Customer Reviews

My Secret Life on the McJob: Lessons from Behind the Counter Guaranteed to Supersize Any Management Style

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alas, in his attempt to describe the McJob from a behind-the-counter perspective, Newman and his inept editors have managed to create a mere McBook. As an intellectual meal, it promises more than it delivers and it ultimately leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied.

This short book is blessedly free of business jargon but it also is essentially devoid of content. What little content there is is highly repetitive. Newman has collected a handful of anecdotes, and he returns to them over and over again, even within chapters. On page 100, for example, we are told that his interview with Kris lasted an hour, and on page 103 we are told so again. We are told several times that Daniel likes to play with a Hacky Sack, that training DVDs aren't very good, that Newman once had a job on an auto assembly line that required him to make 11 welds. If he tells you something once, you can be sure he'll tell it to you at least twice. This may be effective lecturing style, but it makes for bad, bad reading.

You keep turning the pages because you're thinking that the mess will cohere at the end, that some deep insights and words of wisdom will emerge. After all, the author (as we are reminded repeatedly) is a professor and the publisher is McGraw-Hill. But there are few lasting lessons to be gleaned. Based on Newman's account, the key to success in these jobs is to show up, shut up, and make an effort. The jobs can be mentally and physically exhausting. Training sessions are grossly inadequate to prepare workers for the high-stress realities of the lunchtime rush. The combination of high stress, low prestige, and low pay results in high turnover, but some managers can attenuate the turnover rate by, well, being nice to their employees. That means acknowledging employees' good work, explaining things well, building a team, and fostering a friendly and respectful working environment. In Newman's experience, some managers are far more skilled than others in these respects. But does any of this come as news to you? I hope not, whether you work in fast food or some other endeavor. Further, Newman presents no evidence that the manager with strong social skills runs a better business than the socially inept manager.

In summary, this book does not represent good value for the money, even at a discounted price. It's a quick read. If someone gives you a copy, take it to the beach, along with a few cans of beer. You can breeze through the book in a few hours, and the beer at least will provide some nourishment.

This book offers an inside look at management practices in the fast food industry in a way we can all relate to. Dr. Newman draws us into his world by sharing from his own personal perspective as he learns to cope with working for minimum wage in a variety of fast food establishments under a wide range of conditions. His honesty concerning his own limitations and challenges is refreshing and makes it easy to relate to his experience. The writing style employed, rather than being a chronological narrative, explores key management principles drawing upon various personal experiences and observations to illustrate the author's opinion of whether or not a particular approach is effective. Although Dr. Newman avoids the "expose" approach, he does give us plenty of stories concerning particular individuals and situations that are both entertaining and enlightening, and they help us to identify with both workers and managers as they interact with one another. The value of this book lies in the author's objectivity and fairness in assessing each manager's strengths and weaknesses, and his ability to compare and contrast different management styles. Anyone involved in leading or managing people, especially those working in the capacity of management in the fast food industry, should consider this book required reading. It will help anyone to better understand how to motivate and inspire people at any level in any industry.

I read a review of this book in a newspaper and decided immediately that I had to have it. The author writes in an easy, conversational tone - in point of fact, I finished it in one weekend. Through his various part-time job descriptions at fast food restaurants you become acquainted with far-ranging management philosophies (especially the "toxic" managers), training programs (or lack thereof), and a greater appreciation for life behind the counter. Both my wife and I are much more tolerant of the mistakes made by people who hold these McJobs. And, yes, I would love to take a business management course from Dr. Newman!

Dr. Newman could have just written about management by using his many years of experience in business. Instead, he decides to go undercover and study management styles in one of the lowest paying, well known industries: fast food. More importantly, he doesn't learn about fast-food management by becoming an assistant manager; instead, he applies for jobs that are at the bottom of the "food chain." Among many tasks, he uses the fryer, mops the floors, cooks burgers--all with his PhD in his back pocket and while listening to his various managers make both good and bad decisions. The way in which he gathers information is as refreshing as his writing. The book is both insightful and relatable, making it easy for the reader to understand how to improve their management skills.

In any measure of efficiency, managerial competency, process control, industrial engineering or just about any other criteria you care to measure, the fast food places have to rank near the top. If your new car doesn't work, you can take it back to the dealer and get it repaired. If your burger is bad (well it depends on just how bad) you could wind up killing someone.

The idea of a McJob isn't something you would expect a Ph.D. Management expert to study from the bottom side up. You can bet that McD's has management experts studing from the top, but Jerry Newman got a series of jobs at different chains without notifying either the company or the local people and reports on what it is really like to work at the bottom.

It's a beautiful book. He has an insight into people, management and a writing style that clearly explains what it's all about.

Any McD's manager should read this; nd of course managers of all the other fast food places, no, managers at any other place. And when you are thinking of hiring someone, fast food experience just might be a good thing to look for in your own employees.

As a convenience store manager, I saw myself and peers in this book (the good, the bad and the ugly). I laughted, I cringed, and most importantly, I learned! A fascinating, informative and thoughtful read. Thank you Jerry Newman for your 14 months undercover!!

It's a great book: intelligent and interesting, both professional and entertaining. I worked in Taco Bell for near a year before I entered my MBA program, will graduate in 2 months, just recently got a job in HR management. I'm going to buy more books to give to my friends in Taco Bell, in this MBA program, and my future Human Resource department co-workers.

The premise of the book is to see what a college professor, in his mid-50s, Jerry Newman, can learn from working in entry-level positions during a 14 month sabbatical in fast food restaurants. The expectation would be to derive a set of best practices that would be applicable to the corporate world.

That being said, this may be the worst edited book that I ever read published on a major imprint (McGraw-Hill). The antidotal stories seem to be random in nature and do not fit even within the chapter distinctions. Additionally, too often stories are repeated in different chapters as if the reader would not have read the prior chapters.

Even the author's cloying sarcasm at times seems out of place in this text.

This book may be interesting to resurrect memories that individuals may have had from working in the fast food industry earlier in their life, but there is unfortunately little that a reader can take away from this text to improve their own business operations.

With significantly stronger editing, this premise may have been a readable four-page story in Fast Company or INC Magazine. It is disappointing that the distinguished professor was unable to cull a more insightful recollection of what should have been an otherwise interesting experience.

Society places fast-food workers at the bottom rung of society - but Jerry Newman's experiment does an great job showing why we should change our thinking about the people working in these McJobs. In an industry where everything is seemingly identical, different management styles really stand out. I learned a lot about managing people in high turnover industries like fast food and why hiring for personality works so well.

I sort of feel like each chapter in the book was written at some point in time independent from all the others; then merged together without good connections between chapters. There is also a lot of repetition and many of the stories are told two or three times.

Overall a great and quick read!

I started the book Wednesday night and should be done with it on Saturday - a girl's gotta work too. Anyway, I am thoroughly enjoying it.
It is such an easy read, and I am able to apply so much of it to our work force. Our cost structure drives us to keep labor costs to a minimum, and the book is giving me real incentive to try to improve the compensation plan. I'm actually working with our HR manager on this issue, and the book release couldn't have been timelier.