Working at McDonalds - HELL within 1 week

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I worked in fast food when I was 18. Although I could handle the job duties just fine, even at the frenetic lunch rush pace, I sometimes felt like my boss was placing TOO much importance on speed, at the expense of preparing the food properly. It was as though she were in some kind of tight race against a service time cutoff for a $1,000,000 bonus!! Contrary to the training videos, I was frequently ordered/pressured to keep fries and chicken under the heat lamps past their timers, in the name of reducing food cost. I was sometimes even ordered to undercook food just to get a customer out the door 20 seconds faster!! !

I'm glad I don't have to do that kind of work anymore.

Well the more calm atmosphere of doing just lobby work at McDonalds has gone down the sh*tter as once again I am stuck doing Prep once again...

I probably didn't mention this in my first post since I was over stressed at the time, but I HATE prep for a few reasons:

--Getting up at at out there at 5am = I know this sound juvenile, but I am just not a morning person. (Or at the very least, a person that likes to get up after 8AM or 9AM
--Too much changing of pace rather than staying with a solid regime in how things are done/performed.
--Practically it's a fast-paced environment with low-tolerable people.

I'm going to give McDonalds another week while I look at Data Entry jobs in the hopes of finding something less stressful for me because it's clearly obvious that food service has finally lost my patience with it. I just hope 2 months of working at it helps me with finding another job.

If anyone can offer any sort of job that aspies are exceptionally more comfortable in would be greatly appreciated. I'm currently looking into acquiring a job in data entry.

I think a rule of thumb for finding a job you might like in a retail setting is if you don't like being a customer there then you probably do not want to work there. With McDonald's I don't go there much and when I do it is at the counter, not during meal times and I will eat there if its quiet but if it is crowded I go outside. Fortunately, the McD near me actually has an outside picnic table away from the store and the drive thru traffic. Actually I worked at Arby's and when the loud regional manager grabbed me (I was using the slicer and could have lost a finger) I flinched and yelled back at him. I will never work at an Arbys again and now don't eat there. I think I would like Home Depot for the merchandise but its a chaos bin I can't handle. I was a maintainence person at JCPenney but I had to leave because the Loss Prevention manager was "pushing my buttons" and having his people follow me and No, I never ever stole or wanted to steal anything there, he just did not like me being nervous and my supervisor could not get him to leave me alone. I also hate the fact that with a lot of these jobs, you have to be "part of a team" which I could never be and I get in trouble for "not being a team player". Right now I do medical transcription my apartment, but even so, they refer to us as "(the clients name) team". It is possible we could lose the client and "we will lose them as a team"

BigJohnnyCool,

I used to work as a sort of barista in a coffee shop and can relate to your situation. I have worked in this capacity for 3 1/2 years and my first week on the job I was so overwhelmed and thought I would get fired. I screwed up a lot of orders and did a lot of other tasks incorrectly and got a lot of s**t for it, but eventually I grew comfortable with the position and everything smoothed out. I felt like quitting, which would have been a mistake because at the time I had gotten this job was the height of the financial crisis and I probably wouldn't have gotten a job again. Now I am a supervisor, something I thought I would never be promoted to. Usually employers will wait out for about three months before letting you go if it is not working out, and in time you will gain more confidence and be quicker at your job. If you a struggling hopefully you have supportive coworkers that will help you be better at your job. As you work there more you WILL gain more confidence. Trust me in that. You just need to give yourself more credit and things will go more smoothly.

Another thing as well if you quit this job now and look for another job, your experience working at McDonald's may not do much for you because an employer will ask you why you quit your previous job and if you answer that it was too stressful, etc., that will reflect poorly on you. Just stick it out and if necessary ask your boss for feed back or things you need to improve on. You may find that your boss really doesn't have a problem with your quality of work, but if you quit now you may find it difficult to find another job.

In 1988 I worked in the Australian franchise of Burger King (here it's called Hungry Jacks). Lasted two months. Then someone told me that if I could keep it up for six months, I could do anything. Next day I went to work and had an anxiety attack. Lasted one more week, then left. Couldn't hold a job for more than two weeks at a time for over a decade.

I don't doubt there are Aspies who do it, but can't see how it could be common.

I don't regret it though. As the joke goes, 'How do you carve a statue of an elephant? Remove the bits that don't look like an elephant'.

I'm always trying to find what I'm sposed to be doing, but so far my only success is in locating my failures, like Hungry Jacks. But the upside is that I'm learning about myself, and one day I'll run out of the wrong jobs. Then all that'll be left are the right jobs.

Not the best approach. The best approach would be to understand our uniqueness and jobs that match.

