My Secret Life on the McJob: Fast Food Managers - Essay Example

It is the manager that is at the heart of how well or how poorly the work space in fast food restaurants either produces the ideal conditions for a happy workforce or a demoralized one. The assertions are implicit from the observations and the insights that the author makes regarding the nature of the work and what separates good managers from bad managers in fast food settings, and arguably in any setting. Passion for the work, and regard for people as human beings, an understanding of human nature and what motivates people- all these are the stuff that matters in the end when it comes to managing people and bringing out the best in them, for the good of the organization as a whole (Google; McWhorter).

The key to productivity too, was the kind of management that was in operation at the different fast food operations, and one of the startling insights is that even as there is a high degree of standardization as far as the products and the product presentations are concerned in the stores, among other things, there were very large variations in the way managers treated their people, and in essence in the way that they managed. The impact of management on key store metrics was very pronounced too.

In the stores where managers were the most least effective was 400 times higher in comparison with the turnover at stores where management was most effective. The difference, it seemed, was that those who were most effective were good motivators. They were able to bring out the best out of their people by essentially building them up and rewarding them for good performance, rather than bringing them down by highlighting where they went wrong, and where the highlights were punctuated by the managers undermining the basic self-esteem of the workers (Ghosen and Fryling): .

managers who cultivated positive images and encouraged friendships and enthusiasm; bosses who were unfeeling; hierarchies that were rigid; and vast corporate and day-to-day