Anyone really desperate for work should keep checking the McDonalds website. I've been there for a month now and its not half as bad as I thought. Obviously its s*** NMW and nobody wants to be known as working at McDonalds but it pays you a wage at the end of it and you can basically work as many hours as you want when you're trained. They give you plenty of time to settle in and your hours go up gradually (mine are up to 30 odd hours a week now). You do have to work some nights/weekends but with a typical shift being 8 hours long, 5 days a week and with a McDonalds day being just a few hours under 24 hours a day it means you get plenty of different shift patterns and they are very flexible. If you want a day off you are very likely to get it as long as you ask in advance, and you can even get people to swap and cover your shifts whenever you want if you have plans.
Depending on where you work if you are full time you don't even do many hours on a weekend with the part time students doing most of the weekend hours. It is a bit of an arse having to work week nights when you would rather do a normal 9-5 but it is a wage, the people who work there are generally canny and you can definitely have a good normal social life with the flexibility. Nobody wants to work there but if you're desperate then theres plenty of jobs available there. £200-300 in your pocket every week is a lot better than £50 a week off the dole.
