this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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Work Reform
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~~Let me get this straight. These absolute psychopaths want you to:~~
~~Are you FUCKING joking with me right now what the FUCK is this dystopian hellhole bullshit~~
Okay, okay. I wasn't thinking clearly when I wrote this, it makes no sense for this to be a thing during opening hours. I think it's understandable why I read it that way, and I think at least a few others did too, but I can recognise I was wrong, that this is an actual "summer camp" kind of thing, and that the company isn't being cartoonishly evil here.
I do not doubt that whoever approved it thought that it might add to the crop of future applicants in a "butterfly effect" manner, and smiled at the thought, but it would be too much even to say that's a secondary goal.
Not that it’s better, but it’s not new
I did something similar as a kid in the 90’s at a papa johns
~~Christ. You're right that it's not better. Work experience I can get behind, apprenticeship I can get behind, but this is so blatantly exploitative and dangerous the only thing that surprises me more is that parents are dumb enough to fall for it.~~
Yeah, just wanted to make sure people knew this wasn’t some new thing. It’s been going on since at least the 90’s, and I’d bet if you found someone older, they’d say it’s been going on longer
Sure, but also I bet my kids would have a blast doing that for a morning.
kids are dumb, they like things that we as adults wouldn't even consider 'enjoying', an afternoon behind the counter of a fast food restaurant they like going to would absolutely be a blast for a child. same reason why we had the macca's fisher price thing back in the 90s, or Barbie sets with real world grocery items, it's a different type of playground for them.
I think it boils down to the whole "we learn by doing" thing that's at the heart of a lot of play. And especially for kids, imitating what you see the adults in your life do all the time holds some mystique and new-ness that makes boring tasks seem like exciting activities. To us, filing taxes and loading the washing machine are repetitive tasks we do out of necessity, but to kids, it's a "grown-up thing" to be able to do.
Define exploitative? As a person that had led these events (not organized them), work basically halts during these events. You are literally showing children how to operate machines. It's a show for the parents. The kids are not being exploited anymore than if you took them to a ranch and they brushed a horse. The children are not improving operations or efficiency. Bu all definitions, they make work worse.
The flyer actually says they're going to train literal children how to work at Chick-fil-A.
There's not much room for interpretation there.
With respect, and I mean it. There is a world of difference between a kid brushing a horse and a training camp for a fast food joint. I mean, really?
Obviously brushing a horse is an unusual and fun experience, but that guy is right that they're the same amount of exploration. Kids want to play pretend at a restaurant. It's fun. Didn't your school do an "enterprise village" type field trip where you all play act grown up jobs for a day? It's fun!
This is not exploration. The children are not providing anything of value period, except perhaps good will towards the brand in the future.
I guess that we shall have to agree to disagree.
Kids should have nothing to do with the corporate world until they are old enough to deal with it rationally. Whatever the rationale is for doing so, fast food joints want to materially exploit people and having kids as young as 5 play as burger slingers is beyond creepy. Feel free to have alternative views about it.
They're training kids to be future workers.
Perhaps just let kids play and forget all about training to be "future workers".
Is this what we've become? Jesus!
F
I agree with that, for a number of reasons. I just don't think we need programs from McDonald's to train 5-12 year olds to be fast food workers.
I mean, the kids aren't capable of doing actual work that would actually be profitable for the company. They're going to slow the entire restaurant way down and probably break things. Honestly this sounds like a bad idea for the restaurant. Imagine the pure fucking chaos if all 30 kids are five years old.
I agree with this in part, but even if they can't do the literal work listed in the actual ad itself, then that just makes it dangerous. ~~They're going to be around hot surfaces and boiling oil and sharp kitchen implements~~ I presume they will be kept away from hot surfaces, boiling oil, and sharp kitchen implements while the real employees do all that stuff, and that there won't be customers in the restaurant at the time. But I'll lay money a kid is gonna get hurt by those things anyway, because they're as young as five and... well, anyone who's dealt with children knows they get into everything. You're bang-on right that there is no way in fuck this is a good idea.
Edit: I also want to clarify, I'm not aiming any hostility at you. I'm just really upset about adding yet another bead to the child labour bracelet America's making itself.
I'd never send my kids there, for sure. Although $50 to watch and feed my kid for a whole day does sound tempting.
The increase in child labour in America does seem concerning. I'm not American so I haven't heard too much but I did hear there are some 14 year olds packing meat? Meat processing plants are awful places to work for anyone but especially kids.
There have been several teenagers severely injured or killed working on and around dangerous industrial equipment in sawmills and meat processing facilities already, yeah, and one company alone had illegally employed over 100 kids for the night shift or illegally hired 13 year-olds (under the minimum age of 14). It's galling and more than a little chilling, in the context of the sustained attacks on reproductive rights and access to contraception.
There's a cynical humor in imagining some poor fast food employees trying to be like "Okay settle down, children, we're gonna show yo--Hey put that down, okay quiet down now PLEASE!" , trying not to lose their minds to a bunch of sugared-up "Braedens" and "McKeinLeighs" who are unaccustomed to listening to anybody that's not living in their iPads. 😂
Like the absolute only reason I'd be a tiny bit okay with this (and that's still insanely iffy) is if the parents were also going to be doing it with the kids as kind of a bonding experience or something, but even then...
Want to bond with your kid, take them to the park, not some corporate hellscape.
The kids yearn for the deep fryer.
Head first, you say?
Employ? I might be missing some info but on this image, they only talk about learning. I am aware of some states legalizing child labor, but this could as well be nothing more than fun activity to discover how things work for kids, especially if they enjoy going there to eat, they may be curious about what happens behind the counter. I would like my kids to understand some of the work that happens before they can enjoy their meal.
You're absolutely right, of course, they'd be insane to do this during opening hours for their restaurants. I overreacted. I gave an upvote, but here's a delta too: Δ
My only defense is Chick-Fil-A's atrocious record with regard to worker's rights, their already hiring actual children due to multiple states legalising child labour, my outrage at the children maimed or killed on the job at other companies, the image describing some of the basic duties of an employee, my extreme fatigue from being sick for five days and not sleeping at all last night, and the fact that it also seems like a way to glow up the experience to "get them early" so at least some of them will provide cheap exploitable labour in let's call it 3-7 years.
If they are already employing children then it definitely makes it creepier.
No "if" about it: https://www.mashed.com/1293230/chick-fil-a-history-child-labor-violations/
All these locations were franchised, but the corporation didn't sever ties or implement internal review processes. They didn't even denounce violating child labour laws or endangering children. They're awful.
I am pretty sure my kids would love this, and 35 dollar for a 3day camp is a bargain.
3 days? It's only 3 hours, just that you choose which day you want.
Uhhh, isn't it just 3 possible days where you choose from? And pay them $35 for 3 hours to do this shit? It's not a camp at all it seems. Or I'm missing something.
~~Congratulations on feeding a demonstrably terrible company, and being proud of it just to be contrarian.~~ You know what, that phrasing wasn't the best way to get my sentiment across. I understand why the cost is so attractive, and it gets the kids out of the house during the summer. I think there are better activities of course, but I'm sure you're kids will have a blast - and I do mean that sincerely, I hope they enjoy it if you send them. I also sincerely hope they don't get hurt.