I worked fast food for 2 years, one full time. I did not mind it one bit, in fact, as far as jobs go, I liked it for the most part - the only really shitty part of it was the terrible pay and smelling like grease after your shift. My sister worked with me and she enjoyed it to. It's also not particularly physically demanding.
Retail, on the other hand, was very soul sucking to me. My hypothesis is I'm sensitive to the bright lights they use in retail stores.
I worked out in the woods of the northwest as a logger and would like to disagree. There are certainly jobs that are worse in all the metrics you've listed. Personally, I couldn't wait to get a fast food job after I quit.
What seems different these days is that most of the workers aren't high school kids. That was the case in the 80's. Something about the job market where people are trying to use entry level fast food jobs to support an adult life.
I was the same as you, in the eighties I worked at McDonald's and it was pretty fun. 90% of the staff were under 25 years old and most were in school. Either college or still in high school. You could have interesting conversations while you worked and the menu was vastly simpler so it was pretty easy to get the hang of doing everything.
Yeah the pay wasn't great but there wasn't much else a young person could do that paid more, and very few people were trying to support a family or even fully support themselves. There was healthcare for full-timers but it really wasn't as big a deal then. People did not freak and think it was the end of the world not having insurance, and in any case many of them were probably still covered by their parents.
That's the whole point of this article though. The workers in a busy McDonalds restaurant today are being expected to make 10x the output you did as a teenager in the 80's for wages that are less than what you made, inflation adjusted. A line cook in 1985 made about $4.50/hr, which is $10.50 in 2018 dollars [0]. In 2018, federal minimum wage is $7.25, and the are plenty of McDonalds employees making that much across the country.
A line cook in 1985 made about $4.50/hr
Ahhhh pre-recession optimism.
Lester: "Well, I'm sure there have been amazing technological advances in the industry, but surely you must have some sort of training program. It seems unfair to presume I won't be able to learn."
Having also worked in fast food, I disagree. Manual labor was a whole lot worse on my body and paid basically the same.