McControversy ahoy

The Oxford English Dictionary has added 'McJob' to its text, defining it as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects". It is, of course, a word derived from the ubiquitous fast-food chain and the fact that working there is, well, unstimulating, low-paid, and doesn't have many prospects for advancement.

McDonalds is now circulating a petition trying to get the OED to change the definition, saying it's outdated and insulting to wage-slaves service-industry professionals. A few points come to mind here:

1. That's not the way the OED works, you grease-addled doofs! From the OED's website:

As the OED is a historical dictionary, its entry structure is very different from that of a dictionary of current English, in which only present-day senses are covered, and in which the most common meanings or senses are described first. For each word in the OED, the various groupings of senses are dealt with in chronological order according to the quotation evidence, i.e. the senses with the earliest quotations appear first, and the senses which have developed more recently appear further down the entry. In a complex entry with many strands, the development over time can be seen in a structure with several 'branches'.

Yeah. So even if that definition of "McJob" is outdated...that's the bloody point! It's not a normal dictionary, it's the dictionary, and the intent is not just to define words but to illustrate what they meant x years ago!

2. It's insulting to current 'McJobbers'? Because they're...what, unaware that their job is shit? Look, unless they've grown up completely cut off from society and now are on their first day on the job, anyone working in a number of industries understands that their job, 99% of the time, is shit. Food service, retail, customer service, call centers...these aren't jobs that most people truly want. The pay is low, the work is often demeaning, and you need to deal with the sweaty masses. So, sure, a select few chose it as a career (eg, I'm certain that the waitstaff at Le Bec Fin in Philly are not high-school students looking to earn enough to buy a Wii), but come on. Must we lie in order to be obscenely polite?

3. In 67 years, McDonalds has become one of the largest corporations in the world, has probably the highest name-recognition of any brand ever, and essentially owns the fast-food market in absolutely any country where the idea of fast food exists. An entry in a dictionary is not going to harm that.