My psychologist told me to work at McDonalds

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There is no way she was making $10 an hour at McDonald's in the early 1980s, unless she had a pretty high-up supervisory position. Fast food jobs in the early 1980s paid about $3 an hour.

It was the first McDonalds to open in Perth in 1984. She was quite chuffed to be selected. I just messaged her and she thinks it was $7-8 an hour (So I was close). Don't forget this was Aussie dollars.

She said a lot of the customers at the time were from the nearby Naval base so it became apparent they were selecting "attractive girls" to work there. The naval guys tried to pick up but weren't as bad as drunks (this McDonalds was open late and was the only place you could buy hot food at midnight so every drunk managed to navigate their way there for food).

Sorry, I was thinking of US dollars.

Ah don't sweat it

I know someone who worked at Wendy's as an autistic adult. Let's just say it didn't last very long. I can only imagine McDonald's would be worse because of their focus on branding and worldwide appeal. Their training program is excellent and they're considered a very good employer but just think of all the regulations you'd have to follow to a tee, with the pressure of keeping the company reputation, not food poisoning anyone or killing them from food allergies, not causing a slip-and-fall, and dealing with orders from Uber Eats etc., on top of the regular clientele. The drivethru alone would terrify me because it moves so fast and if you make a mistake people go apeshit (myself included lol).

Sensory - the giant windows with sunlight glare, the chrome in the kitchen, bright overhead lights, beeping timers on each of the food cookers, hot oil and grease, timing limits for the coffee to be dumped and remade, dealing with perishables like lettuce and salads and those milkshake machines that are always broken. I'd be sick just from smell overwhelm dealing with all that food around me.

My friend at Wendy's was in charge of salads and you wouldn't believe the rules she had to follow. If a spot of brown lettuce was detected or a salad sat in the fridge 30 seconds too long without being rotated / sold / ditched, she could lose her job or even be sued.

There's always food sanitation inspectors coming too. I wouldn't even want to be responsible for cleaning.

Yes this was a source of great stress for my sister was the constant need to keep the kitchen, storage areas, customer service area, bathrooms, courtyard and seating area clean. Hygiene and maintaining stock required constant attention. Even the area around the courtyard outside of McDonalds, people never use the bins and cleanup of dog poo, vomit and various other gross things.

There was literally no opportunity to take a breather, The staff were "entitled" for breaks but my sister said she couldn't afford it as there was always constant stream of customers and she even had to forgo lunch.

Today a lot of McDonalds are 24hrs so shiftwork also means sleep deprivation as well,

My mum told me not to get a job at McDonald's. She told me that McDonald's would be the worst place for me to work when she told me that I'm autistic at the age of 15. She told me because the lights are bright, there are constantly beepers going off and it's a very fast pace. I was recently eating at a McDonald's and there were bright lights, loud beepers and people racing around the food prep area and I told my two close friends that McDonald's would be the worst place for me to work.

^Yes, beepers. They are quite loud. I went for a job at Hungry Jack's (Burger King) but I'm glad I didn't get it in the end because it's practically the same as Macca's. I did get a job at KFC but only lasted a week as I was told I wasn't a "people person". Plus remembering how all the chicken went into the various packs and buckets was difficult.

So, Dbz33 what do you think of all these posts?

I can't help but wonder what goes on in the heads of the people who consider them to be a very good employer. If that's a good one, God help anybody working for an average one. But maybe NTs don't mind.

My sister was 16, if you are a teenager the low pay isn't a deterrent, Plus it looks good on your resume, like employers take it as a tour of duty and earned your stripes if you can survive several years of McDonalds. Even better if you get a mamager's role.

I just asked my daughter's opinion of an autistic person working at McDonald's as a starter job and she about keeled over. She's autistic and she went to chef school, which in itself was torture because of all the regulations and being on her feet running in circles with head chefs shouting at her and calling her names (chef school is hellish).

Anyway, she said McDonald's would be a terrible choice, and that food service itself is such a regulated industry it's overwhelmingly stressful. It's a life and death job, really, because you can kill people with mistakes even by choking. On top of that there's the whole "McDonald's Mystique" like they're an empire unto themselves with shareholders. Not a good choice at all. If you have to do food service she recommends a quiet little diner or bistro where you just wash dishes, by hand, and stay out of the corporate megalopolis of McD's.

Perfect place for an autistic person to work is an old timey roadhouse

So the best that can be said for it is that it proves that you're OK with being ripped off for years on end, which a future potential boss might find attractive. I wonder why they'd like that in a job applicant? Not that I'm saying it's madness. If there's a gun to your head, it's logical to do whatever the gunman demands, if it's less abhorrent than being killed immediately.

I've reviewed many job applications over the years. A lot of university graduates put down their work experience in retail or fast food. Often unless they were lucky to have done an internship, the work in McDonalds or Kmart might be the only work experience they have.

McDonalds is a first job for a lot of people that go onto other things. When it comes to entry level work there aren't that many options if you haven't got work experience. That being said, I wouldn't go with McDonalds just on that basis, I'd consider whether or not the work environment is going to be something that's doable with accomdations.

Everyone has freedom of speech

Try applying for a wide variety of jobs

Not all autistics have the same ideal job

Not everyone works at their ideal job

Unless you are in a position where you financially don't have to work, you need a job

Not everyone likes their jobs

Not everyone is good at their jobs

"Beggars can't be choosers"

But if your psychologist doesn't tell you anything helpful enough to justify the psychologist's salary, maybe you should get a different psychologist