As young students become adolescents, they obtain more responsibility and independence in every day life. One prominent example of gaining responsibility that some teens face is entering the workforce. While working can be helpful for teens who want or need money, it can conflict with other day-to-day activities, such as school. During the summer, when school is not in session, students can dedicate more time to finding employment. Northwood senior Colten Hodgkin worked in White Oak at Jordan Lake during the summer.
“[I worked] 40 hours a week,” Hodgkin said. “It wasn’t stressful, I just built my schedule around [the job]. I also think I’ll start looking for a job after this semester, after college applications are in.”
While some might start their employment in a job that does not allow for much autonomy, senior Gabriel Dunk runs his own business while also keeping up with school work.
“[My work] does affect my schooling,” Dunk said. “I usually just need to balance my priorities whenever it comes to things like maintaining equipment, work procurement, consulting clients and doing the actual work. I work every weekend, but sometimes I do stuff like estimating and fixing equipment during the week.”
Common roadblocks keeping students from getting a job are lack of transportation, inadequate time management and long commute times. Students like senior Aiden Vigus can not get to work without assistance.
“I work a job in the summer with my uncles; they’re landlords in Durham,” Vigus said. “I only [work] in the summer because it is a hassle to go out to Durham for work and come back. I can’t just go from school to Durham every night to work, so with a lot of students I’m sure it’s a similar deal. They could get a job at a gas station or a restaurant, but because of the fact that they would have to get transportation to that after school, it is extremely difficult to get a job and then hold one.”
Covid-19 has also affected existing job shortages predating the pandemic by worsening the situation. According to CNBC’s Global CFO Council, 95% of major U.S. corporations surveyed say it is harder to find workers to fill in available job positions. This statistic has grown 18% since the first quarter of the year.
“I currently work at Linda’s Bar and Grill,” sophomore Quinn Hennessey said. “We are short on staff and my boss is having to work crazy long shifts. People have their own lives and it’s not helpful that some of [the staff] are in school. Since I am in the Marching Band, I only have to work on Sundays from 11:30-4:30, but after Marching Band season, I am going to start working on Saturdays as well to help out.”
Employed students are affected by the job shortage by having stressful work schedules that conflict with their class schedule. In some cases this can negatively affect students’ social-emotional well-being. One such student is junior Aurora Fletcher, who currently works at Domino’s.
“[Domino’s] has a job shortage nationwide,” Fletcher said. “All of the stores had to shorten their hours. I’m working until closing now because I usually work after school, around five to ten. I have to stay up later to do homework after work. Projects are especially hard because I have to get in contact with people. It affects my sleep schedule, which makes me more tired the next day.”
With all of the stresses of having a job, there are positive things that come out of it, including receiving money.
“I work at Harris Teeter, and they are definitely short on workers,” junior Brandt Anderson said. “[Work] is a lot more stressful and I have a lot more stuff to do; however it does not affect my schooling because I work on weekends. It does make me tired on the weekdays because I work late on Sunday nights so I come on Monday pretty tired.”
There are both positive and negative aspects to having a job in high school. Having a job as a student can be difficult and take a lot of responsibility to pull off, but it can help adolescents with job experience needed for the future while supplying them with extra funds that they can save.
