Fast Food, Fast Talk - by Robin Leidner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Attending Hamburger University, Robin Leidner observes how McDonald's trains the managers of its fast-food restaurants to standardize every aspect of service and product. Learning how to sell life insurance at a large midwestern firm, she is coached on exactly what to say, how to stand, when to make eye contact, and how to build up Positive Mental Attitude by chanting "I feel happy! I feel terrific!"

Leidner's fascinating report from the frontlines of two major American corporations uncovers the methods and consequences of regulating workers' language, looks, attitudes, ideas, and demeanor. Her study reveals the complex and often unexpected results that come with the routinization of service work.

Some McDonald's workers resent the constraints of prescribed uniforms and rigid scripts, while others appreciate how routines simplify their jobs and give them psychological protection against unpleasant customers. Combined Insurance goes further than McDonald's in attempting to standardize the workers' very selves, instilling in them adroit maneuvers to overcome customer resistance.

The routinization of service work has both poignant and preposterous consequences. It tends to undermine shared understandings about individuality and social obligations, sharpening the tension between the belief in personal autonomy and the domination of a powerful corporate culture.

Richly anecdotal and accessibly written, Leidner's book charts new territory in the sociology of work. With service sector work becoming increasingly important in American business, her timely study is particularly welcome.

Review Quotes

"Fast Food, Fast Talk makes an important contribution to the literature on the routinization of work. Because her work contrasts the experiences of service workers at Combined Insurance and McDonald's, an organization that pioneered the routinization of service work and another we are all familiar with, Leidner's book should prove useful and interesting for researchers as well as being a teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate courses in the sociology of work and in social psychology. Her descriptive chapters are particularly engaging, providing compelling examples of the effects of routinizing service work for workers and for customers."-- "American Journal of Sociology"

"A detailed, occasionally humorous exploration of employees' highly routinized activities in two work environments: a McDonald's franchise near Chicago and a sales team working door to door for Combined Insurance. . .. Leidner's analysis . . . goes well beyond the traditional parameters of the sociology of work as she explores the implications of this invasion of self, this scripted inauthenticity, for the general nature of interpersonal relations in society."-- "Social Forces"

"Leidner's analysis reveals much about the corporations which she was able to investigate, and draws attention to the need to ensure that sociological investigations continue to confront the realities of the modern American workplace."-- "Journal of American Studies"

About the Author

Robin Leidner is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.