I am an employee at McDonalds in Australia and have been for 4 years, across multiple stores, ask me anything!

What is the general salary/benefits for a McDonalds employee in Australia? From what I am told, in the US it is one of the worst work to pay ratios. Is it that bad over there too?

Well it depends I guess. If you're employed as a casual the pay is actually very good, especially for younger high school/university aged people, it pays more than the other options available to that demographic. An 18 year old in Australia, who is still not receiving full pay due to being under the age of 21, will earn around $17/h, which I think tops out around $22/h when you're 21. Not once have I had an issue with the amount I am paid, though its still nothing amazing.

Is there anything on the menu that is strictly Australian, or an Aussie favorite?

Well as I'm not sure what is served in other countries I'm not sure, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the McMate was possibly an Aussie exclusive? Or a nice joke at the very least for the rest of the world.

We absolutely love our sausage and egg McMuffins, every single tradie comes through Maccas on his way to work in the morning.

The McOZ.

Not sure how I could forget that

And is Maccas just your slang for McD's or is that an Aussie thing?

Maccas is just slang, we call it McDonalds, Maccas, Maccy D or whatever else we feel like at the time.

So I live in Florida and we have the regular McChicken year round, then the spicy is a limited type deal every so often. This is vice versa for my best friend out in Utah. What about for your McDonald's?

Regular McChicken is a normal menu item, we recently just phased out the McSpicy burger, but it has been replaced by the semi-permanent Jalapeno burger.

What happened with the McSpicy man? That was the best burger I ever had at McDonalds. I went there and the chick made me the exact same burger same ingredients same sauce everything, but the "McSpicy" was phased out, so they charged me for a chicken burger plus X amount to add the McSpicy ingredients. Tight arses.

Everything is still in store to make you a McSpicy except for the McSpicy chicken patty, but honestly a crispy patty is similar and tastes better anyway, but it will cost you to add the sauce sadly.

Cheers mate. So you reckon, what, crispy chicken burger + the sauce? What should I call the sauce when I ask for it? Spicy sauce?

Ask for a McChicken, either keep the meat patty or swap for a crispy chicken patty, and ask for spicy sauce instead of chicken sauce/mayo (they're the same thing).

Do you know how much food is thrown away daily?

Way, way too much.

Two questions:

1. Did you guys think the Angus burger with Swiss cheese and mushroom was as awful as the paying the public and

2. The McGangBang controversy, have you ever eaten one, and do you have special instructions concerning people trying to order them, such as being required to not acknowledge its a thing?

1. My main issue with mushroom was having to go out of my way to cook them, it was just a different process than most of the stuff we cooked and slightly inconvenient

2. I have never heard of a McGangBang and am now slightly curious.

How big are the food there? Are there infinite refills? What are the drink selections?

I've had McD's in 3 different countries in two different continents and so far it seems like South Korea's the only McD's that don't allow infinite refills :(

EDIT: Downvoted for asking this question? I guess some folks really think there should be more important questions to be asked when it's something about McDonald's.

EDIT 2: Never thought I'd say this, but RIP inbox. See y'all tomorrow morning, and thank you OP for your answer.

I've never worked in or been to a store in Aus that has free refills. Drink selections are your standard coke, fanta, sprite, orange juice.

Do you have the McRib? Do you celebrate St. Patrick's day with Shamrock shakes?

McRib was a promo item for a grand total of two weeks at my store, because apparently nobody cared about it.

What is the easiest way to order a double quarter pounder with cheese but without the bun or condiments? It seems straight forward enough, yet most times the order is met with a look of confusion and the price and can vary wildly - I guess depending on how its entered into the register?

If you ask for it with meat cheese only and no bun they should enter it in exactly as you say it. With no bun orders you're bound to get the occasional confused look as it is one of the rarer things to order, although it does happen more than you would expect. Price is most likely them entering it into the register incorrectly and just telling the back crew what to do instead of doing it on-screen.

What's the worst experience you've ever had with a customer?

Do you get a free meal every shift?

What's your favourite food item?

Thanks :D

As I rarely work in a position with direct contact with customers I don't have as many stories as you'd imagine, though I have had a guy yell his order to me from 3-5 metres back from the counter, from the back of the line where about 10-15 other people are waiting. After telling him that there were other people to serve first he just kept yelling out 'Large quarter pounder'. Didn't stop until he got to the register.

As a Crew Trainer I get a free meal every shift, most crew get 50% off before or after your shift, or on break.

I'm a sucker for the Crispy Aioli wrap.

What items are you disinclined to buy for yourself after seeing how they are prepared?

Honestly, and I hear this a lot when I discuss my job with friends, but working at Maccas has, if anything, made me more inclined to buy food there. Seeing how the food was made and realising that nothing sketchy goes on (suprise suprise) was quite good for dispelling all those 'disgusting McDonalds food' rumours.

Is it possible to work there and only work in the kitchen, or do you have to be able to do everything? Social phobia makes job seeking tricky :(

Absolutely, in fact in the stores I've worked at most people will work in only one area. Also as far as social phobia goes, I highly recommend working at McDonalds. I was the guy who never talked to anyone unless they talked to me first, but after working in the environment where you are surrounded by similar aged people working as a team, it really helped with the ability to just talk to people.

Four years is a long time working at McDs, what are your long term career goals?

I'm currently studying in the second year of my law degree, hoping for a career in some kind of in-house counsel or possibly litigation.

Do you serve Kangaroo burgers?

Only if you bring in a fresh kill yourself.

What is your least favorite thing about the job?

