To Work or Not To WorkAccording to juniorjobs. com more teens are working today then ever. In 1980one out of every ten teens was working part time, and 1 out 20 teens was workingfull-time. Today those numbers have went down more than half. One out of every fourteens work part time, and one out of every ten teens work full-time.
In a recent survey of 100 working teens 60 % started working on their own and40% were forced to work by their parents. (juniorjobs. com)”Since I was in 8th grade my father always said to get a job,” saidFreshmen Jon Butler, “Then he stopped giving me spending money. “Butler works in landscaping in the summer months, and snow removal in thewinter months.
Butler has been working for 2 years and he likes his job. “In thisday and age, having money helps a lot, especially for teens,” said Butler. His father forced him to work by not giving him any money, “For about 2weeks I was flat broke until I got my job,” said Butler. Jon Werse, a manager at Wendy’s in Middletown, found that the teens thatstate their parents made them get a job in the interview, quit with-in twoweeks. “I don’t like hiring teenagers.
They’re unreliable and many arerebellious,” said Werse. Some teens choose to work for themselves. ” The luxuries in life aren’tfree,” said Matt Christiani, “That’s why I started working. “Christiani works in the Hazlet Multi-Plex, he rips tickets and cleans thetheaters floors after a showing.
Matt Christiani has been working for six months at his new job. “Workingnot only gets money, I meet great girls while working too,” said Christiani. His friends were at the movies, but Christiani was at the movies too, justbusy at work, Ripping tickets and cleaning up the theatre. “It was a job,” Christiani said, “that my friends would not becaught dead doing.
“”It gets me money, but it’s better then a fast-food place,” saidChristiani, in his blue multi-plex jacket. With so many jobs going begging, young people are turning up their noses atjobs at fast-food restaurants. In the teen-age work world, holding a job deemeduncool can risk a social barrier. In a recent survey the top jobs for a teen were clear, with places likeStarbucks or Gap at the top, and places like McDonald’s and Burger King at thebottom. Jay Grey, 18, a senior.
, summed up the recent attitude among suburbanteen-agers: “You don’t want to work with food,” he said. “Everybody knows that, I would never work at a McDonald’s. “Michael Wood, a vice president of Teen-age Research Unlimited, said the ideathat all work was respectable, even decent, had taken a beating. “The term `flipping burgers’ has entered the popular culture to mean thelowest kind of unskilled work,” Wood said. “And teen- agers are awareof all the negative connotations that go with it.”About 28 percent of all teen-agers in the United States said they earn moneyfrom part-time jobs, according to Wood.Today it is obvious that young people have become much more selective in thekinds of jobs they’re willing to take.Category: Business
