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Saturday, September 6, 2008
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Fast food in a family atmosphere Fast-food restaurants show employees they are valued in a biggie way Staff Writer Fast-food restaurant jobs are normally thought to be the domain of the teenager.
While high school and college students still make up a large portion of the food service industry's work force, people like 52-year-old Marianne Bakkila more and more are proving to be the exception.
For the past 13-1/2 years, save for an 18-month break, Bakkila has been employed at Burger King in west Brainerd. Outside of managerial duties she has handled every aspect of the job - cashier, cook, prep and maintenance. She has worked with five of her seven children at Burger King.
Though not her full-time job - she also works at Wal-Mart Supercenter in Baxter - Bakkila has no plans of quitting her work at Burger King. The job provides a second income and, more importantly to Bakkila, a second family.
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Toni Terwilliger (left) and Sarah Frisch prepared french fries for a customer's order at McDonald's in west Brainerd. For Terwilliger, a 15-year-old sophomore at Brainerd High School, McDonald's is her first job.
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Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"We've all had times in our lives when we've needed support and they're a good support group," Bakkila said. "I think we all genuinely care about each other."
Across West Washington Street at McDonald's, Dennis Rhode, store manager, has several full-time, long-term employees, including one who has been at the location for more than 20 years.
"I think a lot of that was the generation they grew up in and being loyal," Rhode said. "They have spouses, they've worked and raised their kids and are grandparents so now they do it for the hours. They work when they want, the hours they want."
Burger King owner/manager Ray Richard, who started as a crew member with Burger King in 1978 while in college in Wisconsin, said about half his employees are out of high school, with six employees having 10 years or more of experience. The key for employee longevity, he said, is getting them past their one-year anniversary at the restaurant. After that, they're more likely to stay.
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Marianne Bakkila scooped fries into a container at Burger King in west Brainerd. Though her full-time job is at Wal-Mart, Bakkila, 52, has worked at Burger King for more than 13 years, filling in on any shift needed.
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Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey
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Kristen Spielman is one of those employees. She started with Burger King in 1997 while still in high school. She said her dad made her get a job after she hit his pickup with her mom's car.
Burger King wasn't the only place Spielman wanted to work. She filled out dozens of applications but Burger King was the only restaurant that called her back.
"I turned an application in on a Saturday morning, they called me back Saturday afternoon and I was working on a Sunday night," Spielman said.
Spielman was 18 when she started. Though she tried several other jobs, including working at a competing fast-food restaurant, she always preferred Burger King.
Spielman married a man she worked with at the restaurant. Though he no longer works at the restaurant, his current job comes with overnight hours so her schedule meshes with his.
Spielman, now 29, has the job she wants and enjoys.
"It's definitely because of Ray (Richard) and Laura (Richard, Ray's wife and Burger King co-manager) and the kids - well, we call them kids - but the people that work here," Spielman said.
On the flip side, Rachel Lundgren, 17, and Toni Terwilliger, 15, are high-schoolers just starting their work experience as crew members at McDonald's in west Brainerd. Lundgren, a senior at Brainerd High School, has been with the restaurant just more than a year. Terwilliger, a sophomore, has been there about three months.
The job at McDonald's has helped both teens make car payments, pay cell phone bills, save for college and take trips.
Rhode said many teenagers who start with McDonald's stay with the restaurant until they graduate because it's a good reference and a good set of skills. Many stay on after they start college, he added.
Both Lundgren and Terwilliger like their fellow employees and their jobs. They plan on staying at the restaurant at least through high school.
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Brainerd Burger King employee Stephanie Pearson handed an order to a customer at the drive-through window.
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Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey
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"It's a lot different environment than people would think," Terwilliger said. "They just think, 'Well, it's just a fast-food place,' but really I would much rather work here than any place else, just because of the people I work with and because it's very fun."
Added Lundgren: "Everyone is pretty easygoing, like if you mess up or something it's not a huge deal. It's easy to fix it."
Likewise for Spielman and Bakkila, who both said the allure of Burger King and fast food in general is not as much about the work as it is about the people, especially Ray and Laura Richard.
The Richards treat their employees like family, Bakkila said. They buy flowers for them on Mother's Day and turkeys for them at Thanksgiving.
Ray Richard, as owner, wants to protect his investment.
"If these guys have a great quality of life, guess what, so do I. If they don't have a good quality of life, they don't want to come to work and my quality of life just went down," Richard said.
"I treat people the way I do because it also helps me, too. That sounds selfish, I know, but honestly it's the right thing to do and it makes my life better."
Rhode, too, tries to balance the needs of his employees, especially students. High schoolers are given flexible schedules to allow for sports, studying and other extracurricular activities. In return, high school employees are given bonuses for good grades.
In addition to school and work, Lundgren also is a cheerleader. She practices Mondays and Tuesdays, then works Wednesdays through Sundays. Though it's difficult to juggle her schedule, she plans to keep it during her senior year of high school.
"I get real tired but it isn't something that made one or the other not work, it wasn't like I thought about giving one up," Lundgren said. "It's kept me just busy enough."
Despite raising seven children and working multiple jobs, the only juggling Bakkila has had to do was to make sure her son, her only child still in high school, gets to his job at Burger King on time.
"My kids have never seen a day care because I was able to schedule my jobs around my kids and school and my husband's job," Bakkila said. "It's more Ray (Richard) juggling my schedule than me having to. I try to stay open so if he needs me he can call me."
Food preparation and serving-related occupations are among the largest occupational groups after retail services. U.S. labor statistics also show it's one of the lowest-paid groups.
But Rhode said that statistic isn't showing the entire picture. In addition to flexible scheduling, fast-food restaurants offer vacation time; health, dental and vision insurance; and scholarships.
Richard also noted it offers stability in an unstable job market, where this summer Minnesota's unemployment rate hit its lowest level since 1983.
"In my 30 years in this business, when the economy goes down fast-food sales go up," Richard said. "Mid-level and higher-level restaurants suffer because the cost of the check goes up. With fast food, it's easier to feed a family."
Richard said anyone looking for that first job, a second job or a change of pace should consider fast food. He said the preconceived notions of being a burger flipper in a greasy restaurant aren't true.
"There's a lot of good people working in all these restaurants and I know we aren't the only one that feels like a family," Richard said.
MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.
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