By Rob Basso on
4/19/2011 10:37 AM
McDonald’s announced in early April that they would be adding 50,000 jobs in a one-day hiring extravaganza. They will also be using this hiring spree to fight the negative connotation of the term “McJob”. The 50,000 new employees will fill job openings from restaurant crew to managers and will increase the company’s workforce by over 7%.
The term “McJob" was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2003 and has remained there despite the company's protests. Personally, I hadn’t heard of the term before, and I don’t know if I would have made the leap from “McJob” to low-wage. I did a little research to see if the “McJob” deserves its bad reputation? Some say no. In order to stay competitive with its biggest hiring adversary, Starbucks, McDonald’s offers flexible schedules, competitive wages, free meals and depending on the franchise owner, health insurance, prescription drug coverage, educational assistance and more. Taking it a step further, in 2005 McDonald's sought to boost the image of its restaurant jobs in ads featuring singer Macy Gray and track-and-field Olympian Carl Lewis, both of whom worked at McDonald's. Was the campaign to change its image successful? Apparently not if McDonald’s is still working to change the general perspective during this hiring boom...