Employee marking 30 years at same McDonald's

POST FALLS — Lonnie French remembers reaching her 20th anniversary at the McDonald’s off Pleasant View Road in Post Falls.

The first 20 years went by fast.

The next 10 went even faster.

“Hard for me to believe it’s 30, that I have actually driven down the same road 30 years,” French said Monday afternoon, shortly before starting her 1 p.m. shift.

The 77-year-old will mark three decades with the Golden Arches on Saturday. She has witnessed the coming and going of teenagers working their first jobs, of managers climbing the corporate ladder, of new McSandwiches, Happy Meal toys and the coming and going of McCafe.

This McDonald’s opened a year before French joined it.

She shakes her head almost in disbelief.

“It’s actually been 30 years,” she said. “I’ve been here forever.”

French is almost as iconic as Ronald McDonald himself. She sports a red hat that reads “I’m fast, I’m friendly, I’m loving it.”

On her red sweater are several pins. One says “Welcome to McDonald’s” and another reads “Employee of the Month: January 1997: LONNIE.”

That was the one and only time she landed Employee of the Month. She did, though, earn the Employee of the Year award that year, and won again in 2019.

French, whose first name is really Melanie, doesn’t worry about accolades. She’s not expecting a party for her 30th anniversary. She just likes working part time at McDonald’s.

She likes greeting customers with a friendly hello. She likes taking orders and talking to people. She literally is service with a smile. That’s what she has done since 1990.

These days, though, with the coronavirus restrictions, things have changed.

“That was my corner until the virus hit,” she said, pointing toward the front counter behind the plexiglass. "Because of my age, they let me do drive-through.”

French, raised in North Dakota where winters drive out the weak of body and mind, is a throwback. She’s one of those people who wants to work. Who likes to work. Who needs to work.

Each night, she walks 30 minutes around the property where she and husband Richard live, no matter the weather.

“I’m usually moving,” she said.

People sometimes ask, “Why aren’t you home with your feet up?”


French laughs about that one. Retirement is not in her vocabulary. At least not yet. Perhaps some day.

“As long as I’m on the schedule and I can come in, I’ll be in,” she said.

What about vacation days? Certainly she’s taken a few, right?

Wrong.

Never in 30 years. Not one paid vacation day. How is that possible?

“There’s no pay and I work so little,” she said. “If I wanted a full-time job I would have got one with benefits. You know what I mean?”

In case you’re wondering why she’s not a manager, she didn’t want to be one. Being in charge of scheduling and ordering and budgeting for a franchise doesn’t appeal to her.

“I’ve never wanted to be higher than crew,” she said. “I’m just one of them. The kids, they keep me younger.”

Friend Andy Lien said French loves her work.

“It gets her out,” she said. “If you have a job you love, it’s better than anything there is. It’s not like coming to a job.”

French and her husband have been married 40 years and live just a few miles away. Asked if she ever, in her wildest imagination, thought she would work at the same McDonald’s 30 years, French laughed and said no. But that doesn't mean she takes this opportunity for granted.

It’s the people she works with, and the people from around the world she meets at the store just off Interstate 90, that meet her coming back for her four-hour shifts, twice a week.

“I think maybe that’s what keeps me here, the variety,” she said.

French also sees it as a chance to share her faith.

“God’s been good. God’s been good,” she said. “He’s blessed me with people.”

If there is one regret, it’s that the business has become more technical. It's more reliant on kiosks and apps to take orders than people. While that has sped up the fast-food process, it in turn has lost some of the social aspects of greeting guests and conversing with customers.

“It’s not like it used to be,” French said. “Our world has become more technical than social.

“Technology is good, but I think it’s taken away the fun,” she added. “And enjoyment and the fellowship."

There are, to her relief, still many who prefer people over touch screens, who like cash over credit. That's when Lonnie French is at her best.

She has mastered the art of banter. She understands how to make people laugh, how to make them feel welcome, like this McDonald’s really does care about them and their business. Like they really are important.

And that's priceless.

“I hope I bring back the older way of life,” she said.