I've asked the question and apparently its a mixture of:
letting kids be kids and not making them have too much financial responsibility
part time minimum wage not being enough to pay for car insurance or a car like we were able to
college becoming more and more competitive and kids needing more available time to focus on studies and extra curriculum activities to stay competitive
Mmmm ok butttttt we also have a generation of kids with increased social anxieties. I was a shy kid but my part time job forced me to get over that whether I was ready or not. I also had to respect a schedule and couldn't just quit because I wanted off for whatever reason. Either i traded shifts or sucked it up. But work with other teens my age was also fun.
You also have the chaos of scheduling, ie managers who do not care that they are still in high-school and schedule accordingly. Like finals exist, papers and homework exist. I dont know, I want to say that we made it work when we were their age but I don't think the people managing us or scheduling us were as petty as they are today.
The thing is I remember being the person responsible for finding coverage "that's the managers job" was NOT a thing when I was back in high school working my part time job. I remember having to ask my colleagues to swap with me. I also used to work alot of 5-9pm shifts...getting home at 9pm on a school night is crazy when I think about it now. I remember having to cram my homework in the 2 hours I was home before changing and walking to work.
In my case I really did just make it work... having a test was my problem to figure out when to study for... my parents didn't really ask much or knew how I was doing in school as long as I was passing. They didn't have the online portals like we do today.
I used to manage a staff of mostly teenagers and part of my job was collecting availability and not scheduling the highschool students for work while they were in school or super late on weeknights (past 10pm). I also put exam weeks and breaks on my calendar so I knew when I'd have to cover shifts and when there'd be a lot of availability.
I thought it was weird that other managers would make people cover their own shifts if something came up. I had the list of everyone's phone numbers, a phone, and I was on the clock. Making phone calls was easier than cleaning or dealing with the public.
29
u/LostinParadise4748 8h ago
I've asked the question and apparently its a mixture of:
letting kids be kids and not making them have too much financial responsibility
part time minimum wage not being enough to pay for car insurance or a car like we were able to
college becoming more and more competitive and kids needing more available time to focus on studies and extra curriculum activities to stay competitive
Mmmm ok butttttt we also have a generation of kids with increased social anxieties. I was a shy kid but my part time job forced me to get over that whether I was ready or not. I also had to respect a schedule and couldn't just quit because I wanted off for whatever reason. Either i traded shifts or sucked it up. But work with other teens my age was also fun.