The McD and O'Dea Connection

Though it's some five years old, it struck such a chord with me that I keep a copy of it on the bulletin board at my desk... it's the want ad (text only) of a man named Brian O'Dea.

My first paid job was working for McDonald's in the Philippines while in high school. When I went to look for summer work during college, I didn't think my McDonald's experience was promotable material, but after seeing what Brian O'Dea was able to do with his employment history, I realized I was selling myself short.

The Philippine economy was such that working at McDonald's was considered a gainful employment, so as a high schooler I was working shoulder to shoulder with young adults who were building careers working for the golden arches. As a foreigner, my visa didn't allow for me to earn money for my work - technically, I was a McDonald's volunteer. As students we ran some fundraisers at school to raise the money which we would use to virtually pay ourselves. For reference, we raised enough money to get about $1/hour which due to the Philippine economy was still more than what the actual employees were making.

I vividly recall my initial training session, the trainer emphasizing what the name and logo stood for, to produce quality food in a timely fashion; the need to always provide a positive experience for the customers and doing it with a smile. Apparently, the conventional wisdom was that after working at McDonald's you'd grow to hate it and never be able to eat at the restaurant again. In my case the complete opposite occurred. From that first training session, I dove head first into the vat they call McD's. I simply ate it up. I worked in multiple stations: cleaning tables (in the Philippines, employees throw out the customer's trash once their done with their meal), working the register, making French fries, dressing the burgers, drive-thru and running the apple pie/fish filet station. Virtually earning $1/hour was nice, but I liked the free meal more than anything else.

While I was told that after working for a summer in McDonald's I'd never want to eat the food again, to this day I'm a frequent McD's customer. The condition and level of service at today's McD's leave me disheartened. The standards which were emphasized during my orientation and training have been lost. Cleanliness of the restaurants and cooking areas doesn't appear to be as high a priority as it was. Serving drive-thru customers in 30-seconds or less doesn't appear to be the goal. Greeting each customer with a friendly smile and a "Welcome to McDonald's how may I help you?" doesn't happen to me at each visit. I relished the challenge of trying to achieve those standards with each customer I had the honor of serving during my McDonald's years.

Here's the crazy part. I enjoyed working at McDonald's so much that I often worked 12-hour shifts for them. I just thoroughly enjoyed the work! That's the selling point I was missing.