FIRED!

[popcorn]

It's not the songs for me. It's the constant beeping and screaming of machines and sizzling of frying vats. This sounds very oo-err snowflakey but working in that environment (coupled with the odd bit of grill cook/manager shouting, the latter of which is incredibly stressful and impossible to deal with) for eight hours a day legitimately lead to me having stress dreams even 4 years after I got sacked from that place. I only worked there for three weeks too. I can even hear it in my head now, and I loathe going in there because I end up hearing that noise when I go up to the till.

And I really don't overstate the beeping and loudness of it all, I can't find any vids of it but it is CONSTANT. 24/7.

I can completely believe that. I got stress dreams from working in a shop with a door beeper, and when I visited 20 years after I quit I got them again.

[RenegadeScrew]

I work P/T for them since I'm at Uni. PM me if you need any further info.

They do have people who scour social media and the net for anything salacious, so best be careful what you say on here.

Just sexual stuff?!

[Camp Tramp]

Just sexual stuff?!

Badly phrased. Anything that reflects badly on the company name.

[checkoutgirl]

Anyone got any good advice

Get in kitchen as soon as you can and make some custom delights. I liked making ultra big macs and quadruple cheeseburgers and such. Do your best and don't let the customers get to you because the late night crowd can be drunk and rowdy, depending on location.

If it's like where I've worked in Dublin you won't be charging the police for anything as apparently they will be more inclined to get there quickly if it kicks off, although I don't ever recall any fuzz being there to sort out any trouble.

The trick with McDonalds is to be good enough to get off cleaning and into into the kitchen but not good enough to work on the till. I never achieved this delicate balance but maybe you will.

If you get the job good luck. The work is crap but at least the money's... also crap.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Oh wait I know someone who worked in there when they were teenagers and they said you can clean the grills quite quickly if you pour sprite on them and let it bake.

[checkoutgirl]

And I really don't overstate the beeping and loudness of it all, I can't find any vids of it but it is CONSTANT. 24/7.

Mmmm, not sure about that. It depends on the size of the branch and how busy it is etc. Rathmines at 10.00am on a Tuesday will be a lot quieter than Leicester Square at 11.00pm on a Saturday.

[mrClaypole]

I've only ever been fired once and that was back in January. I left a job in April 2020 in a well paid mangerial role in a private healthcare firm as I was sick of the Monday to Friday slog.
I decided I wanted to try something different so took a team manager role in mental health care.
I had been getting on well in the role under a manager who supported me and gave me tips on how to deal with confrontation with people who's head wiring wasn't quite like us "normies".
I loved it.  I felt a sense of achievement that I was helping people live a relatively normal life.
Then my manager left and my equivalent on the other shift took his job.
Now it's no secret that she didn't like me.  She used to leave passive aggressive notes in our secret handover book about my supposed shortcomings on my shifts, stuff like "why has it been left to me to fill in so and so's benefits form. She knew full well trying to get the residents to do anything usually took an eternity to get them into action.
So the 1st day of her job the head office sent down this blunt northern woman to guide her in the first few months of the job (she was stacking shelves in Topshop 18 months previously and had no managerial experience)
Any I was called into the office for a "catch up".
I had to sit there as she totally ripped me apart.  I was too friendly with staff and not assertive enough. Then she announced my 3 months probation was to be extended.
So after a couple of other meetings where I was pretty much ripped apart again and my probation was extended to January.  Now I was tasked with sorting the medication for the 2 week Xmas period. I dutifully counted every residents meds and made sure if they were short I ordered enough from the pharmacy.
I showed her the results of the check.  She said "great job".
That day I went off shift for three days.  I came in on the Saturday morning to be told I needed to sort out some emergency medication for a resident as he was going to run out on Xmas day- huh???.
Anyway I sorted it after hours of running around.
I then got a case of the covids and was off work until mid January.
I noticed my boss had come in early and didn't make any eye contact with me.  She also totally dominated the morning meeting delegating jobs to the staff.  Something I was supposed to do.
I asked if we could have a meeting to catch up later in the day. She said come in to the office at 10am.
So I went into her office to find her on the laptop talking to someone.
I said sorry do you want me to come back later?
She said No. Sit down, let me introduce you to  xxxxxx she's head of HR.
I instantly knew I was in for the chop.  I got the usual small friendly chat at first but knew that the sword of damecles was hanging above my head.
I listened to a list of my sins and was feeling really small and inadequate.
She came to the bit about the emergency medication.  I let rip saying that she had checked the figures and signed it off.  I also said it was a totally unnecessary task as there was a box of the meds in the store cupboard.
She backtracked but reiterated that I was not performing as I should.
I was then told I was being let go immediately. Had I anything to say.
I said "nothing to you". I then let rip at the HR person saying what a backstabbing duplicitous person this manager was and to expect lots of complaints from the staff as she wasn't as popular as she thought she was in her narcissistic way.
I had to go back into the main building where there was a drama kicking off and I was asked for assistance.
I just ignored the plea and collected my stuff and walked out without saying goodbye.
I went home and got drunk for 3 days reliving the meeting.
I decided to snap myself out of it and start looking for other work. After  2 months of partying I found something.
It's turned out to be a dream job.  Nights which I love with lots of time off.  Some responsibilities but not as much as I've had in the past.  No stress and a great boss.
So 3 months off and back in gainful employment. Happy days

[Ferris]

I've been unemployed a graduate student for 7 months and I'm getting contact stress from all these work stories.

