This study analyzes how labor relations operate in the world of youth based on the reported experiences of male and female workers in the McDonald's fast food restaurants in the city of Florianópolis from 2000 - 2007. It was found that the production and service system in this sector is guided by Fordist and Toyotist strategies. This fast food system seeks to forge a certain kind of worker, understood as "multifunctional," "interchangeable" and "discardable" to the degree that, under the euphemism of flexibilization, it utilizes labor in the quantity, place and time desired. To do so, specific training is conducted in which the high turnover of these attendants does not make the business of the fast food restaurants unviable.
labor relations; youth; time present