Company: McDonald-s
Date: 2015-10-12
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

The good, the bad, and the ugly
Pros: Working at McDonald's is like being part of a really big, really dysfunctional family. Everyone gets along (for the most part) and has each other's back. Of course working at a 24 hour store means that your social life becomes quite unpredictable, and this means that most employees start becoming friends outside of work.
I work in a 24 hour store and some days I won't finish until 2:30am, the only people who understand how exhausting it is working at McDonald's are in fact, other McDonald's workers, so they become your support.
As a general rule, you do have some say over when you do and don't have shifts scheduled. If for instance you need Thursday's off to spend the day with your grandparents every week then you put in your availability that Thursday's are a no go. Occasionally the shift scheduler actually pays attention to it.
Admittedly McDonald's does do a great career programme. After a while you can do the crew trainer course, after you become a crew trainer you can ask to be put in the managers course to become a shift manager. If you do that then you spend two years getting a business management degree whilst actually being paid for it. Unfortunately that seems to be the end of it unless the higher up managers leave.
You also get a mcpassport which apparently means that if you go into a McDonald's anywhere in Europe then they have to give you a job, unless they have no spots, in which case they'll call up other stores to give you a job. Essentially, you should in theory be able to work and travel.
Cons: The big, dysfunctional family sounds lovely, but if you don't possess a certain type of personality then you will quickly find yourself ostracised from everyone in the store, save a few who feel pity for you. If you're too enthusiastic about your job then you also will suddenly find that people stop wanting to talk to you as much.
In our crew room, conversation thrives on how much everyone hates their job and can't wait to get another one, but at the same time most people are reluctant to leave their close friends.
People look down on McDonald's workers like something they just stepped in, and speak to us as such. They can't seem to see that we're going as fast as we can, and we can't magic food out of thin air. 
If the milkshake machine isn't working, I get treated as if I personally sabotaged the machine just to spite them. One guy actually wanted me personally to call his wife and tell her that the mcflurry machine wasn't working because he was that annoyed at driving 10 minutes just for an ice cream when we had none. People would also rather get an employee into trouble for something that wasn't their fault, than admit they were wrong about something. 
The abuse you get when you work at McDonald's is more than you'll receive in most jobs, except the dreaded traffic wardens and door to door sales, and we do it for minimum wage. 
I admit that a monkey could probably do the job on a slow day, but when you have 20 orders round the drive thru, a queue out the door in store, and you're taking 3 or 4 orders at once, it becomes another thing entirely. You're in a hot environment, surrounded by people who are constantly getting in your way, or stealing the food that you've put aside for one of your customers, you have customers getting irate at you for having to wait for then 30 seconds, and during all this you're supposed to maintain that friendly exterior. 
The hours are ridiculous, I work full time and sometime in in work twice on the same day. Occasionally I'll finish at 2:30am and be due back in at 2pm the same day. Our breaks are few and far between, anything over a 5 hour shift, all the way up to 10 hours, warrants only a 45 minute break. That is the only time you're allowed to sit down. For me, the hardest part of the job is the constant being on your feet. Standing up for pretty much 9 hours solid does a number on you, sitting down after that becomes equally as painful.
Having to find a manager to ask for a drink is also a tad irritating. When it's incredibly busy and you have 10 seconds spare before the next customer, you don't have time to hunt for a manager. But if you're caught having a drink of water without asking, then you're in trouble.