Working At a Fast-Food Restaurant
Posted: Sunday, May 07, 2006
by Jiora Ranger
http://groceries.tvheaven.com
Fast-food, the quick service restaurant (QSR), this is a special opportunity for some special people these jobs are also filled by high school students, college students, stranded tourists, housewives, people who are strapped for cash, refugees, and retirees.
Most of these jobs require black shoes or black sneakers. This is the most important part of your uniform, as you will be standing up all day during this job. Some employers offer you a new pair of shoes or sneakers as part of the uniform package. You will need to wear shoes that fit right, shoes that are sturdy, durable, and comfortable for you to wear. If you cannot find shoes, you may need to consult with Dress for Success, an organization that helps clothe people that do not have a lot of money for clothing, or Goodwill, or Saint Vincent de Paul, or The Salvation Army. You will be able to receive an outfit from one of these organizations that will impress your interviewer.
If you are looking for a company to help pay for your college, many of these companies offer scholarships, or programs that will help pay for your tuition, and/or books, if you have reasonably good grades. If you are able to keep a 3.0 GPA, or even a 2.5 GPA, your tuition burden will be lightened by the company you work for.
Most QSR, or fast-food companies will provide you with one or two workshirts, and one or two pair of trousers to wear to work. There is no need to worry about uniforms, although, you may need to write a request every week politely and patiently in order to obtain two workshirts in your size.
Washing your uniform daily - going to the laundromat is difficult at times if you do not have a machine in your house. I use cheap shampoo (V05, Suave, Lander), the $1.00 per bottle shampoo, and wash my shirt off in the sink. The shampoo is cheaper than laundry detergent, and the stains usually are removed from the dark uniform shirt enough to look right, and smell pleasantly for the next day of work. If the shirt does not dry overnight, .25 cents will dry it at the local laundromat.
What if I have a white shirt? Be certain to spot treat the shirt at work, before you go home, even if it is with a dilute cleaning solution from the janitorial spray bottle. You need to be careful with the bleaching of your white uniform shirt. Fill a clean bucket (not a little sand bucket, a gallon-sized bucket at the very smallest) 1/2 full with water, then add 1/2 cup of bleach, then add your shirt. Let the shirt soak for at least three (3) hours in the diluted bleach solution. If you did not notice this stain until you arrived back to your pad/crib/place, you should still be allright. Check on the stain, it should be completely gone three hours later. Take the shirt out, place in the sink, (check the bucket for any undies that might have wafted into the bucket, and remove if found in the bucket), then, dump the water/bleach into the toilet. Then, you can wash your shirt in the sink with that cheap perfumed shampoo, so it has that pleasant qsr smell that will help you to fit in with your co-workers.
Leave the nice doodads at home. You can buy jewelry from a gumball machine and wear it to this job order. You can make hair ornaments yourself, or necklaces, and your coworkers will appreciate it. You can wear those trinkets to work that you could not wear to your office job.
Key words to use: Hello, good day, greetings customer! May I take your order please?, May I help you? Is there anything else you would like? Would you like to supersize that? Thank you for your order - always be polite to the customer.
Keep your eye on the cash, double-count the cash, make sure that your drawer contains exactly the money that your cash register receipts say that it contains. Make sure that you are an accurate cash handler.
Please note - this is not a career, unless you are planning to become the restaurant manager.
Training people to work at the shop: you can have your phone ringing off the hook, have every employer in town calling you, if you interview well. Your entire house can be employed just by using these simple tips. Remember, there are only so many restaurants in a given town, if your housemates get the bright idea of starting a QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) employment agency, the whole place could go belly-up in weeks.
If you are going to be employing friends, let your friends swim, or let them quit. Just try to relax, be peaceful, and enjoy your day at work, while working.
This Article has been viewed 7,138 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)yes it was helpful to because you have to be neat and not dirty when you go to work nor smelly. Also you should talk nast to your customers you should talk with delight and with a smile on your face. THIS STATEMENT GOES FOR ANY JOB OUT THERE AND REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU GO APPLIE FOR A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...yes, if we are going to be snide, at least quit the job and then comment on it after going off the payroll... great advice bill bob thanks
This article has some good tips, but does not maintain a logical flow. The last two paragraphs don't seem to fit the article....absolutely, we lack the necessary skills to comprehend the difference between a supervisor and a co-worker, thus we take advantage of a situation according to the law of the cats which means commenting in a scratch-claw pattern rather than reading the article in a proactive way, in order to comprehend that a job that pays minimum wage and has a high attrition rate is usually something that will either immediately recommend someone to become a manager or is something that is best left unsaid such that some other needy soul reaches the epitomy of their self-expression through transitional employment at a minimum wage, minimum brain-power, zero-logic sub-strata such as this which resorts to subliminal trickery in advertising. Moreover, passing the job off to someone else who might be too poor to pay attention and not notice is something to do if one already has a job or internship that must be done, or has a pressing need to get through college or high school. Perhaps you're not the sort of individual with leadership potential who must immediately be able to train co-workers as soon as he/she walks out onto the floor, yes, admittedly, that was a definite flaw in logic right there, most folks are not born leaders, and the majority resist the effort necessary to become leaders. Most fast food restaurants like to choose the future management of the shop from the first week of the job on, and regrettably, a few practical jokers or slackers undermine the line. The author should not even have mentioned that whole other article right there.
Having any sort of right hemisphere functionality in order to grasp the big picture of what the job is about is entirely not necessary, in fact, most left hemisphere functions can also be avoided, what most QSR restaurants run on is reflex, polite expression mastery, and adrenaline. There is little or no logic necessary to be a line worker at a fast-food restaurant. Maybe you are overqualified for the job, and should become a work-at-home copy editor instead.
I'm working at KFC. This article was somewhat comforting to me. It reminds me that during hard times (Like the rush or rude cutomers), I am not alone. Millions of people working at other fastfoods, stand with me.
I work at a fast food restaurant and it is the worst place to even consider having for a career. Most of the people are uneducated and just plain stupid who work in this industry. Thankfully i go to college and will obtain a degree and not have to set another foot in this grease trap.To be honest I am at a top-league university too studying Medicine and I have to agree most of my colleagues are uneducated people who really have no other options. However, they are your best asset in the hard times. To know that they have your back is incredibly comforting when you know every customer who comes up to you is assuming you too are uneducated, stupid, lazy and don't realise you're studying things that are beyond them and will one day earn more money than they ever will.
But you need the employees on your side to keep you upbeat when every working minute it is assumed you're an idiot. And looking down on them is really not a great way to do that. Teamwork, and truly respecting everybody on the team, is really important (I know it's cheesy but it's true). Hard to do if they're annoying or you don't like them, but that hasn't happened to me thankfully.
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