From Dr. Ruth to Ronald Reagan, from ”Cocoon” to ”Golden Girls,”
there`s no escaping elderly spunk.
Gone or going fast is the image of Gram and Gramps diddling away their golden years sun-seared and sedentary, playing shuffleboard and pinochle and, for excitement, taking a bus tour of the old country.
Get out, get active, even get down, goes the message to oldsters in the 20th Century`s octogenarian decade. And, heck, to support all that getting, why not get a job?
McDonald`s, for one, would love to have you. It`s currently running a television ad that says so, with soft-focus tugs on all the right
heartstrings. Burger King officials say the ground-beef monarchy also welcomes older and wiser workers.
And a visit to most any other of Chicagoland`s multitude of fast-food chains will turn up more than a few gray hairs under those paper hats.
More and more, for fun, profit or a little of both, the not-so-youthful are turning their declining decades into McGolden Years, complete with punch cards, polyester uniforms and pubescent coworkers.
Gene Wrzala was in the vanguard of this trend.
A spry 76, Wrzala specializes in french fries at the McDonald`s at 9815 N. Milwaukee Ave., Niles. The key, he explains during a break before the noon rush, is ”keeping them nice and fresh and hot.”
”I am a stickler for hot food,” Wrzala says. ”When it should be hot, I want it hot–for myself and the customer. A satisfied customer is a repeat customer.”
Nearly a decade ago, after putting in 25 years as a relay inspector and supervisor with Automatic Electric Co. in Northlake, Wrzala retired and found himself with more spare time on his hands than he knew what to do with.
”I sat around for just a while,” he says. ”A month or two–that was it.”
Then, driving by one lackluster day, he saw that the local McDonald`s was wanting for help. ”I went in and asked the manager if they employed people my age, and he handed me an application right on the spot.”
When Wrzala told his grandchildren about his new job, he says their reaction was: ”No! You`re not working there. Unbelievable.” They have yet to hit him up for free fries, he says.
”It`s not a glamor job, but I like it, really–just to keep busy, to keep active. It keeps me loose.
”I`ll tell you,” he says, putting forth a sort of credo, ”an active mind makes a supple body.”
Estimates vary on how many older people are toiling in the fast-food business.
Ron Michalek, vice president of Kiris Management, a company that runs 10 McDonald`s in the northwest suburbs, estimates that 15 to 20 percent of his workers are older than 45. Roger Rendin, human resources manager for Burger King`s Chicago region, puts the over-50 figure in his restaurants at 1 to 3 percent.
But everyone agrees the need is there. Rendin recalls a study predicting that in the next few years the fast-food industry will require 28 percent more workers, while its traditional labor pool–high school and college students
–is drying up.
”It`s a scramble right now for labor,” says George Bartik, general manager of Robroy, which runs five Burger King restaurants in the area.
”There`s a teenager shortage. There are attitude problems, too, that have come in” when many teens are hesitant to work in a fast-food outlet when the opulence of a mall job or the higher wages of an outdoor job beckon.
Enter the McDonald`s commercial. First aired during the Super Bowl in January, it features a grandfatherly gent named Bill who begs off a fishing trip with his cronies because he`s starting a new job.
Meanwhile, two teenaged girls behind the counter wonder if the ”new kid” will be cute. Bill shows up, and they giggle, embarrassed. He does a bang-up job, and goes home to tell his wife, ”I don`t know how they got along without me.”
”We`ve never done anything quite like it before,” says Lana Ehrsam, a spokeswoman at McDonald`s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook. ” `Seniors are a part of McDonald`s,` is the big message–`on either side of the counter.` ” The company also has instituted a pilot program called McMasters, where centers for the elderly are given a presentation on McDonald`s as an employer. Michalek`s company takes a different tack: At the restaurant where Wrzala works, there is a weekly bingo night. Along with prizes, job applications are passed out. Kiris even numbers among its managers a 72-year-old, Michalek says.
The workers aren`t getting rich: Most start at or near minimum wage, depending on the area`s job market. But salaries are reviewed regularly, Ehrsam says, so that longevity and job performance are rewarded. Besides, many workers say they are more concerned about being able to walk to work and choose their own hours.
”I don`t think it`s really a financial thing in most cases,” Rendin says. ”It`s an opportunity to fill some time.”
While there is a lot of talk about older and younger workers` ”special qualities” rubbing off on one another–a swap of wisdom for vigor–many older workers and some managers say that the quality of teens willing to work in fast-food outlets has been on the decline.
”I trust these people a lot more than the younger kids,” Lou Castiello, manager of the Arby`s restaurant just across from the McDonald`s in Niles, says of his two oldest workers. ”They come in on time. They`re a little bit slower, but it all balances out, I guess.”
”People like Angie and Henry, they`re a necessity in this business because they come to work to work–not to screw around, talk about who`s doing what with who.”
In the nine years Wrzala has worked at McDonald`s, he has seen grandchildren graduate from college; he has seen the number under the golden arches swell from 25 billion served to the current 60 billion; and he has seen the rise and fall of the McChicken.
But the most important lesson he has learned, he says, is that ”age doesn`t mean a thing. It`s an overused statement, but age is a state of mind. It really is.”
With that, Wrzala`s break ends. He dons his hat and heads back to the deep-fry vats. Lunchtime looms, and the heat lamps shine down on an empty french-fry bin.
