Company: McDonald-s
Date: 2018-05-08
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Only useful for a first job.
Pros: -They hire anybody. I'd be hard pressed to believe you cannot get a job here. 

-Good for a first job and some experience. A useful CV filler.

-Free McDonalds every shift. Can't argue with free food, almost makes up for the terrible pay. Almost.

-After eating McDonalds so often you start to dislike it or no longer have any desire to eat it. 

-Staff are 'diverse'. You have Uni students studying for a masters in Forensic science and then you have ... others.

-If you wanted to you could spend 6 months to progress. Becoming a manager didn't seem like a stretch if that's what you wanted.
Cons: -Pay is beyond atrocious. At 16 it was £4.25 an hour. Other entry level retail jobs break £8. The fact the pay is so little for doing the same job as a 25 year old is baffling. 

-Work conditions are what you'd expect. Hot, sweaty and greasy. Expect to come home smelling like McDonalds and thus everything in your house will too. Its not bad if you enjoy smelling of oil and chips.

-Hours are questionable, to say the least. At 16 I was scheduled to do overnight shifts, 2am finishes and 6am starts. This was while I was at 6th Form and management knew. Not certain on laws regarding child labor but It wouldn't surprise me if some were broken.

-Management abuse the fact staff are disposable. They don't hesitate to suggest firing you if you dare question anything they say. 

-Staff turnover is the worst i've ever seen. Its obvious why.

-Many staff were given free passes to skip shifts or not turn up as they were friends with the managers. This lead to staying longer, doing more and generally having a harder time making up for the 2-5 people not turning up every shift. Yes, every shift.

-Horrible work culture. Lots of talk about drinking and drugs between a lot of staff members and managers. Not the best thing to do at work, let alone when many of the staff who weren't involved were 16-18. (May have been a store specific issue)

-Management have little care for anything but stats and numbers. Hitting goals is worth more than the people who helped to achieve them. 

-Security within the workplace is also terrible. People had things stolen out of lockers and the staff room. Phones went missing and wallets disappearing  with little follow up to find out why. My bike was stolen from the locked courtyard; I was told 'Sorry' and thus walked 5 miles home at 12pm.