McJob Part Two: The End?
Since the vote six months ago I've been working at McDonald's. It's been an absolutely life-changing experience.
As a person fascinated by systems and process, there is no better implementation than McDonald's. It reminds me of the Army, except that it is so much more brutally efficient and optimized. I've written up more about my thinking on leaving here, but today I'm asking the shareholders...
Should I quit McDonald’s?
The tl;dr of the linked post is that I have learned a lot but hit a local maximum in terms of what I can get out of McDonald's. It's also not well compensated, especially in light of an upcoming paid speaking engagement. I will truly miss my coworkers and some of the regulars. I will not miss selling a highly engineered unhealthy food product.
3
61 users voted with 9339 shares
Voting no. If Mike can sign on for joining me on one more HBR episode, S3E1, I will reconsider.
@zachrose - as I am unable to stop reviewing socal burger joints, i am also unable to quit you...
Fare thee well, McD App Expert
With the smash burger craze in full swing let's see what a Mikey Burger looks like? Burger She Wrote in LA might be the best burger I've had in the last couple years. Midway Smash in Portland is a close second.
I'm surprised you lasted this long! You're probably an old timer at that location by now.
There is still so much to learn from working at McDonalds. Based on your "thinking of leaving" post, you have learned a lot about systems, organization, and life behind the fast food counter. You also learned that working at McDonalds sucks, and maybe more broadly, working at the bottom of the economic ladder, especially in retail food service, sucks.
But have you really learned that?
Have you learned what it is like to live a life where the bottom of the economic ladder is the best you can hope for? This fast food job isn't a life for you, it's a lark. It's a fun little project where you get to see how the other side lives for a little while, knowing that you're not really a fast food worker at your core - you're just taking a peek into America's economic underbelly.
I think you should set yourself a longer timeline, and commit to not quitting. Put yourself in the position where when the job gets hard, or the hours get long, or you get a new manager that hates you, or your schedule conflicts with a "paid speaking engagement", you don't get to choose. You have to stay at McDonalds. Many thousands of people across the US are in that situation. They don't get to just quit when it starts to suck because if they do, they get evicted from their home, their kids don't eat, they lose their car, or whatever.
I'd say, if you really want to learn what it's like for many of your McDonalds colleagues across the country, don't quit because the project isn't fun anymore. Stay, because you don't have a choice.
Note: rereading this - it comes across a little aggressive, preachy, and snarky. Please know that I'm not trying to take shots at you - just trying to bring a different perspective to a project that has a bit of a Soul Man feel to me (1986 C Thomas Howell film for anyone that doesn't get the reference).
eubie67 I generally agree. In the previous vote about Mike's McDonald's job we talked about Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed.
Another point of reference that's coming to mind now is Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne, who worked at a Long John Silver's in Tulsa from 1977 to 1990. I can't help but think that a longer stint will inspire even greater inspiration and growth.
Credit to my wife for snapping that pic of Mike in the Drive Thru.
You should have at least two years so it looks good on your resume.
Not until you either get promoted to a manager or create viral content about your MCxperience.
The impetus for taking this job laid out in https://news.kmikeym.com/mcjob/ was to improve KMM's morale and finances, not as some sort of long term project to explore low wage employment. I think it's clear not only that those limited goals have been accomplished but that staying at McDonald's is becoming counterproductive (the low salary is affecting KMM's morale and keeping the job will reduce his income in the long run).
I voted "Yes" in the last McJob vote, but a lot of shareholders shared valid explanations for why they voted "No" that I understood (and was almost swayed enough by to change my vote). I don't think expecting KMM to stay in a job where he is likely to become unhappy and dissatisfied because other people don't have the ability to leave their jobs is in the same vein.
It's important to me that as much as I am "project minded" the last six months were not themselves a project. HBR was a project, and a lot of the insight I brought to the second season was based on working at McD, but I did have my own reasons to go work at McD and I have nothing but respect and admiration for my coworkers. Most of the lessons I learned and the sense of value I have about myself come from working with and learning from specific people I met there, and have very little to do with the golden arches themselves. I run the risk of turning just about everything into a fun little project, but I took on this job because I needed to work and I needed to get paid and now I have some other opportunities to explore.
I'm sure Kathryn will be bummed to no longer get a piece of your paycheck 😁
per Jasongsturgill, start making smash burgers ?
Six months at McDonald's is a fascinating chapter. A full year? That's an asset.
From an investor's perspective, the value isn't just in the hours worked but in the narrative equity being built. The difference between six and twelve months is the difference between an experiment and a fully realized case study—one that could pay dividends in future stories, speaking engagements, and strategic positioning.
We've seen insights, but we haven't seen the full arc. A year means experiencing the entire seasonal cycle, the shifts in demand, the moments when the machine is truly tested. That's knowledge. That's leverage.
That said, opportunity cost matters. Are there ways to reduce hours while still extracting the full value from this investment? A way to balance immediate opportunities with the long-term compounding effect of a stronger story?
Because this isn't just about a job—it's about maximizing the return on the bigger picture.
"The tl;dr of the linked post is that I have learned a lot but hit a local maximum in terms of what I can get out of McDonald's."
"I just got paid more for a speaking event that I’ve made the entire time I’ve been working. which made me think I could spend six months working on getting another chance like this vs. working seven hour shifts at the drive thru… I also have some really, really big opportunities in the works and I want to start putting more time into my own projects."
If these two things are true, AND you can get by financially during this time while exploring other opportunities, then it sounds like a good time to follow a path that leads somewhere new.
I don’t understand the relevance of the speaking gig. Did McWork interfere with the gig? Are there more speaking gigs coming up that you need to clear time for?
It seems cool that you got a hgih-paying speaking gig, but the connection to this decision eludes me.
I have been in this precise situation before (minimum wage job vs speaking gig/freelance gig that equals six months of pay) and I absolutely get it. Sometimes it's time - for me it was hard having my best thinking/doing hours (5:30AM - 1PM) - taken up by cleaning people's hair out of shower drains and exercise equipment that made it worth it for me to quit. If you can make it a year, that's clean, but sometimes it's just time to move on.
You know you want to! Reading the context for this vote it sounds like you'd rather focus on bigger things. Go for it!
Can we engineer a “you can’t fire me, I quit!” moment?
I'm with Claire
@joshb I bring up the speaking gig as a sign that the value I have to McD is a fraction of the value I can bring to others. It's about compensation, time, and the product. I'm 47 years old and statistically I'm only alive for another 27 or so years. Spending 3.7% of the rest of my life selling McD feels bad (well, I guess now that would be more like 1.85% but that still feels bad).
+1 to Claire's idea, so long as it doesn't affect your coworkers. Maybe someone can come in, recognize Mike's service, and "poach" him to an imaginary other fast food restaurant.
I agree with Claire! Maybe have someone come in randomly and “out” you as senior management from corporate working undercover to experience what a typical employee does.
The second part to my comment is that you have managed your life and finances in order to NOT have to work at a job you don’t enjoy, McDonalds or a Fortune 500 company. Quit!