AmitaiEtizion’s ‘Working at McDonald’s’ is an essay, about the impacts on teenagers of fast-food chains such as McDonald’s. While the author puts aside the issue of consumption, he focuses on the impacts of the jobs these types of restaurants offer, and argue that such jobs negatively impacts students’ school performance. The issue is presented in a critical way, as the author firstly looks at how parents think that having a part-time job between classes is a good thing for students. However, upon further criticism, the author finds that such jobs fail to offer the entrepreneurial experience they were hoped to give students, citing as examples the poor pay, routinized forms of work, unhealthy work environment, and long-term impacts on the job
“I’m working a part-time job at Wendy’s.” What is the first thought that comes to your head when you hear this sentence? Greasy fries, polyester uniforms, cheap food? What about the people who work there? Do you picture a first-time worker, a high school dropout, other pimple-faced workers taking your order? For some reason, in our society, we’ve associated low-quality workers with low-quality food? In his article “Working at Wendy’s” Joey Franklin paves the road towards a new perspective about those who come to work at Wendy’s. Instead of explicit points and unshakable statistics, and powerful calls to action, Franklin alternatively leads gently us through a process of revelation. Drawing from his own experiences working at his local Wendy’s Franklin gives an eye-opening view into the world behind the counter.
The baby boom and fast food industry’s rapid growth effected the fast food industry because teenagers were the ideal candidates for working at fast food restaurants. Teenagers were the ideal candidates for working at fast food restaurants because they were only able to work part-time, still lived at home, were unskilled, and were willing to accept low pay. Teenagers were unskilled workers because they were young and did not have any experience. A job at fast food restaurants became the rite of passage because it was mostly the teenagers first job. In the 1970s, Congress and the White house passed a new bill, called the ‘McDonald’s Bill’. The ‘McDonald’s Bill’ caused employers to pay their teenage employee less than 20% of the minimum wage.
Schlosser examines how youths assume a crucial part in the workforce of the fast food industry. He takes note of around 66% of the country's fast food laborers are less than 20 years old. Rather than depending upon a little, steady, generously compensated, and well‑trained workforce, the fast food industry searches out part‑time, young laborers who are willing to accept low pay. Teenagers have been the ideal possibility for these occupations, not just on the grounds that they are less lavish to procure than grown-ups, additionally in light of the fact that their young inability makes them simpler to control. Another part of strong throughput is strict regulation at fast food eateries. Organizations force strict guidelines on how an errand is to be performed and make undertakings so they require as meager aptitude as could be allowed. Subsequently, it is anything but difficult to supplant specialists with new contracts, affordably and productively. Schlosser assaults the business for gathering government endowments for representative preparing and utilizing the financing rather to make more advances to dispense with preparing for
Freedom, independence, and opportunities; all these words come to mind when thinking about growing up, but there is no escaping a first job. Nowadays most of teens can be seen behind the counters of fast food places, but why has this become so popular? Through an appeal to ethos and pathos, Schlosser illustrates how the fast food industry utilizes the inexperience and emotions of America’s youth for personal gain and control.
The author of this particular article, Working at McDonalds, Amitai Etzioni is a sociology professor at the institute of George Washington University and the founder of the non-profit organization known as Communitarian Netwroks. In this essay he narrates his strong belief that working at any fast food chain restaurants is detrimental towards a students future. He validates his reasons that student do not benefit any long-term skills as taught in these restaurants. He beliefs that these jobs take away time from school and/or after school activities such as sports, clubs, etc. This skews a students perspective of the importance of a high-quality education that leads them towards their dreams and goals of a career in the major they perceive to
In Amitai Etzioni’s essay “Working at McDonald’s”, he argues that the jobs teens take up at popular fast food restaurants are detrimental to their education. His proposal was that working at these fast food restaurants negatively affects their education by encouraging teens to be more concerned about earning money than being successful in their studies. He claims that teens are getting these jobs to spend on petty items. Etzioni states that the routine and lack of creativity of the jobs are harmful and the hours in which teens work are long and interfere with students’ abilities to further their studies and complete assignments. He states that teens that have dropped out and are working at these restaurants have fallen into a stagnant condition
In the article Working at McDonald's, author Amitai Etzioni expresses a strong viewpoint as to why working at McDonald's, and other establishments such as McDonald's is in fact hindering our youth more than benefiting them. He says that jobs such as these provide our youth with little to no fundamental skills that will propel them into a promising future, limits the room for initiative and creativity and also distracts them from their studies. He supports his claims with numerous studies and statistics, mostly from the early to mid 80's. My first impression from this article was that it was very one sided, and in many cases Etzioni's claims could be proven false. He seemed to start on a specific issue and then ended up a tad all over the place.
