I am appalled at the way they treat their staff.
A young woman (early 30’s) has been working for company for 6 years now. She is a little slow (special ed.) and McDonalds knew about it when she was hired. Since her tenure at the location at 1200 E. Marshall Street (MCV location) Richmond, VA, (a franchise) she has been treated very disrespectfully.
I have talked to her numerous times as she has been at the point of tears and total frustration at the hostile work environment she has had to tolerate. She had been called “stupid”, “dumb”, and “retarded”, all out loud mind you.
She has been yelled at saying “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you read? ” Last week she had to write something down and misspelled a word and was made fun of and laughed at by the members of their team. Yes, she has trouble reading/spelling but don’t you think that if she was unable to read well enough to handle orders that she would have been let go years ago?
Is this you way they treat people with disabilities/special needs?
She tried numerous times to call the store but the phone was not answered. (This I know to be true because I have had the same problem with this location.) When she finally went there she was told that she no longer had a job because she did not call in. She explained that she had tried but no one answered the phone, but was told that she was not believed. She even stated that she had proof as her cell phone had the numbers and times she tried to call. She was told that “they” didn’t care, “they did not want to see it” and she was out of there.
She has had problems with them for a long while now but could not afford to quit as she has a husband who draws disability and this job is she only income that she has, other than his $612 a month (the rent alone is $565.00 plus utilities). She is between a rock and a hard place.
Her life has been made miserable and she has sunk into such a deep depression over her treatment that it has actually made it hard for her to go to work, but she did anyway. She had even expressed to me that she would often go to work just wondering and dreading what kind of treatment was going to be thrown at her that day. Can you imagine going to work like that day after day?
NO-ONE should ever have to deal with that!
She was afraid that if she complained, she would be terminated. (she didn’t, but still was anyway!)
She even asked them numerous times not to schedule her for opening/early hours as she is on a bus line that is rather limited, schedule wise, and is hard to get there, across town, at the early hours. They have ignored this request.
When she asked to be transferred to a much closer location, she did not even get the courtesy of a response.
I have worked in fast food before, and at 60 years old have seen a lot. McDonalds has purposefully been trying to get her to quit by cutting her hours until they were practically non-existent, and verbally harassing her, hoping she would get the hint. She got the hint but could not afford to quit, for the reasons stated above. Granted this was not the best job (only because of the environment there, the work was fine) but it did paid the bills and it was, on a psychological level, “security/stability/routine”.
The current manager was overheard to say that he is cleaning house. This is understandable but to fire the ONLY non-minority person on the crew can seem a little discriminatory. While others come in habitually late, they are not reprimanded nor fired.
I do not know how much longer this lady will have access to a phone as the bill is due today and she is now out of work. Here it is February and there is no money for electricity or heat or water.
Boycott McDonalds!!!
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