Thursday, March 10, 2005
The Bells, The Bells
I’ve just gotten fresh back from McDonalds, and today I was almost driven to leave early rather than finish my McRib meal at a more leisurely pace. About halfway into my meal I became aware of a cell phone ringing, except nobody would answer this cell phone -- it continued to ring and ring and ring. I gradually become aware that it was some device in the kitchen area. I sat there growing more and more irritated, wishing someone would empty the fry basket or open the microwave door, or do whatever needed to be done to silence the wailing device. Lunch hour was peaking, and other various beeps and chimes started in as well. Add to this symphony of restaurant equipment chimes the shouts of workers trying to communicate over the din. You might have thought you were in Three Mile Island’s nuclear reactor control room during a meltdown. Now I’ve seen days at this McDonalds when the crowd surged to overflow, but today the wait was reasonable with lines of only one or two deep.
After about 20 minutes of this confusion, things settled down, and the lunch line was gone, bells and whistles only intermittently going off. I neither exaggerate nor underreport the length of time this confusion persisted. Since I was against the far wall, I was as far away as I could get from the kitchen, but was in line of sight of the counter and kitchen. I’m sure I will eat there again, but will make sure to sit on the far right behind a wall that completely blocks the serving area.
Still I can’t help but wonder what the decibel level is for workers in the counter area. I would estimate about 80-90 db for where I was sitting a good 50-60 feet from the counter, and this being partially obscured by the Coke machines and condiments. I also can’t help but wonder how the main cell phone like ringing could be ignored for the entirety of the lunch swell.
Once you focus on the noise it almost too much to bear. Even so, I think we have become so acclimated to this kind of rude mechanical noise assault that we largely ignore it until, as today, it becomes so loud and continuous that we can’t ignore it.
My advice to McDonalds would be to quiet their kitchens and provide better sound baffling into the seating areas. Perhaps cooking equipment should emit their ready chimes to radio headsets that the workers wear. This way the devices could be assigned to individual workers, increase efficiency, and lower overall decibel levels the workers are exposed to. Truly important need-attending-to-immediately (still audible) alarms would then be more obvious also.
It’s very quiet where I work. The few, who listen to music, do so kindly with headphones. Today I have a new appreciation for this.
