The following story is an attempt to explain the moral flaws of one relatively large corporation. For obvious reasons I will not name this entity as this is on the internet and I don’t want to get in trouble if they were to find this story offensive. Especially since this is definitely offensive towards their corporate strategy. I hope I can remain as non-biased as possible considering that this situation was extremely unfair, but it will be almost impossible. I hope this will be informative and interesting to learn more about what really happens when a family business turns into a corporate asset.
All of this began late in July of 2009, with a message from our owner/operator attached to our paychecks:
“Dear valued members of this McDonald’s store,
It is with mixed emotions that I announce to you today of my intentions to sell this McDonalds to another owner. This decision has been a difficult one to make as the store has been with our family since 1969. Difficult as it may be, I hope that you will all be pleased to know that your new owners are part of a much larger corporation. I feel that it is in your best interests as I can no longer provide you with the benefits that this new company can provide for you. This change will occur on 10/28/09, tentatively. I would like to thank all of my employees for the many years of outstanding and dedicated service which you have delivered to our customers.
Sincerely
”Everyone was stunned by the announcement and began to demand answers from management. “Everyone, relax, I don’t feel there is any reason to think that this is going to change our daily routine,” Carol, our store manager, announced. “Here, at McDonalds, we are a team and I know that we are going to be fine throughout this whole transition.” Now, at the time, I think Carol really thought that this change would be better for everyone. After this announcement, the crew didn’t seem to worry much about what was going to happen. Some thought that it would be nice to have better benefits than what they were currently getting. This proved to be all but true in the end, as everything plunged off the cliff a few months later.
“Hey, Kenny, is that order ready yet, this car has been in the Drive-thru for like 10 minutes now!,” I yelled as I was getting a bit frustrated at the kitchen. “Well, if I had enough people to open up side 2 then I wouldn’t get stuck with 20 different orders on my screen,” Kenny, the kitchen manager, shouted back at me. “Sorry, I’m just a little on edge doing all these orders by myself,” I said quietly. I got somewhat sidetracked by the girls on front counter for a while, as they were pretty hot and I was easily distracted. It didn’t take Jason, the shift manager, too long to notice that I wasn’t really giving my full attention to the drive-thru rush and that’s when he rushed in to help me. “Hey Brian, you think you can pay a little more attention to the drive-thru screen and less on the babes at the counter,” he said with a grin on his face. I gave in to his advice and we cleared the cars out of drive-thru as fast as we could. It isn’t usually easy but it is what we do at McDonalds, and we always try to make it as fun as we can. “So what are you doing later?” Jason asked me. “I don’t know yet, if it’s like any other night after work I’ll probably just hang out with you guys,” I said. We all worked nights so we got to be really good friends over the years. I’d known Jason and Kenny since when I first started back in 2006 as a 15 year old. We worked, played, and partied together as we all pretty much worked the same shifts.
Several weeks had passed on since the announcement, and management had all gotten together for a meeting. At that time I was only a supervisor, and was running the store during the meeting. I still don’t know exactly what was said during that meeting; only that it was the longest one I can remember. I tried to get Jason to spill the details to me afterwards, but he didn’t want to say anything. I still remember him saying, “You don’t want to know.” I had never seen this side of Jason before and it really got to me. I asked Ashleigh, the 2nd assistant, what was going on and I still got basically the same answer. The suspense was killing me so I texted Kenny about it. I know he read it right away, but it took forever for him to text back and I would soon find out why. It was only three words: “We’re losing Carol.”
The new company had other plans in mind for the store, with a new store manager at the forefront. Carol was one of the most experienced, if not the best, store managers that our store had ever seen. Although I often had conflicts with her, deep down I knew she was always right and she just wanted me to do everything the best that I could. I can’t think of a single person that I have ever looked up to more than her. I just can’t understand how these new owners would not want her; she was the greatest asset our store had.
[Elapsed Time] (Late September – “Final” Daily Close)
[Main Points TBD]
I didn’t know what to expect when I came into work on October 28th. The thought that this was the last time I would ever see Carol was almost unimaginable. I came through the back door, trying to keep a low profile, when I saw her standing there. I walked up to her, gave her a hug and said, “I don’t want you to leave,” as tears started to fill my eyes. She didn’t say anything but I know that the store meant everything to her, and she would give anything not to leave us. I then went back into the break room as usual to wait for my shift to start. I walked in to the usually loud and upbeat room only to find everyone there in silence. I asked what was going on and half the people in there said that the new company had called them, saying that they no longer had a job here. “They can’t do this to us, all of a sudden, no warning at all.” “They could have told us months ago so that we would have at least had time to find another job.”
The company had other plans, however. Instead of telling everyone in advance, they would let them all know at the last second that they are getting fired for no apparent reason. They told the media that they hadn’t fired them, but that they had been let go by the old owner. This is “technically” true but there is no reason why the corporation should not have hired them back. They were all very experienced and well-trained people and they should have been given a chance, not just thrown out like they were nothing. The moral obligation of the company should have been to rehire them and let them prove that they are just as good as anyone else working for them. It is an insult to the fundamental “People Promise” that McDonalds Corporation stands for.
For McDonald’s to achieve our goal of being the world’s best quick service restaurant experience, we must have the best experience for all McDonald’s employees.
~ McDonald's Corporation
