First Posted: 8/18/2014
As I travel for work and look for places to do some iPad work, I find myself in a whole lot of McDonald’s, where the coffee is hot, the pop cold and the WIFI free.
Sure, I’ll sometimes stray to a Panera or Wendy’s, but most work days, I find myself looking for one of the single most familiar and easily recognized brand-identifying edificial inclusions ever conceived, the golden arches. On an almost daily basis I’m in what I like to call Archlandia, where working and observing people go hand in hand.
For a buck, I know I can get a refillable soft drink or cup of Joe and get enough of a caffeine burst both to work and observe those around me. I’ve seen manager meetings, interviews, people’s hygiene-related habits and a super-sized order of social interaction of folks of all ages.
As for one managers’ meeting, this one in Dublin, I saw something pretty amazing — something I’m sure wouldn’t play real well at Corporate McDonald’s. When it came time for a break from the managers’ presentations for lunch, one took the order of about five others, left and returned a short while later with a whole mess of Chipotle bags. There they all sat, in the middle of the dining area, with McDonald’s emblems on their clothing, eating a competitor’s fare.
Now, when it comes to not-so-great moments in hygiene, far too often I notice people in the restroom bypass the sink and head out the door. I’ll see that same guy in line waiting to order food that is almost all consumed by hand. Hmm, if you’re a Seinfeld fan, I’m pretty sure Poppy comes to mind.
Often when I look for a place to work, I try to find a low-traffic area, and that’s often the area where interviewing is done. I’ve seen many an Archlandia hopeful await a manager and then toss back answers to questions such as “Can you work on school nights?” and “Do you like to interact with people?”
The other day, while in Troy, I noticed a young man, probably in his late teens, awaiting the manager to come over. I couldn’t help notice his appearance. He had on a pair of well-worn and dirty athletic shoes that were sticking out into the aisle as he half-lounged, an untucked T-shirt and a backward-turned ball cap riding atop a generous mop of blond hair. Completing the look were two ear accoutrements, those circles that surrounded two grotesquely large holes in his lobes.
As for the look heading into a job interview, let me say I wasn’t real impressed. Perhaps it has something to do with my age, but I just kind of felt the overall appearance slipped under the old professional-appearance bar by a considerable margin, even in Archlandia. But, guess what? After answering a few questions and about 10 minutes’ worth of time, Mr. Backward Hat Boy got himself a McJob!
When it comes to social interaction, no matter the time of day, there always in Archlandia seems to be a table of older gents — many with frontward ball caps — drinking coffee and discussing the news.
And, of course, there are also generally groups of teens who spend more time text messaging others than talking to each other.
I also am always interested in the wide range of attire I see in Archlandia, especially the T-shirts with writing on them, of which I have well over a hundred and have been a strong advocate ever since my mom stopped buying me those multicolored horizontally striped T-shirts during the Eisenhower years.
I’ll leave you with one I saw in a McD’s in Hillsboro, worn by a man who looked to be in his mid-30s. The shirt said, “Hey, I’m not lazy! I just enjoy doing nothing!” During my couple hours of work, he was true to his message and did little else but play with a smart phone and drinking pop refills. Sometimes in Archlandia, not only do people sometimes make statements, but their clothes do as well!
