Well, in most big cities nowdays, you can get a job in McDonalds, the chain of fast-food restaurants. You can make and sell burgers and chips (or “French fries” as the Americans call them). You can clear the tables and do the washing-up. Or you can sweep up the rubbish which people leave in the car park. It probably isn’t very interesting work, and probably McDonalds won’t pay you much money. But it is at least a job.

　　Or a McJob, as some people say. A McJob is a low-paid boring job with few prospects in a service industry, like McDonalds restaurants. The word McJob has been used for at least 20 years, and for the last 6 years it has been in the Oxford English Dictionary, which means that it is officially recognised as part of the English language.

　　But McDonalds don’t like this. They say that the word “McJob” is an insult to the wonderful, hard-working men and women who work in their restaurants. They say that work in the fast-food industry today is fun, exciting and well-paid. And they want the Oxford English Dictionary to change the definition of McJob. They have persuaded a number of leading business people to write a letter to the dictionary, and they have organised a petition that anyone can sign.

　　The Oxford English Dictionary will probably reply that it is not their job to change what words mean. If people use the word “McJob” to mean a badly paid job in a fast-food restaurant, then it is right for the dictionary to say that that is what the word means. There are lots of words in the dictionary which people use in cruel, unfair or insulting ways – but that is not the fault of people who write dictionaries. They might even say that it is insulting to poorly paid people to pretend that they have wonderful jobs when actually their jobs are not wonderful. And that it is insulting to French people for McDonalds to call their chips “French fries”.

　　The truth is that most jobs in fast-food restaurants are boring and badly-paid. There are few benefits or career prospects, and many people only work there for a few months until they find something better. Like a job as a spy for example.

　　I shall be away in Germany next week (Hallo, Deutschland. Ich komme euch zu besuchen!), but I will be back with a new podcast on about 7 June. To keep you company, here are the Nashville Session Players with Big McDonald.