McDonalds Pulls Employee Site that Advises Them to Avoid Deep Fried Foods

McDonald’s, a company known for it’s oh-so-healthy food options and creepy clown mascot, finally pulled an employee resource website this week after coming under media scrutiny for giving it’s workers phenomenally ironic and sometimes laughingly insensitive advice.

“Fast foods are quick, reasonably priced, and readily available alternatives to home cooking. While convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle, fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight,” the McResource informed its McEmployees. The site included the above comparison of what appears to be a typical McDs meal of cheeseburger, fries and a soda labeled as an “unhealthy choice” in comparison to a deli sandwich, salad and water.

“In general, avoiding items that are deep fried are your best bet,” the graphic informed McDonald’s workers.

Wait, a fast food company that advises its employees to avoid deep fryers? (Face palm.)

After several media outlets pointed out the brain-exploding irony, McDonald’s took the site down in a huff:

“Portions of this website continue to be taken entirely out of context,” McDonald’s statement said. “This website provides useful information from respected third-parties about many topics, among them health and wellness. It also includes information from experts about healthy eating and making balanced choices. McDonald’s agrees with this advice.”

[So McDonald’s agrees that its workers shouldn’t eat its ‘unhealthy’ — in the words of its own resource site — food?]

The company also noted that it has added healthier menu options in recent years, including “oatmeal, grilled chicken, egg whites and real-fruit smoothies.” (source)

Because, as everyone surely agrees, Mickey Ds is most well-known for its iconic oatmeal, egg whites and fruit smoothies.

This coming from the same company that — no joke — launched a “Think with your mouth” ad campaign featuring the graphic below (Tweeted on the company’s official Twitter) that reads, “A big mac is like a shiny star that is delicious instead of shiny.”

The employee resource site was apparently a giant box of embarrassing fail for the company, as it also informed McDonald’s workers, who typically make less than $9 an hour, not to budget for heat, water or childcare while alternately giving them what was surely much-needed advice on how much they should tip their swimming pool cleaners and personal trainers.

Wow. Kinda like rubbing it in their faces at that point, isn’t it? (For tipping the au pair, one week’s pay and a small gift from the worker’s child was suggested.)

Although the site is down, the employee resource hotline is reportedly still just a phone call away — the same one that’s been advising its broke, poverty-stricken employees to go on food stamps:

Nancy Salgado has worked for the fast-food corporation for over 10 years yet still earns $8.25 an hour, barely more than the $7.25 federal minimum wage. With help from the worker’s rights group Low Pay Is Not Ok, she phoned the company’s employee hotline, known as McResource, attempting to find some answers on how to improve her situation… the McDonald’s representative said she “definitely should be able to qualify for both food stamps and heating assistance.”

Then again, this is also the same company that wished their employees a Merry Christmas by advising them to get out of debt by returning their Christmas presents.

Apparently working in the fast food industry isn’t soul crushing enough. As Sheeple staff writer Kimberly Paxton wrote, “There has to be a special room in hell reserved for the decision-makers in a company that wishes their staff a Merry Christmas and then recommends that they take back the gifts that they received.”