McDonald's Officially Sinks Lower

from JoeUser Forums
Link

Say you go to a McDonald's drive-thru (although if you've gone this far, you're already a lost cause). You give your order to the wonderfully articulate individual who is on the other end of the loudspeaker. The funny thing is, if you happen to be in Oregon, the loudspeaker guy is in North Dakota!

See, North Dakota's minimum wage is about 2 dollars less than Oregons, so McDonald's, God bless it, has decided to outsource jobs there. This marks a great new phase in large corporations screwing everyman: They are now using Americans to screw Americans!

This little ploy could backfire, however.

When you outsource to other nations, it becomes very easy for people to blame foreigners for their problems. However, when they realize that they don't have jobs because Jason in North Dakota has it, all of their anger finally turns to the institution that deserves it: in this case, McDonalds.

Hopefully, this will convince more people that it is not the everyday foreigners who scramble for outsourced jobs who are hurting them. Often, they are as financially dependent on those jobs as the people who lost them. Perhaps this will bring us one step closer to holding corporations completely responsible for their actions.

Wishful thinking, I know.
1,648 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Doesn't seem like it would be worth the time, effort, and technology.

It also gives more ammunition to those in each state who are against raising the minimum wage. (Which, if you think about it, would make this an interesting strategic ploy to minimize employment costs nationwide.)
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
So, who's going to lose a job over this? Is there somebody at McDonald's who's sole purpose is just to take drive through orders and nothing else?
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
"Bill Whitman, a spokesman for McDonald’s Corp. in Oak Brook, Ill., said it’s too early to know whether the technology will be embraced by McDonald’s or other fast-food chains. Currently, he said, fewer than 1 percent of the 13,500 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States use it, most on a trial basis."

Link

the call center was set up in 2003 by a franchise owner, not McDonald's. The first restaurants to use it outside Colorado were in Minnesota. By the sound of it, McDonald's isn't all that interested.

Frankly, if it gets me my order faster, and more accurately, I don't have a problem with it. The blogisphere seems far more up-in-arms than anyone else. I guess it shows how little we have to talk about.

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
So, who's going to lose a job over this? Is there somebody at McDonald's who's sole purpose is just to take drive through orders and nothing else?


No, but its one less person that you have to hire. Say you have a team of 5 employees working at a McDonald's at any one time, four on registers, and one taking drive thru orders. If the drive thru orders are taken at another restaurant, that's one less job at the restaurant your at.

Frankly, if it gets me my order faster, and more accurately, I don't have a problem with it.


I don't see how this could be true. If they mess up my order half the time when they take it in the restaurant, I don't see how electronically sending the info back and forth over long distances could help the situation.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
No, but its one less person that you have to hire. Say you have a team of 5 employees working at a McDonald's at any one time, four on registers, and one taking drive thru orders. If the drive thru orders are taken at another restaurant, that's one less job at the restaurant your at.


That one that's taking drive thru orders still has to be there to get the money and give them their order. The difference is they also don't have to take orders, and possibly get them wrong more often than somebody whose sole purpose is to take orders.

I don't see how this could be true. If they mess up my order half the time when they take it in the restaurant, I don't see how electronically sending the info back and forth over long distances could help the situation.


It's the intense multi-tasking they are forced to do.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Ahh, yeah. I'm not sure most of the time that would make a difference. Sure it's easier to blame it on someone else, somewhere else, far, far away, but if you take the blame to yourself, if it's something like McDonalds, what's the worst that can happen? Even if that employee gets fired, another one will take their place, so it's the same place if you don't think of the person individually and the situation generally.

But now the bigger the issue gets or corporation, the less likely you are to get in touch directly with the source of your problems. Now that's where it gets tricky 'cause there's nothing you can do about it even if the issue comes from across the street or across the world; there's always a "higher" power to blame..
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah I see your point. Hmm...the first time I've ever been wrong...
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

I see 2 issues here.  Perhaps the people in North Dakota have a better accent?

Or more probably, the price of a resource is cheaper there, so Ooregon just priced itself out of jobs.  Ther argument of a 'living wage' always sounds good, but then it ignorres the economics.  As you can see, it is not worth it to that franchise to hire people in Oregon. Rail at them all you want, but in the end, it comes down to the law of supply and demand.  And the people getting hurt are those the 'feel good' law is supposed to be helping.  Typical.