The Chain Gang

A New Report Reveals Growing Unrest Among McDonald’s Franchisees

Depressing.
Depressing.

Twice a year, investment firm Janney Capital Markets publishes the McDonald’s Franchisee Survey to give everyone an idea of how middle management feels about the business. Well, the latest edition is out, and the answer is that workers feel quite poorly about operations: The responses of store owners are the worst in the survey’s 11-year history.

On a scale of 1 (“poor”) to 5 (“excellent”), the 32 respondents’ six-month outlook scored at a 1.81, well below the 2.8 average — making it the lowest score ever recorded. Worse, staffers gave their relationship with McDonald’s a 1.48 on that same scale. Literally nobody awarded a 4 or 5, and only three people gave it a 3. Everybody else ranked it “poor.”

Write-in responses were equally bleak: “Relations between McDonald’s Corporation and the operators are the worst I have ever seen!” one wrote. Another called the system “broken,” and some savaged the recently announced $1-ish wage increase for embarrassing both the brand and the workers. One particularly aggrieved owner just blasted everything the company’s up to as “a farce”:

In defense, McDonald’s said of the survey: “Approximately 3,100 franchisees own and operate McDonald’s restaurants across the U.S. Less than 1% of them were surveyed for this report.”

[Ad Age, NRN]

A New Report Reveals Growing Unrest Among McDonald’s Franchisees