Fast food giant McDonald’s is set to begin a campaign to redefine “McJob” entries in British dictionaries, which it believes are both incorrect and insulting to its workers, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
“We believe that it is out of date, out of touch with reality and, most importantly, it is insulting to those talented, committed, hard-working people who serve the public every day,” wrote David Fairhurst, the company’s chief people officer in northern Europe, the FT said.
Citing a copy of Fairhurst’s letter to cultivate support for the campaign, the business daily said McDonald’s plans a “high-profile public petition” to get the definition changed.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) describes a McJob as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, [especially] one created by the expansion of the service sector”.
According to the FT, however, Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine recently named the restaurant chain the “best place to work in hospitality”, and McDonald’s was also the first large British employer to be accredited under the government’s “Investors in People” scheme.
As such, Fairhurst wrote that the definition of a McJob should be changed to “reflect a job that is stimulating, rewarding and offers genuine opportunities for career progression and skills that last a lifetime”.
A spokesperson for the OED told the FT: “We monitor changes in the language and reflect these in our definitions, according to the evidence we find.” — AFP