Senior Sarah Scott has worked at Blue Heaven since March 2013, when her friends asked if she wanted to work there with them. After recommending her to the store manager, Scott received an interview and was hired shortly after.
“I chose Blue Heaven because I had friends that worked there that liked it,” Scott said.
Like Scott, 86 percent of students have an after school job according to Teen Ink Magazine.
“I work because it’s good to have a job in high school,” Scott said. “It helps me learn responsibility and how to juggle things.”
During the week, Scott gets off work at 10 p.m. According to USA Today, when students stay out late working, it causes them to lose sleep and can also cause changes in behavior.
“I set time aside for things like homework and sports,” Scott said. “I don’t want to become overwhelmed with everything, so I try my best to stay organized.”
Scott has missed activities on the weekends with her friends because she works from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the weekends. When Scott misses out on parties, football games and family events, she gets upset and doesn’t want to work, however, she knows how having a job can affect her future.
“I don’t like having to miss out on doing things with my friends,” Scott said, “but I think it will be worth it in the long run.”
Scott works 15 hours a week while junior Alyssa Wawrzynski’s work hours vary depending on her schedule each week. Wawrzynski works at Applebee’s as a hostess.
“It’s stressful dealing with work, school and softball full time,” Warzenski said. “Working helps me stay organized though because I know my schedule.”
Junior Brooke Smith works two jobs, one at the clothing store Dots and the other at a postal-like service place called Pass.
“I don’t get any days off working two jobs,” Smith said. “I just like to have money and I enjoy working a lot.”
She alternates between the jobs she works each day. Usually, she will start at 3 p.m. and get home between 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. With two jobs, students could have trouble maintaining their grades and social lives. Smith, however, has the benefit of having weekends off, so she says her social life has not suffered.
“I still have a life outside of [work],” Smith said. “I go to football games and hang out with my friends.”
Smith says having a job has taught her how to manage time and personal responsibility.
“It made me realize I can’t rely on my parents anymore,” Smith said. “I do pretty much everything by myself, basically. They still feed me, but that’s about it.”
There are several jobs available to high school students. Having worked at Pass for her first job and starting the job at Dots not long after, Smith doesn’t recommend any specific type of job as a good first job.
“It’s not about what you do,” Smith said. “Most of the time when you have a job it’s for money. It’s good to have a job early in life, so you have work experience when you want a job later in life.”
Sophomore Leah Brosig goes to work at Texas Roadhouse when school ends and will usually work for five hours before going home. Brosig started her job in September. Her motivation for getting a job was primarily the need to pay for her truck and gas money, but she has been forced to drop all of her extracurricular activities just to keep her job.
“It’s really sad,” Brosig said. “I even have to squeeze in homework a lot.”
Brosig doesn’t get home until nearly 11 p.m. and has very little time left for school work. She can be kept up doing homework as late as 2 a.m., which detracts from the amount of sleep she gets. Teens need about 9 and a half hours of sleep in order to be alert throughout the day. Brosig gets less than half of that each night during the week.
“When I do get scheduled on weekends they just give me mornings,” Brosig said, “so I still get my Saturday nights and Friday nights.”
Overall, her grades have slumped. She attributes her dropping grades directly to her job, as when she gets home sometimes she lacks the motivation to do her school work. This supports the evidence provided earlier that teens with jobs do worse in school, and that it may not be worth it, overall.
“Sometimes when I get home I’m just like, ‘I don’t wanna do it,’” Brosig said.
Freshman Counselor John Williams describes a different story about his daughter, senior Macy Williams, who works at Spring Creek Barbeque. Macy started working the summer before her junior year to help pay for her drill team trip later that year.
“We paid for the regular expenses for being on drill team,” Williams said. “But we told her that if she wanted to go on the trip she needed to pay for part of it.”
Macy chose to keep the job because it has a flexible schedule and it’s close to home. She also has kept her grades up.
“She has to be careful how she manages her time,” Mr. Williams said. “As the years have gone by, her grades have actually improved some.”
