By Jessica Reed
From the Chicago Tribune, via Pandagon:
McDonald’s Corp. is reviving its campaign to banish the word “McJob” from dictionaries, this time setting its sights on the vocabulary of Britons. The Oak Brook-based company said Tuesday that it plans to launch a campaign in the United Kingdom this spring to get the country’s dictionary houses to remove references to the word “McJob.” The Oxford English Dictionary, considered by many wordsmiths as the gold standard for the English language, is one of those that will be targeted. It defines the noun as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector.” The word first cropped up two decades ago in the Washington Post, according to the dictionary.
Personally I have always liked Coupland's own definition:
McJob: A low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one. More after the jump...
(Full disclosure: I've had my fair part of McJobs over the years, including, yes, working for The McMan. Not sure if it means I don't want a career (is there such a thing anymore by our post modern standards?); maybe I should have done like my friend's pal Sean, who is blogging his way up the working ladder at "One Week Job", one job at a time.)
