The strict regimentation at fast food restaurants creates standardized products. It increases the throughput. And it gives fast food companies an enormous amount of power over their employees. “When

The strict regimentation at fast food restaurants creates standardized products. It increases the throughput. And it gives fast food companies an enormous amount of power over their employees. “When management determines exactly how every task is to be done . . . and can impose its own rules about pace, output, quality, and technique,” the sociologist Robin Leidner has noted, “[it] makes workers increasingly interchangeable.” The management no longer depends upon the talents or skills of its workers—those things are built into the operating system and machines. The testimonial evidence in this excerpt is effective because it makes an emotional protest against the fast food industry’s treatment of employees. includes an expert opinion supporting the claim that the fast food industry resembles the manufacturing business. describes a personal experience of what it is like to work in a fast food restaurant. provides a technical explanation of the standardized procedures and equipment used in fast food restaurants.