Teen Scene: First Jobs
Written by: K.E. Young

I’m sure that a lot of you can sympathise with this predicament. Jobs. Before hitting the sixteen mark money meant nothing, it was just green stuff that your parents dished out to you on command. Of course, now that has all changed. At sixteen legally, we can work, and our parents no that. When sixteen came, money went. With no warning Daddy’s wallet remained closed and now when we try and bribe a fiver for a new lip gloss all we get is, ‘Well you’re old enough to earn money now’.

At first I listened to this, reasonable I thought. Plus working had a maturity label attached to it. Of course it wasn’t easy. My first job, as with many teens was as a waitress, I held this job down for two shifts before leaving. It was exhausting, depressing, stressful and worst of all it was my parents who had made me do it, all for a little bit of money. Nothing compared to the cosy little money scheme I had before.

Growing up means bidding farewell to your parents money

In fact according to a survey by a leading British magazine it is the stress that puts most people between the ages of 16-20 years off of working. It hits you what you have taken for granted. Those shoes you managed to get Mummy to pay for at fifteen were so easy, now for the same ones you have to spend an evening scrubbing toilets and racing after drunk men and suddenly those shoes loose all appeal. If having them means you have to work for them they just aren’t worth it.

Fitting in these jobs around busy school schedules doesn’t help either. ‘My college finishes at 4.30’, explains seventeen year old Rebecca, ‘by the time I get home it is way past 5 and I have to rush down to waitress from 6 until 10. By the time I get home I’m too exhausted to complete homework.’

Rachel, 17, has the same problem, ‘I’m seriously considering cutting my work hours. I just can’t fit in studies and cleaning. ‘Of course, there are catches, ‘ if I cut down my hours I’ll only be earning a tenner a week, there’s hardly any point working at all’.

Many teenagers are finding themselves in a trap however. At the ages of 16, 17, the only jobs you can get are minimal pay, around £4 an hour. Unfortunately this is also the age when cars make an entrance into your lives. Petrol, insurance, repairs plus the actual buying of the car are all costly and many young people have to work constantly just to afford to keep it running., mixed in with the stresses of education it is easy to understand why jobs can really get teenagers down.

Not everything to do with jobs is bad though. Many find a perfect job and can quite easily bend their hours making it easy to fit in studies to. ‘I work at McDonalds’, says Jessica, 18’, ‘its not glamorous but the hours are great, because it’s a leading chain they are never short staffed so I can take breaks when I feel I need to concentrate on my studies and if I get short of money I can always just show up and they have work for me’.

After quitting waitressing I found cleaning was a lot easier. I am only required twice a week and during the summer, exam time, the hours are cut right down and I only need to come in on Saturdays. So if one job doesn’t work for you try another. After taking up this new job I also regretted giving up waitressing after two shifts, I had barely given it a chance. I hated cleaning at first, and although I still see it as a chore after five shifts I really got into it.

And just think, these minimum wage jobs aren’t forever, they are just stepping off points for bigger better things. Dustin Hoffman used to be a waiter and now he’s an Oscar winner.