WOULD YOU LIKE FREEDOM WITH THAT?

In a case more twisted than a serving of supersized twisty fries, there have been nasty goings on at fast food outlets, where staff have been physically abused and humiliated, supposedly on the orders of a 'policeman' on the phone. In the last ten years, managers at over seventy fast food restaurants around the US were called up by someone purporting to be a cop investigating an employee for crimes such as theft. Many were convinced to order young employees to perform dehumanising and humilitating acts, such as stripping and performing sex acts. The last case, November 2005, involved Louise Ogborn, an 18 year-old McDonalds employee, who was imprisoned for two hours and subjected to beatings by her manager , all at the phone request of a supposed policeman. Police eventually traced the hoax calls to a 38-year old employee of Corrections Corporation of America, a company that runs private prisons.[1]

So why did it take so long before any action was taken to end the calls? Sociologist Ester Reiter in Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan into the Fryer (1991) theorised that: 'obedience... is the most valued trait amongst fast food workers'. Various US media following the story reported that fast food restaurants are an 'easy target'. Once management are told of something that goes beyond the corporation's rule book they would not really know what to do. They would obey the 'voice of authority'.

Dr Stanley Milgram carried out a controversial experiment into human obedience, in the 1960s. '[The]...experiment...[tested]...how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to...The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study...' Obedience to Authority(1974).

McDonalds' response to the final hoax stated that they have safeguards written in place in their training manual. They added '...our greatest asset is our employees. We greatly value their contributions to our brand...' With the indoctrination, culture of obedience and brand loyalty force-fed to employees it's best to remember that it is better, and right, not to do what we are told to. The fact that one of Louise Ogborn's fellow workers refused to participate in her ordeal, even when ordered to by management, shows that even McDonald's training regime cannot totally crush human capacity for sensible disobedience.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (PT2)

More fat-cat jobs in housing, spotted in a recent magazine:
London Borough of Merton, 'head of regeneration': £77,500pa.
Birmingham County Council, 'head of housing development': £49-58,000pa.
North Norfolk Housing Trust, 'assets' director', £60,000pa.

MYTH MEETS REALITY

'Engineered to Go Anywhere, Do Anything', boasts the Jeep press release for their new Commander family-sized SUV. Its advert shows one model emerging from a underwater[2]. Unfortunately, as spotted by media gossip site Jossip.com, for one driver in Washington State, Jeeps are not, actually, able to drive underwater. After suffering a black out and driving into the Pilchuck river, the man was saved by rescuers in a boat.[3]

The TV show CSI Miami focuses on the adventures of a police forensic team, who drive around in a Hummer, a famously unsafe and fuel-inefficient vehicle that is derived from a military transport. General Motors, who make the H2 model shown in the programme, sponsor the show, which essentially acts as a long, glamorous advert for the H2.4 Residents of real-life Miami, which suffers from hurricanes and floods on a regular basis, may not be so keen on the climate-busting Hummers.

References
[1] http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1297922&page;=1
[2] www.off-road.com/jeep/news/2005_04/commander.html
[3] www.jossip.com/gossip/advertising/jeeps-unfortunate-use-of-water-20051104.php