Competition within the fast food industry is a difficult challenge which can take a toll on the youngest employees: teenagers. The very nature of the industry can sometimes harm teenagers in the process of producing profits. Inexpensive labor is considered essential for competing in the industry, but some of the young teenagers may become victims of exploitation. Some companies target the young and poor demographic and can guide them to become career low wage earners. Eric Schlosser from Fast Food Nations would exemplify such association, “Harrison is where you will find an abundance of fast food workers. The young teenage employees can experience negative effects such as negligence of their studies, their aversion to work, and followed by their exposal of crimes that can impede the teenagers’ future.
Teenagers are at an age when they like to be mentally stimulated. They are more than capable of picking up things quickly such as taking an order with proper etiquette and professionalism. It’s also a past time activity which comes with financial benefits. Daren Devine shows a similar agreement from his study, “he found 90% of parents think working in restaurants like McDonald’s is good for their children. Daren Devine’s study summarizes Professor Furnham’s promotion of how teenagers benefit from this experience. But, it’s only a summary of 475 people without any race specification. It could’ve been a selection of the most successful U. S. natives instead of including ones that are poor immigrants. Similarly, a lot of low-income racial minorities in the United States hold a major part of the employment numbers in the fast food industry. Likewise, there are studies of when some parents’ dependence is onto their teenagers to provide living expenses.
It may be because those parents may be immigrants from another country whose living standards are much lower than that of United States, and they may need some financial help. With working part-time at a fast food restaurant, it won’t do much supporting for the family but for themselves. So, should the teenager work longer to ensure the financial stability of his or her family? Teenagers are completely able to take orders in fast food restaurants and can work efficiently better than some adults do.
On the other hand, it can lead to the failure in studies due to the timing and the stress. The full time work put in for family issues may be prioritized over their studies. The fast food industry should be able to recognize this since they have the power. To better ensure a bright future, teenagers and their parents should prioritize at least graduating from high school. But, it’s not always the case. It is a fact that when teenagers prioritize working more than twenty hours in a fast food restaurant, it lowers their chances of a successful, financial future.
It is possible, but the financial benefit during teenage years does not safeguard a successful future. Also, families are sometimes susceptible to have a poor mentality when from a low-income area. Their finances are sometimes bound to be disposable income that are depreciated in value such as cars, brand named clothes, and etc. Those depreciating objects are many times valued by teenagers as they join into the shortcoming of consumerism. Teenagers don’t always know what’s best for them and their primary focus should be on mental stimulation from school.
The low wages at a fast food restaurant can merely support a family and is considered to be below the poverty level as working part-time. It’s difficult for students to solely support themselves and is obviously presumed to be supported by their guardian(s) until the legal age of eighteen. Working at a fast food restaurant should be, and usually, is considered as a temporary job for teenagers. Daren Devine’s study, “part-time job is good for your teenager’s growing-up” reveals Professor Furnham’s predisposition to his client instead of the benefit of client’s teenager employees.
He was paid to make an unethical study more appealing to the public for his client. In this case, the client was McDonald’s. The study depicted McDonald’s deceiving intentions to make their establishments a worthy place for employment. In Furnham’s biased study, he would most likely ignore the damaging dictations about McDonald’s or else he would possibly be poorly compensated, fired, and/or sued by his client for defamation or break of contract. The study shows the intention of the large corporations to enhance their image and disregard their valued employees.
The fast food industry’s non-caring mentality can be easily evolved into the exploitation of teenagers, because they simply don’t care for their financial standing. Big corporations in the fast food industry are known to push the minimum wage laws down as much as possible in the political world because it benefits the leaders. Besides Furnham’s study, many believe some teenagers gain a life-long aversion to work from fast food employment. Besides, the speed and the repetition of the job itself is, evidently, a boring combination.
There’s a saying that crazy is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s similar to constantly repeat the same task, flipping burgers and taking orders, and result a decent raise. Raises are given over a long period of time. For teenagers, they don’t have a long time to work to receive a acceptable amount. The nature of the fast food industry demands a process of flipping burgers done with enthusiasm in a mass-produced system that was built purely for profit and low expense costs. The job itself is, in numerous ways, unpleasant.
Hungry customers seek super-fast services from the low-priced menus with great enthusiasm. The expectation doesn’t necessarily attract the most understanding bunch of customers. If the customers’ orders are not quickly and correctly prepared, the customers will display negative attitudes as feedback. Pressure exists heavily on the shoulders of teenage employees to avoid frustration and stress. Furthermore, they say that first impressions can leave a permanent impression of someone or something. As a result, it may determine the teenagers’ outlook of their future working world.
Teenagers that work in fast food restaurants may develop a life-long, unenthusiastic perception on their future jobs. Professor Furnham’s study does not mention the possibility of physical injury or death during employment in his client’s restaurants. It happens quite often even in other industries that practice low-wage compensation. They become unhappy of their situations, especially in low-income areas, and they would be enticed to steal. Other than those that are capable of stealing, it’s a common place for robberies. Robberies can be associated with murder.
There are records of fast food employees being a victim of a robbery. Schlosser mentions “more restaurant workers were murdered on the job in the United States than police officers” at one point in time. Due to the fast nature of the business, crime can also be committed in the similar pace. Trying to avoid robberies in one thing, but another thing that is more expected to happen is injury at a workplace. No matter how responsible teenagers are, they “are likely to be untrained, and every year, about 200,000 are injured on the job,” says Schlosser.
There are fryers for fries, electrical machines with blades, and other dangerous tools. It’s inevitable to get burned from the hot metal, slip on the wet floor, or get cut from some object. In conclusion, the industry does not have the best of intentions for their teenage employees. The fast food industry should recognize teenagers as non-adults, because they don’t always know what is best for them. They might be smart as an adult but they aren’t as wise as some adult are at the same time. They shouldn’t be stuck in a low-waged job to end up as leeches in the society.
Teenagers are a part of everyone’s future as everyone was a teenager before. Wouldn’t you want to tell your teenage self to be careful for your future’s sake? They are treated as working tools to simply mass produce a product and can often be victimized in fast crimes in fast places. Also, high stress levels from working at fast food restaurants can leave distaste for future work experiences. What is worse is the injury and deaths that may happen in a very artificially welcoming place, where foods are cheap and received quickly. Teenagers are better off not working in fast food restaurants.
