Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/22/mcdonalds-employee-dries-wet-mop-under-heat-lamp-over-french-fries.html
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Ah, the truth behind the “Secret Sauce” at long last.
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The whole idea of quality, speed, or price also applies to your employees.
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So… employees are “objects”? 
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No? They are there to complete whatever work the company has given them. If the company (any company) priorities pay (the cost) and this being fast food, the speed at which an employee can work, then they are very unlikely to find quality workers.
You can really only pick two.
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Even if they demand they complete jobs that should be out of their job description? Or off the clock? Employees are human, and yes, they are being paid, but they still retain various rights as employees, which the company should not violate… You might think it’s fine to exploit people because “they’re getting paid” but it’s not even legally true.
They should have reasonable expectations of employees, and pay them a living wage and treat them with respect as employees. They sure as shit should not demand unreasonable expectations that people can’t meet and then treat people like shit when they fail. 
Now, in this case, yeah, drying a mop over a fry station is something that’s a fireable offense, but that doesn’t mean that fast food employers aren’t regularly expecting unreasonable things of employees, while they drive down their wages.
I also take some objection to these kind of stories, because they often turn into a story about how people who work in fast food (or retail, or other service work) don’t deserve raises, but are all uniformly “idiots”… It help feeds a classist narrative that contributes to wages being depressed across the service sector. The reality is that working at fast food requires skills, which most people have to acquire on the job over a period of time. Most fast food employees aren’t doing shit like this, and often when they do, it’s often the kind of foot dragging associated with quiet protests against unfair labor practices…
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Maybe it’s not a mop. . .
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Just imagine what happens in restaurant kitchens that aren’t visible to customers.
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… and hold the dirty mop squeezings.
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I’ve never done this, but I have placed towels, aprons, and even chef jackets, on counters under heat lamps to dry them off after washing. Usually to get stains out.
Thank you. I worked at a Shoney’s. Some of the people I worked with knew they were underpaid and didn’t get the respect they deserved for the amount of work they did but still did the best job they could.
Meanwhile the guy who prepared food with a lit cigarette in his mouth was the manager.
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Bad idea, very odd, but also, it must not have been too hot… she’s holding it in her hands…
That is no way to treat your pet jellyfish.
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Well, we’re definitely regarded as resources. Taking the small step to de-personify us into generic, fungible objects isn’t much of a stretch for capitalism.
YOU might accept that, but I sure as shit don’t…
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We still have a lot of work to do to change management’s mind on this one.
That’s what unions are for… And frankly, someone else pushing dehumanization on others does not mean we have to accept it… You can either give into the ideology or see it for what it is, and I choose the the truth.
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I read the OP’s “we’re definitely regarded as resources.” as an observation, not acceptance. But I don’t want to put words in someone’s mouth.
I’m legally barred from joining a union due to California law. I’m still protected in other ways by the NLRA. But I don’t get to change the name of my company’s Human Resources department, even though I find it incredibly insulting.
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