I’m A Manager At McDonalds... AMA!

[WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue]

I’m a Manager at McDonalds

I’ve worked for McDonalds for several years in different stores and have received personal awards for my customer service. I never initially wanted to become a manager, however with the support and encouragement of my business manager I went through the crew development programme to become one.

So... AMA?

In the minority but I have to say I like the iPads!

IamMoana You’re not in the minority in general! The majority of people absolutely love them.

Are you able to say roughly how many Big Macs or nuggets you sell on average each day?

ClandestineAdulation Unfortunately not, sorry! We do have access to that information if we wish through sandwich counts but I haven’t looked at it in months.

Op are you watching the secrets of McD Ch 5??

MarthasGinYard I haven’t yet, but I plan to.

I have a question about vouchers and touch screen ordering.

Haworthia You cannot put through the loyalty coffees or the food for thoughts on the kiosks; you have to visit the tills for those

At another McDonald's today (I'm not in a uk tour I promise!) and I spoke to the manager about the toffee sundaes and then being discontinued

He said categorically that they're weren't.

And again I ask - WHO DO I BELIEVE

this is important stuff

CherryChatsworth Everything I said in my previous reply to you still stands.

Can I customise an order using the touch screen? For example, if I want a plain McFlurry?

Can I customise an order using the touch screen? For example, if I want a plain McFlurry?

AgeBeforeBeauty Absolutely! Just choose your item and then click the ‘customise’ button

Thanks, I can never find the button but will take a closer look next time...

I know there's not much appetite for veggie options, but do you know if there are any plans for a veggie Happy Meal? Or could I get a wrap without chicken? Dd loves a chip wrap!

Thanks for answering 😊

Thanks, I can never find the button but will take a closer look next time...

AgeBeforeBeauty No worries I can’t picture it off the top of my head as I rarely use them with needing to go to the till to get my employee discount, but on the few occasions I have used them or helped someone use them, I haven’t had an issue.

I know there's not much appetite for veggie options, but do you know if there are any plans for a veggie Happy Meal? Or could I get a wrap without chicken? Dd loves a chip wrap!

There aren’t any at the moment I’m afraid. They recently added the grilled chicken wrap to the happy meal after extensive testing and research which showed that would be more popular than a veggie edition.

You could ask for a happy meal wrap without chicken, or even a plain wrap without chicken if you wanted to put your own chips into it!

Fascinating, OP. Thank you.

I worked for McDonald's when I was a student. The huge plus point was the flexibility - I had a friend from abroad staying with me for the summer and McD's agreed to give us the same shifts. That was in onw of the flagship stores.

I worked in another smaller store in termtime and I had a performance review. The whole thing was a long lost of questions, many of which were subjective - in particular I remember 'attitude to the store's success.' Each of these had to be scored on a 5 or 10-point scale (can't remember which). Anyway, my manager presented me with the completed questionnaire and he had given me 1-point less than I needed for a 5p per hour pay rise. I was fuming. I was a hard worker. He could easily have found one more point - even back in the prehistoric days, 5p was a minute pay rise. I was disgusted and handed my notice in the next week. HOWEVER, it did give me the impetus to go and find work that would give me experience that was relevant for my degree.

Does McDonald's still do these performance reviews? Do they still have the 'attitude to the store's success' question?

Is .McDonalds going to ban straws.

greencatbluecat Yes, employees are given performance reviews annually, however I don’t believe we have that question.

It’s much more of a how well you’re getting on, how you feel and relationships with crew and managers, and the areas that need more focus, so training needs (ie. if you’re mostly do counter we will endeavour to rotate you).

Is .McDonalds going to ban straws.

habibihabibi McDonalds is not banning straws however it is switching from plastic to paper straws.

I have a ketchup question. Why have so many stores got into giving the rip open sachets, which are a nightmare if you get just a cheese burger and chips, because you
have no surface to put the ketchup on. It's ok if you get a Big Mac or something, as you can squirt it in the box and dip your chips, but otherwise very annoying.

Why do some McDonald's do sachets, some have a ketchup pumps and some have ketchup in the containers similar to what BBQ s sauce comes in?

Can I ask for them to put more smarties in the Smartie McFlurries?
They are so stingy with the smarties.

I would be willing to pay extra for an extra shot of smarties

Nice bit of free advertising for McDonald’s here🤔

I’m sure the OP does work for MD, but I doubt she flipping burgers... more likely works in the marketing department!

Who cares.
As long as they listen to our concerns, it's all good.

Why do some McDonald's do sachets, some have a ketchup pumps and some have ketchup in the containers similar to what BBQ s sauce comes in?

expatinspain I haven’t worked in any stores (or visited, come to think of it) that have sachets so I can’t answer that I’m afraid! The majority of store setups will have the ketchup and bbq dispensers on lobby for customers to help themselves and then the little dip boxes under the counter.

Can I ask for them to put more smarties in the Smartie McFlurries?
They are so stingy with the smarties.

timetodothis We haven’t done smartie McFlurries for a long time! There is a set amount from a dispenser that goes into the Flurries; it’s not arbitrarily added by crew. You can request an extra shot but it will be an extra 20p

Nice bit of free advertising for McDonald’s here

HappyGowerGirl I’ve been on MN a long time and have mentioned my job before on other posts. I was asked to do this AMA by another poster and obliged as I love talking about it.

