al can offer suggestions, yet it would be insulting to think that this is the only way that the people who run the business can contribute ideas.

It is ironic that in an age where we are told that "tell and do" management is not a good business practice, that this is exactly what our Ops Hierarchy are doing to us.

This style of management is making managers increasingly hostile toward both their hierarchy and to the support departments whom they hold guilty by association.

Sparkly_diamond makes another very valid point as well: the perception is that Office based staff and the hierarchy in general sit in their ivory towers (or weird octagon as East Finchley could be described) whilst the rest of us act as cannon fodder.

I would suggest to these teams that every office based worker should spend at least one week spread out over a year working crew shifts to remind them of what they are working for (and by shifts I mean outside of normal office hours getting their hands dirty.)

Of course it could be suggested that store managers should do the opposite, but our jobs already involve doing many of the things that individual departments follow up for us anyway.

"'tis the season to be jolly.........." Nope, not lost my mind, but did you know that it is less than............ er.............. a few months until xmas.

The header of my blog says that I'll answer questions (the reasonable ones anyway) honestly, and I finally got one, woohoo!!!

I got asked this in a comment to a previous entry and it really got me thinking,

What's you opinion on the new christmas opening hours then?

I'm within management, within a different group to yours and I am total...........how shall i put this......frustrated by the fact that my store will be open untill 11pm christmas eve and open from 8am on boxing day, same for new years!!!!

It sucks big time! Especially as christms is meant to be a time for family and it's hard enough with mcd's only being shut christmas day without the extra time to fit family around.

I have very young children who the magic of christmas is still there and I do not want to miss out just for mcd's!

comment on Mc6a.m. paraphrased 

We've not had our opening for Xmas and NY confirmed yet, and I'm not looking forward to it now either.

My colleague first talks of the expectation placed on the management team to open later at Xmas and NY than has been expected in recent years.

My colleague also talks of the worry of not being able to spend proper quality time over xmas with their children which, quite frankly, is the sign of a good parent. How can my colleague do this with the expectation of the company?

A classic clash of work and family. So, my views?

I'll be honest, this one has really made me think, and I like the way that it has made me have to think.

I like it because I have my view as a bloke with no issue working most hols, no family committments or childen, but I have an empathy for my colleagues who do.

So, the opening hours for the, as the Americans say, Holiday Season.

My first reaction is,

"Have the regional ops team got a fucking clue what they're doing?!?!"

I'll be honest, if my ops con (Operations Consultant - person that Restaurant Manager answers to) announced to us that we were to open until 11 on xmas eve then I'd honestly think that they were taking the piss.

The vast majority of my crew rely on buses to get to and from work. there will be no buses.

So, it will be either a lift from the shift manager or taxis. Which shift manager in their right mind would be offering lifts at that time on Xmas Eve?

So, it's taxis; at Xmas Day rates!!!!!!!

Not particularly well thought out then.

I'll put it this way, when we do the schedule for a bank holiday we already know the buses that our crew get and check on the transport website before we set out the schedule to make sure that everyone is fairly scheduled. A close this late before "THE" bank holiday is silly to say the least.

If I were to tell my crew that they would be working into xmas day I would get one of two things,
 1. A shift so critically understaffed that I'd have to close.
 2. My entire crew walking off shift in time for the last bus.

Until public transport companies adopt continental practices then people in the service sector cannot work longer hours. That's just the way it is.

Actually, that's my only reaction.

McDonald's family friendly approach

Oh boy, won't this one be fun!!!!

In total honesty, I'm a bloke with no family committment, no religious belief and no children so I have no objection to working through any form of holiday.

In fact, the last few Xmas Days I have spent some time in work doing equipment checks (and it never ceases to amaze me that when someone sees a car outside the building and a light on they pass through the drive thru just in case!!!!!)

And one restaurant not a million miles away from me is considering opening on Xmas Day as the cross section of staff and willingness of managers allows it

But I understand and appreciate the extra demands put on my colleagues with family: and trying to enjoy Christmas with no weekend off and no prospect of leave whilst all the offices close down and the kids are on holiday is no fun.

I'm left with one term that I've had to use with my fiancee on several occasions when she has been upset at my shift pattern,

"It's the job."

And, unfortunately for McDonald's managers, that is the top and bottom of it.

Salaried managers for McDonald's get paid the best in the industry, but that salary comes with a premium at our cost. And as my first manager said,

"There's a reason why it is a young company"

And he is right. The job is demanding; maybe not intentionally, but I could compare it to he police force. It involves shift work, long hours, an intense level of pressure. In fact, a friend of mine who is a police officer thinks I got a bum deal.

It will come as no comfort to my colleague who has kids, but the modern McDonald's might be designed to attract families, but the business model doesn't consider the family life of its' managers (and a "work life balance" bollocks thing in the PRs doesn't count for shit, my BM knows no more of the state of my relationship than a pea knows the history of Birds Eye!)

So, my thoughts.

We are a multicultural society; several of my team are currently fasting and will soon be celebrating Eid. These are also people who will want shifts at Christmas, which is how our Rochdale colleagues will be open on Xmas Day, such is the way of the world.

And it is worth pointing out that every manager should be asked if they wish to work Xmas or NY (then you fight out which you actually work!!!!)

But, and I'm going out on a limb here, if someone were to get a copy of the salaried personnel files from Salaried Admin then the vast majority of Salaried Managers would be caucasian Christian descendants who celebrate Xmas (not through any institutional racism but simply how things have turned out!)

I am doing everything I can to accomodate my team who are currently fasting and organising their time for Eid. Over the Xmas and NY period what are my managers doing to accomodate those who have families or faith?

"It's the job" only works to an extent, after which you see disillusionment and resentment.

Quite frankly, in my time with the company I have seen a shift to servicing the customer at all costs, and this is making my job increasing suitable only to those with no committments. You'd never see that on one of the McJob posters!

I understand that, at the end of the day that we answer to customers, but without the families to support so many of the managers that put so much into the company what can you hope for? It is almost perverse that a family oriented company is (unintentionally) awkward to managers who have families.

As for Xmas opening times: couldn't comment on anywhere else, but where I'm based they would be unworkable unless my Ops Con would be willing to pay for the taxi himself. This unfortunately smacks of an ops team out of touch.