A lot of people there absolutely hate working there, yet still return week after week. Also another big thing is the way the full time staff act towards the younger or part time staff. Nearly every full time staff member who is above the age of 25 is a complete prick to anybody else. Obviously that was a broad generalisation but it has been a thing I've noticed at the stores I've worked at.

Is the beef actually decent ozzie beef or is it the weird leavings sort?

That's something I can't really answer as I have no idea of where the meat comes from before it is in the store.

Can you suggest options for vegetarians? One of our group doesn't eat meat and always ends up settling for an apple pie when we eat at Maccas.

Something like a wrap is great for a vegetarian, just ask them to not put on the chicken patty, and you can fill it up with other condiments if you want it to have more substance. Suggest to your friend to experiment.

Have you ever had someone order a McGangBang?

Never heard of it.

Former Maccas AU employee here. Where abouts do you normally work (i.e. kitchen, front counter, drive-thru), and where to you most enjoy working? I vividly remember smashing out 10:1 on the grills

I'm primarily a kitchen worker, and I by far enjoy working on the line the most. Its a weird thing to think about, but somehow that line of endless burger making can become so much more entertaining if you put yourself into making the burgers and actually take a bit of pride in what you do. People will say that it's Maccas and its nothing important but to me its enjoying the little things like exercising a little finesse when making burgers and pushing yourself to work a little faster or a little better. Also smashing 10:1 on the grills as fast as possible while keeping them in line is definitely fun.

I work at maccas as well. Do you guys also not bother to press the buttons when putting in fresh products? We just put the old stuff one rack below and use that first.

My store is pretty strict on basic quality procedures, so we get pretty serious about proper rotation, though the old trick of rolling over timers if the meat still looks fine happens.

As a fellow maccas worker for 4 years I've done my fair share of overnights, what's your opinion of them? Also do you think of the new gourmet range? I think maccas has come too far as just a quick, cheap meal to try to compete with the more gourmet burger joints.

Overnights are fun depending on who you work with, and their mindset to actually doing work as opposed to sitting around on their phone. Don't get me wrong they're pretty chill shifts usually but you do have deadlines to meet and shit to clean.

I've had access to some insider knowledge about where McDonalds is going in the next few years, which as you probably can guess is serious gourmet, though with the burger joint element still intact, and I'm curious to see if they can be fused together succesfully.

Other than McDonalds, who else has awesome burgers down there in Australia?

Nando's have brilliant burgers but have the downside of being way pricier, and they aren't in as many places as McDonalds.

Wars or Trek?

Wars

Why don't you guys sell soft drinks in bottles?

I'm fairly certain it's cheaper. If they save 0.01c per sale it adds up.

Do you have Fish Mcbites?

Negative

Is it true big Mac is being phased out at maccas?

No.

What % of employees in the McDonalds that you have worked in are students in education?

A lot of them

What's it like putting together a Big Mac upside down?

Big Macs are made weird, as they're not completely upside down like most burgers. Instead the middle bun and the bottom bun are made right way up simultaneously side by side, then we just lift the middle bun on top of the bottom one and place the crown on.

What do you think of the red shirts? I'm lucky enough to still have the old black ones, though all the new crew have been getting the red ones. I really don't want one, heard they don't breathe as well.

Also, do you do delivery (as in getting the new stock)? Is your ordering manager and absolute idiot ordering to much stock for the store, or are they half decent?

Customers, should they just fuck off?

I've been working at mine for 5 and a half years. Oh yeah, still only trained out back, and not a crew trainer. And they like me too, but I don't complain/pester enough to be trained out front or become a crew trainer #notbitter

I wish I could wear a red shirt, I'm stuck with the good ol' crew trainer blue, which is nowhere near as flashy. The shirts are fine, never had a problem.

At my first store the ordering manager was a complete idiot and frequently overstocked to dangerous levels, doing truck was a complete pain in the ass on those days.

Customers are fine, they just need to be more patient and appreciate the human side of the store.

I'm considering moving to Australia to study (21 years old) but don't know much about the country. Any information you could give me about living there, the life style etc.?

I don't know what to say as I have nothing to compare it to, but most people you'll meet are quite easy-going and easy to chat to, if you strike up conversation with anyone they'll usually chat back. As far as life style goes just make sure you either really enjoy drinking or really good at pretending you enjoy drinking.

Is all the rumors about the poor quality of the chicken and beef true? As an employee of four years I was wondering if you know.

The rumours are not true as far as I'm aware, everything is cooked properly and in a sanitary manner.

[deleted]

Can I say slipknot without elitists wanting to murder me?

Do you have Big Tasty in AU? Is it constantly on the menu, or just a promo item?

I think we had it once as a promo, it sounds vaguely familiar, must have been a while ago.

Are you being paid to do this AMA?

I wish.

What's a short and interesting story to stop this AMA being forgotten?

Edit: answering in a few hours? This won't work.

I once witnessed a guy who, after a fry vat had just filtered, saw that it was displaying a 'low temp' sign, which they always do after filtering as the oil heats up. This bloke saw this, I assume he thought 'oh shit, why isn't it heating up', and then he proceeded to shove half his hand into the oil to see if he could discover the source of the problem. Was great fun when the managers had to rush him to the hospital while praying that he wouldn't find some excuse to sue.

Why?

I'll need you to expand on your question a bit more buddy.

Probably meant why work at McDonald's for 4 years?

Well in that case I'm a university student who doesn't have time nor need to work much, the work is easy, pays decent for what it is and isn't a completely miserable working environment, so I'd ask why not? Thought I do look forward to time off so I can actually grow out a beard.

What makes you think people are interested in a AMA from a mcdonalds worker? (serious)

People are always curious about everything man.