CONGLOMERATES ARE RUTHLESS!

CONGLOMERATES ARE RUTHLESS!

(Liza Featherstone Bureau of Labor Statistics)

(McDonalds Corporation 2012 Annual Report)

(Center for Economic and Policy Research)

(Congressional Budget Office, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Read an interesting article this morning about McDonalds, their corporate report for 2012, and how they, (McDonalds) dupe their employees. Although the by Ms Featherstone was interesting, it kind of lost its grasp on reality. Titled (McDuped: Why American fast food chains are exploiting their workers,) the article failed to answer the obvious question right up front. McDonalds aren’t duping their employees, their practicing a business as usual attitude.

 

A job at the local Mickey-Dees isn’t meant for people who are raising a family, or really anybody who is depending on a McDonald’s job to make ends meet. A job at McDonalds is for the young, unskilled worker, usually looking for their initial job, a preparatory period in pre-adult life to learn the value of hard work and the value of a dollar bill.

 

Now if you believe all of the above bull, I’ m wasting my time writing today’s blog, McDonald’s employees, (by and large) are kids of legal age, that want extra money because their parents won’t give them a big enough allowance and they feel the need for independence that making a few bucks can bring. There of course is the second kind of McDonald’s employee, the kid that is pushed into working in the fast food industry.

 

And finally there is a third group of people who find employment at McDonald’s, the over 40 who lost a decent job and can’t find anything else to do to put some money in his pocket. Lumped into this group are also the people that are lacking a bit in the intellect department, the slower, more vulnerable and easier to take advantage of.

 

Through all the types of workers that an average McDonald’s employs, there is one constant, the pay is low, there are no benefits and there is a sub-attitude of replaceable. Every worker at McDonalds has a feeling of fear, fear of getting on the wrong side of a supervisor, fear of making a mistake, and a feeling of being replaced.

 

Ms Featherstone’s article questions whether the average McDonald’s could survive if they were paying each of their employees $15 an hour. There has been some picketing, and a stoppage of work, demanding a raise from $7.25 an hour to as high as $15 an hour. All I can say is “nice try, and good luck”…..in finding your next low income job. I can’t find any information anywhere that says that McDonald’s is duty bound to pay its employees any more then what they are being paid right now.

 

IT’S NOT MY PROBLEM; MCDONALD’S IS IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY!

Without exception McDonald’s employees have the same wants, desires, and aspirations that everybody else in America has. Every McDonald employee has the same responsibility that everybody else in America has, rent, utilities, food, phone, car payment, and in many cases, a child to care for.

 

Just because a young McDonald employee went and got herself pregnant, or is caring for an out of wedlock child, or didn’t get either a high school diploma, or a G.E.D. equivalency…..is that McDonald’s fault, is McDonald’s duty bound to pick an employee up by his/her boot-straps and pay them a higher wage?

 

Every single McDonald’s from Bangkok, Thailand, to Madrid, Spain, to New York City, to Grand Rapids, Michigan, is in the business to make money whenever and however they can. Legally or illegally, it doesn’t matter…..as long as dollar bills or whatever denominational currency is being paid…..is paid!

 

I have known many people in their 20’s and 30’s who have worked at a McDonald’s, and, (for a time,) eeked out a survival-ship of beans, peanut-butter, and whatever scraps that they could get from their jobs. Maybe six months is all that they could survive, but they survived…..and moved on, some to better situations, others…..well not quite so good.

 

The wage scale battle…..and make no mistake, it is a battle, has been going on since a wage was paid for some sort of service that was provided by a worker. For whatever reason, down through the ages, the attitude of employer/employee has been cultivated and nurtured to where we find ourselves at this moment in time.

 

The attitude, for better or worse….. (Mostly worse) has been ingrained into our minds, and most of us that do not care to take and adventuresome attitude towards the business world, seem to accept our place in the food-chain of the work world.

 

A business owner, a supervisor, or a boss actually is no better or worse than its employees, work or a task is scheduled for completion, a supervisor or boss tells the employee to do the job…..and each moves on to the next task. If anyone along the chain of command fouls up, the entire chain is broken, and everybody suffers.

 

There you have it, no one person or position is more important than the other, unless an owner or boss is responsible to get the jobs…..than the onus is on that person to get the work done. I do hope that you understand this simple paragraph…..if not…..you’re an idiot, and I don’t like you anymore.

 

YOU EITHER LIVE IN A BUBBLE, OR WANT A PERFECT WORLD

I’ve seen all the charts, the figures and those pie circle thingies, and although their fun to read, and whoever made them must have a really fun job…..at the end of the day there all for a specific group of people…..who don’t usually eat at McDonald’s.

 

Andy McKenna is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for McDonald’s, kind of the chief Big Mac if you will. Andy is a 60 something white haired fellow who looks to be in decent shape, and I think the following fits Mr. McKenna to a “T”, Guided by our plan to win, the McDonald’s System of franchisees, suppliers and employees continued working to make our brand more modern and in step with consumers everywhere.

 

Sadly Mr. McKenna left out the part about the role of the $7.25 employee, being  just as important as he, Mr. McKenna, is…..maybe even more important. Therein lays the problem with management verses employee, the importance scale, and how usually employers, bosses and supervisors fail so completely to understand the value of a good employee.

 

McDonald’s puts up fantastic financial numbers every year, to pay their employees wouldn’t hurt the bottom line…..that much. What it would do would be admitting that they were wrong…..and the paying of higher wages across the board would be a stinging defeat in the war of higher wages. Company owners, some boards of directors and some bosses are well aware of the war, like to play it, and in fact need it.

 

 

Through all of this blog, one thing has remained a constant for me…..McDonald’s French fries are the best in the world…..and in fact would taste so good right now. Whether I buy an order of fries…..(which I will) or if I don’t, the action won’t make any difference in the war on higher wages. The only thing that can help the plight of McDonald workers is for guys like Andy McKenna to realize exactly where his paycheck comes from, and who actually made it possible.

 

HAVED A NICE DAY!