Having a bad boss is fucking shit. I had one I still detest to this day - at a certain point, I was senior enough to see all performance reviews so I went back and looked at mine from way back when. Turns out he tried to have me sacked in 2015 for reasons that are beyond me considering I was digging him out of holes every day. I suspect he was getting heat for doing a shit job, and decided I was going to be his scapegoat. He didn't get me sacked, but he cost me money in raises and bonuses for 2 years for no reason I can think of. He was fine to me, but just said I was useless to cover his own arse. A really unpleasant man.

The final boss I had was an insane micro-manager who worked 7am to 10pm (with 2 kids under 3) and he spent that time asking me if [who gives a shit unimportant busy-work admin] was done, over and over and over again. Could tell he didn't like me, but he could tell I hated my job and was going to quit so there we go.

Amusingly the exit interview feedback may not have been passed along because the HR manager doing the meeting had herself resigned the day after me. A horrible place, glad I never have to go back.

[Lemming]

I work P/T for them since I'm at Uni. PM me if you need any further info.

They do have people who scour social media and the net for anything salacious, so best be careful what you say on here.

Thanks! Feeling vaguely dodgy about it now, but the idea of me trying to handle drunk people with sirens going off everywhere and shitty pop music being piped in has great comedy appeal, so I'll keep going with the application. It's either this or the UPS warehouse, which pays about the same and presumably offers just as many opportunities to fuck things up.

[popcorn]

Thanks! Feeling vaguely dodgy about it now, but the idea of me trying to handle drunk people with sirens going off everywhere and shitty pop music being piped in has great comedy appeal

just see it as another kind of FPS.

[Lemming]

just see it as another kind of FPS.

FINAL VERDICT: Glassed by drunkards. 1 Sensory Overload out of 5.

[Paul Calf]

I work P/T for them since I'm at Uni. PM me if you need any further info.

They do have people who scour social media and the net for anything salacious, so best be careful what you say on here.

I work for McDonald's. We often have meetings where we go on about how much we hate the customers, they torture puppies in the staff room for fun and I regularly piss in the chip fryer.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Thanks! Feeling vaguely dodgy about it now, but the idea of me trying to handle drunk people with sirens going off everywhere and shitty pop music being piped in has great comedy appeal, so I'll keep going with the application. It's either this or the UPS warehouse, which pays about the same and presumably offers just as many opportunities to fuck things up.

Erm....aren't you a bit overqualified to be applying for crappy jobs like these?

[flotemysost]

I haven't job hunted in ages, but lots of bigger companies have social media accounts specifically for recruitment, where they'll post links to upcoming vacancies. There's a temp role on my team available at the moment, and it got about 500 direct applications via Twitter the other week.

If you're after office-type stuff, I'd also remember that loads of companies are still working remotely so applying for a job in another part of the country needn't be a barrier necessarily. I think it's great.

[Lemming]

Erm....aren't you a bit overqualified to be applying for crappy jobs like these?

No idea, but they're the only jobs I seem to be able to get, historically. I've got an undergraduate degree in English Literature, which I understand might as well be scrap paper.

I honestly don't mind, I actually liked working at supermarkets, which was my first choice, but inexplicably there's no suitable vacancies at any supermarket nearby. Plenty of bullshit "Team Leader" roles but no, like, regular shelf-stacking/till roles.

[Dex Sawash]

I'll keep going with the application. It's either this or the UPS warehouse, which pays about the same and presumably offers just as many opportunities to fuck things up.

UPS will absolutely track your every move with scans but may offer a bit of sustained solitude if you load for deliveries. I would really enjoy truck loading and working out efficient methods of doing it. My brain is probably broken different than most people though.

McD, possibly a little more variety and some opportunity to hide in toilet/freezer occasionally.
My McD was one of the typical suburban american ones with a drive through. It had a small basement which was unexpected and a little magical.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Horrible business but bookmakers are a good service-industry gig if you're a bit lazy.

We used to take it in turns to sleep in the back office if we were hungover.

There's no real stock to steal, unless you like small squares of paper or really shit biros. The only other stock is cash and they keep quite close tabs on that.

[H-O-W-L]

Great bit of advice for McDonald's or any retail environment is that if you're carrying a box, even an empty box, nobody will ever bother you. It's like Hitman. It actually works. I didn't believe it but it actually werks. Robbie Carlysle says so! It ackshewelly wehrks!

[mothman]

What, like a Big Mac box?

[checkoutgirl]

McD, possibly a little more variety and some opportunity to hide in toilet/freezer occasionally.

Free food as well, I doubt you get that at UPS.

[H-O-W-L]

What, like a Big Mac box?

Nah, a brown cardboard box of some kind. Delivery box, plastic tray, etc. I did that shit for 7 years of retail work and it ackshewelly woehrked

[mothman]

Ah, so the cardboard box is the retail equivalent of the humble clipboard?

[Yussef Dent]

Great bit of advice for McDonald's or any retail environment is that if you're carrying a box, even an empty box, nobody will ever bother you. It's like Hitman. It actually works. I didn't believe it but it actually werks. Robbie Carlysle says so! It ackshewelly wehrks!

Very similar thing working at Morrisons, the management would very quickly prey on you to do something else somewhere else (often needless stuff) if you didn't look busy, particularly in the last few hours before the store closed. This could completely knacker you up closing down your counter without rushing or leaving late. The solution, when it goes a bit quiet, grab a cloth, even better a bottle D10 as well, and you're sorted.

[H-O-W-L]

Ah, so the cardboard box is the retail equivalent of the humble clipboard?

Yeah. A clipboard draws questions in a retail environment. A box answers them.