I worked at McDonald's when I was a teenager, and really enjoyed it. I worked with patient and great managers who loved what they did, and the overall work environment was very positive, educational, and exciting. I learned for the first time in my life how having detailed training and procedural documentation and a proven system could make a business run like a cash machine on auto-pilot. It is this "documentation" and "system" that make a quarter pounder or french fries taste the same at every McDonald's no matter where you go. It is the lack of one or both of these business management methods that make most small businesses fail eventually. The restaurant I worked at was the #1 highest revenue grossing McDonald's in the world, with lines going out the door, and it was open 24/7. It was definitely a "hustle" environment and I had to do everything very quickly. When I worked on cashier duty, my register balance didn't match the cash inside on several occasions because I miscounted. My managers were very understanding about it and helped me correct my mistakes. So the key thing I am trying to put across to you is that McDonald's is a wonderful, well-run and innovative company, and you are lucky to work there if you have the right co-workers and supervisors. Many McDonald's employees have risen through the ranks from mopping the floor to owning several multi-million dollar franchises. The skills that you learn at McDonald's are world-class and if you build enough experience there, you will be welcome at many other world-class businesses.

If you don't feel comfortable with the "hustle" environment, gain some experience at this McDonald's first, and then try to relocate to another franchise where the managers are more supportive or where the business does less sales volume, and therefore the "hustle" factor is less.

Also, different people learn in different ways. If you feel overwhelmed, go to the bathroom, and write down what you have just learned or observed. Keep writing these short notes to yourself, and when you go home, review your notes when you are calm and relaxed. That should help!

I worked at Pizza Hut for a grand total of two days when I was a teenager. Why was I tortured? I couldn't wash the smell of smell of the condiments (onions, etc) out of my hands no matter what soap I used. I realize now that my sense of smell is high. I once detected the smell of blood from the hallway of a nursing home from someone coughing up blood in their room. Also, I often smell what people ate for lunch or dinner because the smell of the fool is still surrounding them. And it makes me nauseous.

I worked at McDonald's for 2 1/2 years. My favorite position was maintenance because you didn't have to deal with anyone - just garbage, the grease traps, etc. I'm terrible when it comes to dealing with the public. I just can't function right. It's not a good place for aspies. Too overwhelming. May as just throw us to the lions.

I'd imagine it would be hell. Fast food for asperger's people is the worst possible fit. The fast pace, the constant social interaction.

I worked at Mcdonald's for almost 10 years from about 15-25. I covered just about every possition from the lobby to the stock room. I never had a manager position but, I was a "crew cheif" and sometimes ran the grill. My advice would be to try out a few weeks of night shift to see if it works better for you. I found that "closing" could be a little less hecktic then lunch rush. Also we used to have one woman who would come in at night after the "closers" and clean the store all night and leave when the "openers" came in in the morning. If you don't mind being alone at night in a dark store this sounds like an ideal job for an Aspie

I have been working at mcdonalds for a year and half now, i was originally a cashier and was always slow getting the food to the customer until we got a refurb and the managers put me on drive thru as they were short staff etc, and found that i was way much better just taking orders and taking payments. they kept calling me up, wanting to work more hours etc as this is my greatest strength.

I am now however a maintenance person as it was a bigger paycheck which means i come in at 5am and finish at 2pm and just clean outside of the restaurant, from sweeping the floor, to jetspraying and picking up gum etc. I do all the crappy jobs they want me to do but however i get to be on my own outside and i am even allowed to listen to music on my ipod. there is no rush, and when it gets busy, i just have to do loads of trashs walks and change a load of bins, easy unlike taking orders, serving and making burgers.

Of course i don't want to do this for life as it's only £6 an hour and i am never gonna get into management. So i'm running my own business which earns me over the amount i earn at Mcdonalds so hopefully soon i can quit their as working 15-18 hours a day is tiresome. But i enjoy it, it keeps me busy.

OVERDUE BY 2 MONTHS

This thread can be closed now since I no longer work at McDonalds. I quit shortly after receiving a call from a job contractor for Data Entry. I couldn't be more comfortable and happier doing night shift Data Entry. It's tolerably-paced, brainlessly easy, and the environment is friendly.

Nice, I'm glad you survived McDonald's. Good luck in your new job!

I'm lucky I work at Subway instead. We live in a a rural area so we're not that busy, so there's only about 3 people I work with (usually one at a time). Also nice is that they're all at least 23 years old. I applied to McDick's once, but am SO glad I didn't get hired. It always seems extremely busy, and the staff is almost exclusively juvenile and ret*d teens. Most kids I went to high school with worked there too, and absolutely hated it.

I got fired from McDonald's before, I don't even think I was there for two weeks.

Just wanted to mention that fast food is so jokes. I was terrible at my job, and did it for a ridiculously short amount of time, but got out lasting social connections believe it or not.