I’m sure the OP does work for MD, but I doubt she flipping burgers... more likely works in the marketing department!

Nobody is flipping any burgers at McDonalds! You’re right on one point though - I don’t work grill; you don’t want managers being stuck on stations as we can’t effectively run the shift that way.

I enjoy my current role far too much to be taken out of the restaurant and into any kind of office job; I would find it far too sedentary.

This is my fav ever AMA!

Can you explain the numbering on the clocks.in McDs.

Also what do the little numbers mean that go in the stack of burgers when they are cooked and waiting to be sold.

Thanks

This is my fav ever AMA!

Hairytangerine Thanks!

Can you explain the numbering on the clocks.in McDs.

Also what do the little numbers mean that go in the stack of burgers when they are cooked and waiting to be sold.

Blankscreen This is the old Grill Direct system, of which there are less than 100 stores with it in the UK now; they’re all going to be refurbed onto the new system very soon.

It’s a time card system that allows the crew to know when the sandwich was made and placed in the bin and when they need to discard it after its holding time, which should be ten minutes. The time cards correspond to the clocks.

Loved this AMA.

Do not understand why the OP is getting such a hard time? Some people do bloody love their jobs and company. One persons experience (and outlook) can be very different from another persons, so just because someone has had a crap experience doesn't invalidate what the OP is saying!

PMSL at all the 'why don't you do vegan food and plant milk' comments.

McDonalds target market is not at yummy mummy vegans. Also the 'we want more healthy options' turns out that actually, no, no you don't. Healthy things historically haven't sold well. What people say they want out loud, and what they actually order are not always the same.

The purpose of having a single veggie option is to reduce the 'veggie veto' - not to actively attract veggies. If it becomes more profitable to do so, I am sure McDonalds will offer a better veggie option. They aren't actively trying to socially isolate veggies/vegans, they are in the business of maximizing profit and there are clever people looking at this with all sorts of useful market Intel to help make decisions. Potentially we might see a better veggie option soon. given the hot topic food trend of 2018 is veggie/vegan.

It isn't possible to just keep adding and adding things to the menu - restaurants have finite storage space and increased menu complexity makes the operations of making the food harder.

You can't beat McDonalds for a meal out, on a tight budget. Except maybe a boots meal deal.

Obviously there is some variation in quality of franchises. Personally I have come up with the economic theory 'subway quality is inversely correlated with economic prosperity of the local geography'. This is based on my extensive research in the USA.

The shitter the area, the fewer quality job there are for local residents. Due to more limited economic opportunities, competition for jobs in subway is more fierce. Therefore you get a better quality subway sandwich made by more motivated and intelligent people in a shitter area, than in a better area with more economic opportunities for higher paring / higher status jobs. This is totally a thing. Go check it out.

I imagine it holds true for McDonalds as well

FYI I didn't make it through the recruitment for McDonalds on my gap year, or Tescos. #bitternotbitter

@sprinkleofsunshine
When are you going to start delivering? And will the breakfast slot ever be made longer? Not sure if t has now...
Don’t you have ‘McDelivery’ in the UK? Or McDonalds delivery via UberEats? This is what we have in Australia although not everywhere. They’ve also just put all of the non breakfast range on 24/7 and some breakfast products as well (you used to only be able to get non breakfast stuff after 10:30am and breakfast stuff before that) surprised they haven’t done this long ago tbh

@serbska
Haven’t RTFT but it seems McDs UK/Ireland has a vege burger option? No such option in Australia/NZ!

I’m sure the OP does work for MD, but I doubt she flipping burgers... more likely works in the marketing department!

THIS^^ with cheese

Loved this AMA.

serbska Thank you I haven’t heard that theory but it makes a lot of sense.

Don’t you have ‘McDelivery’ in the UK? Or McDonalds delivery via UberEats?

AhoyDelBoy Stores in bigger cities like London do, and they are slowly rolling it out across the rest of the country.

They’ve also just put all of the non breakfast range on 24/7 and some breakfast products as well (you used to only be able to get non breakfast stuff after 10:30am and breakfast stuff before that) surprised they haven’t done this long ago tbh

It won’t happen in the UK; we don’t have the infrastructure. You have to think about the differences between the UK and Australia generally; Australia has a lot more space than we do, allowing for larger and newer purpose built stores with the ability to expand to fit in the equipment and storage needed for all day breakfast.

We don’t have that in the UK. Many stores are in buildings that are hundreds of years old, so altering them in order to fit in the equipment and storage needed isn’t possible.

Haven’t RTFT but it seems McDs UK/Ireland has a vege burger option? No such option in Australia/NZ!

We have two: the veggie deluxe and the spicy veggie deluxe.

THIS^^ with cheese

Strange you read that comment but not my reply So I’ll repost it for you:

Nobody is flipping any burgers at McDonalds! You’re right on one point though - I don’t work grill; you don’t want managers being stuck on stations as we can’t effectively run the shift that way.

I enjoy my current role far too much to be taken out of the restaurant and into any kind of office job; I would find it far too sedentary.

I think it’s also worth nothing that I’m a long time poster who was asked to do this AMA by someone who saw me talk about my work on another thread.

Great post by serbska!

OP this is the best ever AMA