I had occasion this morning to think about the physiology of irritation. For this, I can thank McDonalds.
As some may have heard, McDonalds is an American (and international) hamburger chain. Hamburgers are how they made their reputation. Hamburgers are what they advertise. Hamburgers are what they have posters for, in their windows.
Hamburgers are what they don't sell you if you arrive before 11AM. And if you order sweet tea, what you might get is regular tea. This irritated me. I wanted to yell at someone -- but as the clerk was your prototypical fast-food clerk (where do they get those bright, cheerful people in the ads?), I know it would be less satisfying than yelling at a wall. Less productive, too.
But it got me to thinking about irritation. Why do we feel tense, full-of-ire? What's happening, inside? I'm going to bet that part of it is the hypothalamus, flight-or-fight syndrome. But what else?
5 comments:
If I worked at MacDonald's I think I would be full of stress. Just the smell of the french fry grease all day would put me in a down mood.
Absolutely. Yet I wonder, those people who say that their experiences at McD's as workers were beneficial. Was it them? Would they have found working *anywhere* a growing experience?
(This is a nature vs nurture thing, I think.)
I'm so not surprised that "irritation" and "McDonalds" was paired together...
And what happens in that magic minute between 10:59 and 11:00? Really.
I once asked for a cup of tea in a southern McD's, and the guy didn't know what to do. Literally. I had to say "put the tea bag in the cup, and fill it with hot water!"
I find McD's very, very irritating. Them and Walmart. Both the same, really - they both sell quality-less products, tell you it is quality, and they both do it as cheaply as possible.
(Did you know they run their fries through sugar water, before frying them? Someone who used to have that job told me about it, once.)
Carolyn Ann
I don't doubt that. I read of their back and forths about what they sell, how they made it 'healthy', then switched back to get the 'original taste'. I don't doubt the sugar water is part of that.
You get what you pay for, I suppose.
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