The fast food industry both feeds and prays off the young. Pioneers in developing marketing strategies to target children, the fast-food chains have even infiltrated the nation's schools through lunchroom franchises and special advertising packages that answer public education's need for funds; in every way possible, giving the children a loyal friend to rely on. In many franchises, teenagers are perfect candidates for low-paying, low-skilled, short-term jobs and constitute a large part of the fast-food chains' workforce; and often practically run individual locations, having more responsibility than most adults.
Amitai Etzioni, Dr. of Sociology at University of California at Berkeley, argues that it is bad for kids to work at fast food chains like McDonald’s. He applies his criteria to evaluate the value of jobs in the fast food industry. He states that all though these employers provide a large number of jobs that teenagers can fill, they do not provide high educational jobs that can lead to a bright future. Often they are repetitive in nature and often in unsupervised by adults. These jobs are comprised of highly routine, mechanized movements that require little individual initiative (250). The resemble the movements that were immortalize by Charlie Chaplin in the film “Modern Times” where the worker movement are so mechanized that he eventually is engulfed by the modern machinery and become part of the machine (Chaplin Modern Times). Although, Etzioni’s criticism presented some logical concerns, teenagers working at McDonald undoubtedly provide critical stage of early life lessons about the society they are getting prepared to become a member.
Someone working at a fast-food restaurant is bound to face torment either by their peers, and have the social stain of being viewed as poor or dirty. In a personal interview with another fast food worker, Whitney said, “…a lot of them [fast food workers] do tend to have that lower class background. Also, whenever you find adults working in the fast food industry, it generally means they lack an education.” A lot of younger adolescents will take jobs at fast food restaurants because very few places will hire kids when they first get their legal working papers, but fast food restaurants tend to flood their restaurant with these juvenile employees.
Not having to answer to a corporate boss is the dream of many and the flexibility that owning a business franchise creates provides this option. Success is not reached by simply creating a business, however. The level of success is measured by the size and efficiency of the business. Business growth is the driving force of the economy. The additional jobs and revenues created when a business expands allow the economy to grow at exponential rates. One of the fastest and most popular ways to increase the size of a business is to turn it into a franchise, which can then be purchased by individuals. Franchising provides opportunities that are beneficial to both the parent company and the purchaser. The company that owns the business can expand
McDonaldization is becoming the new wave of job types where workers are being deskilled, dehumanized and exploited. Machines are taking over tasks which the employees used to do such as bank machines (interact). The McDonaldized jobs now instead of making the employee do all the work they have the customer working too, for example when the customer cleans up after eating. These jobs are becoming less interactive and personal because workers are becoming dehumanized and only allowed to follow a script, there is also the fact that fast food Company’s use drive through, where limited interaction occurs and are many restrictions. These types of jobs which the author George Ritzer labeled
McDonald’s development from its first drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California, to the famous fast
On McDonalds For my business course, I have been asked to prepare a report for a business at work. I could choose any business to investigate. I decided to do McDonalds because it is globally recognised and of its size. Also because it is a franchise I thought that it would be interesting to see how a franchise operated.
It was an August in 2011 when my family moved to the United States when I was twelve years old. Coming to this country, not knowing a single word of English is like going to an intensive war without artillery. On our way to Florida, we stopped to eat at burger king. Man! I felt that I was in a fancy restaurant. Back in my town, where they sell cheese burgers, the building was made of brick walls with no cement supporting the bricks and the roof of aluminum. Ordering was simple, writing down what you wanted. On the order hand, in burger king you have to verbally order your food. I can still remember what my mom was trying to say “Nome-row-Uno” with her hand doing signs. It was a struggle getting our order done.