McDonald's fed up 'McJobs' jibes

LAS VEGAS - McDonald's has enlisted its restaurant managers in a campaign to improve the company's poor image as an employer.

After years of listening to attacks on their staff as burger-flippers with no benefits and opportunities for advancement, McDonald's executives are set on reversing that perception, with the help of their 13,000 managers in the US.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "McJob" as "low-paying and dead-end work", and many McDonald's managers said their biggest challenge was recruiting and keeping staff.

As evidence of the attempt to change that outlook, the company's North America president, Ralph Alvarez, pointed to a new television commercial featuring a man in a business suit telling a McDonald's staff member that he, too, once worked at McDonald's.

Alvarez asked managers to share their own stories to spread the word about careers at the chain.

Dave Pavesic, a professor of hospitality at Georgia State University, said the industry's image problems centred on long hours and resistance to minimum wage increases.

Restaurant staff turnover of roughly 130 per cent and manager turnover of about 42 per cent has also made matters difficult for the industry's image.

- REUTERS