There are many assumptions that when you work at any fast food place, especially Mcdonald’s, you won’t go far in life, or when you’re working, you aren’t allowed to have any fun. In this case, that is just the opposite. Mcdonald’s has many opportunities to succeed in the future and to get better education privileges.

Working at Mcdonald’s can be fun but also stressful. During a regular shift, you usually have to do your RDMs which are weekly cleaning tasks assigned to each individual employee. An RDM could be as easy as cleaning the sauce containers or coffee packet holders, but some are more complicated. A few more complicated ones are like cleaning the McCafe cooler or the frappe machine. To clean the frappe machine you have to take all product bases out, hook up these tubes to the machine, and have two buckets of soapy water and two buckets of just water. After that, you have to run the soapy water through each tube and then rinse it with clean water. The process takes about half an hour.

RDMs can earn you something called MAC points. MAC stands for Make A Change. The point can earn you many prizes if you save up. Some prizes range from gift cards all the way to new TVs! RDMs aren’t the only thing that earns you points. Some ways to earn points can be working a holiday, split shifts, staying late, and even achieving goals! Your goals depend on where you’re working and what hour it is. If it is 12 pm to 1 pm, your goals for the drive-through could be 84 cars and each cleared out in 2 minutes. 

When you work in the drive-through, you not only have to take orders and hand out food, but you also have to help make the drinks, bag the food, and cash people out. Making drinks can be simple depending on the drink. On top of all the responsibilities you have, there also can be time for fun. If it is dead in the store, you should always make sure your areas are all stocked up, and then you can mess around responsibly. At Mcdonald’s, the managers try to make everyone have a good time by throwing parties or rewarding the employees. One reward that they have given the crew members was donuts every Friday and Saturday after winning the “Speed” competition between all other stores in Wisconsin.

People assume that working in fast food means you aren’t allowed to have fun, you won’t go far in life, and you don’t have benefits for education or improvement. Working at Mcdonald’s has actually taught me the opposite.