Fast food jobs have been the butt of easy jokes since the first person asked if you’d like fries with that. But the volks at Volkswagen say that people who’ve worked behind the counter at McDonald’s are ideal for staffing the assembly lines at the company’s plant in Tennessee.

No, it’s not that fast food work has any specific skill set that translates directly to auto assembly. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“Inexperience is a key,” the director of the Volkswagen Academy training operation explains to the Detroit Free Press. “Some of our best employees came from McDonald’s. They know standardized work.”

These employees don’t come to the company with a backpack full of “bad habits,” he says.

Of course, they don’t just stick people on the Passat assembly line and marvel at their naked naivete.

No, these inexperienced employees must complete a six-weeks training course at Academy.

On a personal note, I find I constantly use my three years of Dairy Queen duty, though that mostly involves making sundaes for everyone at Consumerist HQ.

Why Volkswagen likes hiring former McDonald’s workers at Tennessee [Freep.com]

Thanks to George for the tip!

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