McDonalds: "What, my peon, you don't work two full time jobs?"

[Razgovory]

I'd like to think I've gotten sharper with age.

[fhdz]

  Well played, everybody.

[grumbler]

The register I see when I go into a fast food place is quite a simple machine, with just pictures on it for the food choices, and an automatic change dispenser.  It is possible that such a thing wasn't possible back when you were in college, but then cashiers haven't always been minimum-wage workers, either.

None of which addresses the bolded part.

You've seen them. I've worked with them (within the last few years as a bookstore clerk). They are not simple tools. They require a modicum of ability to be able to use them. They are not as simple as the calculator/registers of the 1960s and 1970s. There is an increased level of skill required to do the cashier's job.

That was the entire point. Garbon claimed that minimum wage jobs today are easier, mentally, than they were before. I disagree. I've explained why I disagree.

None of which addresses the bolded part.  They are so simple that customers can use them, with no training at all.  I've used them as a custom,er, and found no problems at all.  While you may find them challenging, that is a statement about you, and not the equipment.

I worked retail many times over the years, and POS equipment nowadays is a lot easier to use than it was in the 1970s.  Now you can just scan bar codes and the equipment does the rest.  Hit the total button, enter the amount given, and the machine pops out the coin change down a chute, while it tells you how much paper money to return in change.

It is a lot easier.  Where you find complicated transactions that require training, you don't see minimum-wage workers operating the register, because the employer is willing to pay a premium to avoid having to train your replacement.  The actual minimum-wage jobs probably are easier now than in the past, in retail.

[merithyn]

None of which addresses the bolded part.  They are so simple that customers can use them, with no training at all.  I've used them as a custom,er, and found no problems at all.  While you may find them challenging, that is a statement about you, and not the equipment.

I worked retail many times over the years, and POS equipment nowadays is a lot easier to use than it was in the 1970s.  Now you can just scan bar codes and the equipment does the rest.  Hit the total button, enter the amount given, and the machine pops out the coin change down a chute, while it tells you how much paper money to return in change.

It is a lot easier.  Where you find complicated transactions that require training, you don't see minimum-wage workers operating the register, because the employer is willing to pay a premium to avoid having to train your replacement.  The actual minimum-wage jobs probably are easier now than in the past, in retail.

Okay, grumbler.

[dps]

Though I'll point out to Meri et al that POS systems are in fact extremely simple applications.

Then why do the workers always screw something up and need to call a manager?

Because the worker imputs the data into the machine.  GIGO still holds true.  Though often the real problem is the customer.  'Cause when the customer tells the cashier that they want a Whopper with no pickles, the cashier is supposed to magically know that the customer actually meant extra pickle, no onions.

If you think working in fast food is easy, you've either never done it, or you're one of the rare people who have a knack for it.

[DGuller]

If you think working in fast food is easy, you've either never done it, or you're one of the rare people who have a knack for it.

Very rare indeed.  Every time I ask for extra pickles, they give me none instead. 

[Razgovory]

Well played, everybody.

I'll let Ide take over for me, I've just got to fire him up.

[Ed Anger]

If you think working in fast food is easy, you've either never done it, or you're one of the rare people who have a knack for it.

Very rare indeed.  Every time I ask for extra pickles, they give me none instead. 

Pickles are for closers

[merithyn]

If you think working in fast food is easy, you've either never done it, or you're one of the rare people who have a knack for it.

Clearly, you, like me, are a moron, dps, since everyone knows that it's simple and easy to work minimum wage jobs now that computers are there to help.

[CountDeMoney]

The registers have icons on them, and make the change for you.  I mean, duh.

[garbon]

'Cause when the customer tells the cashier that they want a Whopper with no pickles, the cashier is supposed to magically know that the customer actually meant extra pickle, no onions.

If you think working in fast food is easy, you've either never done it, or you're one of the rare people who have a knack for it.

Doesn't negate where this started with my point that if anything things have gotten easier. I doubt it is that customers have gotten stupider/more demanding and have made the job more difficult.  Customers being crappy seems pretty constant.

[garbon]

If you think working in fast food is easy, you've either never done it, or you're one of the rare people who have a knack for it.

Clearly, you, like me, are a moron, dps, since everyone knows that it's simple and easy to work minimum wage jobs now that computers are there to help.

So you want to play CC now? I never said the jobs were now simple and easy, I said that computers have made many jobs easier.

Besides, I would say that if they are the only jobs that an individual can get and can never ever advance at said job or get another job (but is not an actual slave and by rules not allowed to seek other employment) then yes they might be easy positions.

[derspiess]

Is someone seriously claiming that ringing up fast food is hard? 

[merithyn]

So you want to play CC now? I never said the jobs were now simple and easy, I said that computers have made many jobs easier.

Besides, I would say that if they are the only jobs that an individual can get and can never ever advance at said job or get another job (but is not an actual slave and by rules not allowed to seek other employment) then yes they might be easy positions.

That was aimed at grumbler, not you.

[garbon]

Is someone seriously claiming that ringing up fast food is hard? 

The heady days of 2013.