Most students find that their primary job as a student is hard work, but many have found that working in the real world can be just as difficult.
Especially when they hate their jobs.
After recommendations from friends, sophomore Dawn Ye started to work at the tutoring company Kumon, helping children between the ages of 6 to 11 years old with their schoolwork.
Ye enjoys the children and likes to work with them. But there is one downside: the boss.
“She doesn’t have a clear mind,” Ye explained. “She doesn’t think about what she tells us to do before she tells us.”
For example, when Ye and other tutors are confused about how to grade an assignment, her boss gives them vague guidelines. But when the boss learns of grading errors, she “explodes” in anger.
Other than the boss situation, Ye likes her job. The money is worth the suffering and it does not interfere with her schoolwork. Ye is even considering asking for a raise.
Ye’s dislike for her jobs pales in comparison to senior Nick Fajardo’s complete hatred for working as a cashier at Burger King.
Fajardo does not like his job at all, partly because he received inadequate training.
“If it weren’t for the fact that I already have a friend that works there, I would have fallen apart altogether,” said Fajardo.
Because of the terrible training Fajardo experienced, he made mistakes, such as not knowing how to enter senior discounts in the register. Instead of being encouraging and helping him, one of his managers yelled at him for getting it wrong.
Another thing that bothers Fajardo about his job is the scheduling, or lack thereof. Instead of a set schedule, there is just a daily call in. For example, Fajardo could call in and be told to work a shift the following day without any advance warning.
Though Fajardo’s job does not get in the way of his schoolwork, he does not believe $8 an hour is not enough for the suffering. He is in the process of applying to jobs elsewhere.
But his job was not a complete waste, said Fajardo. He learned a hard lesson that only experience could prove: fast food is hard work.
“It is not by any means an easy job,” Fajardo said.
Thanks to this job, Fajardo has earned a newfound respect for all those that work in the fast food industry.
“Fast food is not for everyone and it is definitely not for me,” he said.
Although some students hate their jobs, others find the bright side of working.
Senior Gianni Mancinelli said that he likes working at Peet’s Coffee because of the customers, his coworkers, and the fact that he is always busy.
“I wouldn’t want to not have a job,” Mancinelli said.
Senior Marcel Perez’s job at World of Shoes is also rewarding because of the customers.
Perez likes to help people find shoes, and he likes to see the little kids get excited over a new pair of shoes.
“I like making people happy,” said Perez.
Some students, such as Karly DeMain, are indifferent to their jobs. DeMain works as a soccer referee on the weekends and as a babysitter for two young kids after school. She doesn’t dislike either job, though she finds babysitting time-consuming and tiring.
Despite the difficulties, DeMain would much rather be doing these jobs than working in fast food.
“If I had to work, I’m glad that these are my jobs,” said DeMain. “It beats minimum wage.”
Students aren’t the only ones with a history of bad part-time jobs. English teacher Sean King held six different positions before starting his career as a teacher seven years ago. Of these six, his least favorite was working at a grocery store.
While he was paid 1.5 times his usual hourly wage, he had a “jerk for a boss” and was usually stuck with the swing shift from 2:30-11:30 p.m.
His least favorite part of the job was the Dairy Dungeon, a.k.a “The Box.” Trapped in the refrigerator behind the wall of milk cartons, King spent his time alone with nothing but boxes and milk to keep him company. His time in isolation was spent rotating milk cartons so that the old cartons were at the front and catching colds.
Luckily for King, he now thoroughly enjoys his current job as a teacher.
