Blog entry #5


       Did you know that fast food restaurants and their customers take advantage of employee's ?According to Eric Schlosser the author of the book Fast Food Nation, fast food restaurant hire the weak minded because  it is easier to take control of them, they would work for low wages and they are less expensive to hire. I think that it isn't fair that fast foods restaurant treat their employees with out respect because they don't stand up for themselves, they shouldn't take advantage of their employees. I believe that many of these issues still go on in our society today and needs to be changed.


         Fast Food restaurants continue to take advantage of young employees. According to text "the bonuses of Taco Bell restaurant managers were tried to their success at cutting labor costs. The managers had devised a number of creative ways to do so".What this quote mean is that many of the supervisors who work for Taco Bell were rewarded with bonuses because they were able to find effective ways in reducing the amount of money spent on employees. For example within the the story it stated how the employees who worked for Taco Bell shift did not start until the restaurant was full of customers. The employees were also obligated to clean the restaurant on their free time. They were also paid with food and not with wages.  most of these employees who were taken advantage of were usually minors and immigrants. This shows that fast food restaurants preyed on the young and on immigrants who did not know any better that as employees they should have been treated better.

          Working in fast food restaurants can be hassle and very stressful.According to the text "many customers look down on fast food workers and feel entitled to treat them with disrespect".What this quote means is that the customers of fast food restaurants usually feel that the employees are inferior and because of this they may act abusive towards them. This was very evident in chapter 3 page 75 where a teen named Elisa who was inspired to work in McDonald's since she was a toddler, but once she got the job she began to despise such an occupation. This was because of the many rude encounters she experienced with customers. For instance she was bombarded with many complaints and rude remarks from her customers or constantly yelled for the food taking to long. I have never worked as an employee for fast food restaurants but I have witnessed many horrible acts of disrespect towards employee's in McDonald's.For instance while I was waiting on the line to order my lunch in McDonald's when a  woman had walked up to the front of the line yelling at one of the employees because they forgot to add pickles to her big mac. She said to the employee " No wonder you work at McDonald's, you cant even get a simple order right, you lowlife, dumb bitch!". When I heard this statement I was in complete shock that a person could be so rude to their own kind.This shows that the employees of fast food restaurant go through a lot on a daily basis just for doing their job, also customers have no respect for the employees.

         As you can see, in the story Fast Food Nation it expresses how employees are often treated unfairly by the customers and the managers. It also shows readers that many supervisors within the fast food restaurants take advantage of customers by lowering labor costs and creating bogus rules on how the employees should conduct themselves while working. The story also place emphasis on how employees are treated poorly by their customers day in and day out. They are yelled at, get complaints and rude remarks that are usually unjustified by the customers. It very clear that how things work in fast food restaurants should be revolutionized. The employees should be payed appropriately, they should be treated with respect by customers and also should feel safe while working.