Sunday, November 10, 2024

An invaluable lesson learned as a young McDonald's employee

The good folks at McDonald's say that one in eight Americans will work at one of their franchises at some point of their lives. You deserve a break today, so my high school stint at McDonald's can offset that statistic for you and six other people.

Politicians and business leaders have used their McDonald's experience to burnish their working-class appeal. Kamala Harris worked at McDonald's. Jeff Bezos worked at McDonald's. Heck, Jay Leno worked at McDonald's.

Brad Stanhope also worked at McDonald's. There, I learned one of life's most important lessons: Stay focused.

McDonald's was an important job for me. After losing my first two positions (including at a supermarket where I was fired by a boss who told me in the middle of the store that I didn't need to come in anymore), my confidence was shaky. Working at McDonald's allowed me to be around plenty of people, get training and realize that I wasn't (totally) incompetent.

I was a senior in high school, working at McDonald's in my hometown of Eureka. One of the roles I filled was being the guy who emptied garbage cans, cleaned the bathrooms and was a gofer for everyone. That wasn't all I ever did – I also took orders and repeatedly scalded my arms while making french fries – but on the winter night in question, I was the cleanup guy.

It was wet and cold around 8 p.m., which is typical for that area. The Pacific Ocean was a few blocks west of the restaurant, so it was foggy. As I remember it, there were just a handful of cars in the large parking lot.

I checked the three garbage cans spread around that massive parking lot. Being Eureka, there were always people wandering around. There was a substantial homeless population even then and some of those residents would look in the McDonald's dumpster, searching for food. That made sense because we would make the food, set a timer and throw it out after a certain period.

Anyway, I wandered the dark parking lot thinking of whatever a 17-year-old thought of in that era. Sports. Girls. School. "Welcome Back, Kotter." The Bee Gees. I grabbed one full bag of trash, went to another can and grabbed that bag. Then I walked to the dumpster, climbed up the short ladder, opened it and . . .

A GUY SPRUNG UP LIKE SOMEONE JUMPING UP FROM A CASKET.

OR MAYBE FROM A JACK-IN-THE-BOX.

I gasped and almost fell off the ladder. What the heck? 

The guy was equally surprised. He was dumpster diving, about to find some food when . . . some kid opened the lid and surprised him!

I didn't tell him to leave. I probably apologized for bothering him. I tossed the bag to the part of the dumpster away from him and told him it didn't have any good food.

I was mad at myself. I wondered if I screamed. I hoped I didn't make the guy feel bad. I was mad that the guy was there.

Nobody saw it. Nobody knew about it. I doubt I am the only employee of that or any McDonald's who had that experience. But it stuck with me: Always stay focused.

When Bezos or Harris or Leno talk about working at McDonald's, they probably don't think about nearly having a heart attack caused by a Jack-in-the-Dumpster experience when they were 17 and thinking how weird it was that John Travolta was in movies, too.

Yeah, I worked at McDonald's.

I made friends there, gained confidence and learned an important lesson: When putting trash in Dumpsters, always be cautious.

I'm lovin' it!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.



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