The Grayzone

The Frylight Zone

May 26, 2007 at 1:49 am (Uncategorized)

I worked at McDonald’s for more than five years, beginning when I was 16.  I got a lot out of it:  good work habits, free food, lots of new friends, and I got experience managing a restaurant and people.  I remember how tough it was for me at first; a girl yelled at me on my first day as I was being trained.  I came home and said, “‘I’ll never catch on to fries!  I want my paper route back!’”  At least I was my own boss when I delivered newspapers. 

But things eventually worked out and I use the positives of my McDonald’s experience to this day.  But once I went off into the world of sports television, I figured I’d never work at McDonald’s again.  I used to have recurring nightmares that I was back as an adult being trained by teenagers.  It was sort of like an inside-out “Back to the Future.”

Cue Rod Serling’s spirit, because recently I entered…The Frylight Zone.

I’m now doing public relations work as an assistant on the McDonald’s account.  It’s amazing how things can come full circle.  McDonald’s is a unique place because many of its high-ranking executives started on fries, behind the counter or on the grill section.  Because of that, McDonald’s likes to put its white-collar workers in the stores to show them what it’s like in there.  So I recently worked two full shifts in two different stores.

The first big difference was the equipment; everything is done a lot faster now.  Another change is there are probably three times as many products now as when I worked there in the 1980′s, and that’s a lot of information and procedures for workers to remember.  The other biggie is that the majority of the customers are in their cars; I never worked a drive-thru before….until now.  And while procedures are still regimented to insure quality food and a clean workplace, the restaurants seemed looser as far as atmosphere.  We used to wear the Marine-style hats over the middle of our heads and we had to loudly acknowledge our boss’s production calls:  “give me three Macs on the turn.  Three Macs on the turn!”  That isn’t the case anymore, because food is made to order now.

I worked as a “presenter,” the person who gave the order to the customer at the second window after he paid at the first.  I got double takes galore as people tried to place me; it was quite humorous after a while, actually.  But the best was when a woman pulled up after the lunch rush.

“Has anybody ever told you that you look just like a sportscaster from channel 9 named Jeff Grayson?  I don’t know what happened to him.”

“Well, that’s me.”

She was stunned that I was working at McDonald’s, but I explained that I was doing some PR work and seeing what life is like these days at the restaurants.  She was very nice and complimented me on my on-air performance and wished I were still in my old job.  Then I handed the food to her, thanked her and told her to stop in again.

I was about 70 pounds lighter when I worked at McDonald’s, 85 if you go back to when I started.  Yes, that was a long time ago.  I forgot what it’s like to be on your feet for eight hours–keep in mind, I spent a few getting customer feedback, so I wasn’t actually on my feet all that time–and I felt sore afterwards.  People work hard there, and I met some who were on their way to their second jobs. 

For two days I got a few stares and I even heard some kids say, “‘that’s the sports guy on fries.’”  It’s safe to say that I never expected to work inside a McDonald’s again, but it was fun.  

Just don’t ask me to do my paper route again.