Mickey D’s has suggested employees break their food into smaller pieces to feel more full while they’re eating, sell their possessions online to raise money and sing happy songs to relieve angst-driven high blood pressure. This YouTube posting from Low Pay Is Not Okay features screen captures from the McResource's Intranet site outlining these policies, leavened with a heavily sarcastic dose of anti-McDonald's prose.
This come on the heels of the black eye the company took just last month for releasing a ludicrous budget for its full-time employees, one which saw the fast food company advising employees to take a second job. Additionally, the company had advised full-time employees to apply for welfare as recently as last month.
The McDonald response? According to NBC News, McDonald’s did not return multiple calls for comment. A statement emailed to CNBC said the advice was taken “out of context” and that McDonald’s and Nurtur Health, which created the site, would “review the content and make any necessary adjustments."
The takeaways for PR professionals are painfully obvious:
Review is mandatory: Any company communication must be reviewed and approved several times. It seems impossible that such incendiary (and ludicrous) advice would have passed muster from upper management.
Online is forever: They teach fourth graders this in school today, but some corporate folks just don’t seem to get it. Whatever you put online, external or internal, is online forever, no matter if you delete the source posting. Make sure you’re not saying something insane before you press “publish.”
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