McJOB

Mcjobs require routinized tasks with efficiency as the main focus. The terms Mcjob and McWorld are related to George Ritzer's analysis of corporate culture in The McDonaldization of Society. The term McJob comes from the name of the fast-food restaurant McDonald's, but is used to describe any, where little training is required, and workers' activities are tightly regulated by managers. Mcjob was earlier performed on a part-time basis and having no career potential. McJobs are also known as contingent jobs or casual employment. The process of McDonaldization of fast food creates increasing Mcjobs (Ritzer, 1998). The term McJob comes from the name of the fast-food restaurant McDonald's Multinational Corporation which is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants. There is a wrong notion that there is no creativity or intellectual involvement in a Mcjob. In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, McDonald's CEO, James Cantalupo denounced the definition as a "slap in the face" to all restaurant employees, and stated that "a more appropriate definition of a 'McJob' might be 'teaches responsibility'." On 20 March 2007, the BBC reported that the UK arm of McDonald's planned a public petition to have the OED's definition of "McJob" changed. - BBC NEWS - Talk about Newsnight - "Gis a McJob."

Jordan Weissmann wrote in 2013, "McJobs Are the Future: Why You Should Care What Fast Food Workers Earn." Maybe most McDonald's workers don't make a career of fast food today. But will that be true in 10 or 15 years? Or again, nobody makes a career as a cashier at McDonalds. Mcjobs have given a boost to careers within McDonalds Corporation and outside, when they move.

Mcjob is no longer low paying and low-status. Mcjob was usually the first work experience of new entrants to the labour market. Economic changes have now made Mcjobs a long term destination for growing numbers of workers. Even Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had a Mcjob. While Jeff Bezos was in high school, he worked at McDonald's as a short-order line cook during the breakfast shift. McJobs aren't very glamorous, and yet, many successful people got their start working the front lines at McDonald's. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of internet retail behemoth Amazon, is one of those people. But Amazon has been accused that it has turned a middle-class Warehouse Career into a McJob.

Author Cody Teets asked Bezos some questions about his time at McDonald's for her book "Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald's," and he shared what his life was like back then. How are people learning things from such an infamously low-level, supposedly unfulfilling job? The answer is in Bezos' advice to teenagers entering the workforce: "You can learn responsibility in any Mcjob, if you take it seriously. You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald's. It's different from what you learn in school. Don't underestimate the value of that!"

McJob, McCheque, McWonderful
John Blundell, IEA, Institute of Economic Affairs, U.K. Economic Affairs, Vol. 20, Issue 1, March 2000. Abstract: "McJob" is sometimes used in a pejorative sense. But an examination of the job-creating ability of McDonald's, its policies towards its employees, and its provision of the first rung on the employment ladder for many people suggests that this form of job should be regarded much more positively.

HRM practice and the reality of the low-skill workplace: excesses of the “new” industrial revolution. Eli Winston Baker, Philip C. Wright. Journal: Equal Opportunities International.
Abstract: Uses the term “McJob” to convey that working either full-time or part-time at McDonald’s is one of the most common occupations in the 1990s. Defines a McJob as a job requiring little training, usually in the service sector.

McDonald’s: Revamping Its Poor Employer Image
Arpita Siddhanta, Bharathi S. Gopal.
Abstract: In June 2003, a popular publication, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary included a word, ‘McJob’ and defined it as a ‘low-paying, unskilled, dead-end job’. Being the world’s largest fast-food company, McDonald’s initiated a campaign to redefine ‘McJob’ in 2005. Despite efforts, critics continued to call a ‘McJob’ an un-stimulating, low-paid job with few opportunities to grow.

Avoiding the McJobs
Unemployed Job Seekers and Attitudes to Service Work. Colin Lindsay, Ronald W. McQuaid.
The argument has been made that these Mcjob seekers and others may be reluctant to pursue the type of positions that have become known as McJobs - de-skilled, entry-level service jobs which often offer poor pay and conditions.

From Mortarboard to McJob; What About the Grads Who Aren't College-Bound? Article from:The Washington Post Article date:June 12, 1994.