OAK BROOK, Ill. — McDonald's workers are getting ready to take a test in a fake kitchen. There are two boxes of french fries piled on the floor. They should really be in the freezer. The salt shaker at the fry station is empty. The cheeseburger buns are too hard and dry. The teacher is watching to see if they notice all the problems.
The challenge is part of McDonald's very own school, Hamburger University. It is a training program for the managers who run each of their restaurants. It tests managers on everything from handling customers' problems to hiring the best workers.
Each year, hundreds of new managers become students at Hamburger University. They spend five days studying "Hamburger-ology." They have meetings with a professor who pretends to be their boss. They work together to figure out what they need to change about the real McDonald's restaurants they run.