Fraidy-Cat Operators

It's disappointing to hear that there are still McDonald's Operators who are afraid to attend Operator-Only meetings.

I submit that those Operators who are still afraid are kind of stuck in the past. They've been busy running their stores and haven't stopped to realize that they are afraid of a company 
that no longer exists.

Let's take a look at McDonald's USA's current ability to retaliate:

* The McDonald's USA management team is incompetent, the gang that can't shoot straight. They don't understand the business, franchising, or franchisees. 

* McDonald's USA appears to be understaffed and no longer has the army of corporate goons with which to bully Operators. They've downsized themselves into impotency.

* McDonald's USA has a serious shortage of McDonald's Operators. This goes back to the incompetence of the management team. Their plan to reduce the number of USA Operators 
is strangling their own efforts in many other areas. If they were to try to force an Operator 
out, who buys the stores? If they deny a rewrite, who takes the store? This is especially important now that there are so few McOpCos.

* The USA management team will spend 2019 distracted by the problems with BBV2020.

* I can see how, if a McDonald's Operator attends a worldwide convention along with thousands of other people, they might come away feeling like a tiny cog in a huge machine. Well, they're not a tiny cog. If there are really only 1,700 McDonald's Operators left in McDonald's USA the individual Operator is part of a very select group.

* And there's safety in numbers. These Operator-Only meetings aren't a dozen nervous people secretly meeting in the back booth of a Denny's. The first meeting involved 25% of USA Operators. The next meeting looks like it will involve more than half of USA Operators. 

How does McDonald's corporate put that many Operators on their enemies list?

If an Operator is afraid to attend such meetings they might be reacting to years of conditioning that no longer applies.

Keep this in mind - The corporate side of McDonald's USA has been pushing hard on BBV2020 yet it's unlikely that the people doing the pushing will still be with the company when the 2020 Worldwide rolls around.
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