This is Culver’s. They’re a burger fast food joint located throughout the Midwest and have things called “Scoopy Night” where a percentage of the proceeds go toward a specific cause. Schools, dance groups, etc can partake and the kids who attend that school/dance group/etc help take orders and deliver food to tables. Not quite as dystopian as OP has made it seem.
Honestly… the idea that they do this work, and the money goes to a school instead of them, makes it even worse to me?
It’s a fundraiser likely for an after school program. It typically pays out a lot better than a car wash or brat fry. Typically the students run orders out to cars.
And yeah, we probably should put more funding into schools for stuff like this instead of asking kids to fundraise.
Our schools do a “spirit night” fundraiser at a business once a month. The business donates a portion of the sales to the school during a specific time frame. Child labor is not involved.
“Child labor is ok if the money goes to a school!”
- the user who wrote this comment
Yea it makes it worse tbh. We won’t fund fun things at the schools so instead we make them work fast food to earn that funding.
It is indeed even more dystopian when you put it like that. It’s got the same energy as people giving their coworker PTO so they can deliver a baby or whatever.
when we needed to do fundraisers THE PARENTS IN THE PTA DID IT FOR THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.
We had plenty of ‘kids’ working at fast food and grocery stores but not until 15 minimum. this kid looks like he’s 9. that’s too young to be fucking around near fryers and hot grills.
He’s not. He’s waiting tables and taking orders.
“Child labor is ok if the money goes to a school!”
-_-
Are the kids required to work in order to get the money? Because that sounds like a job with good PR.
My thoughts exactly. If it’s optional, cool, the kids get some experience and maybe takehome money. If it’s required, fuck that shit.
The one near me that does fundraisers doesn’t have any students working. Usually the teachers go to say hi to families that come.
That’s just child labor exploitation with extra steps.
This is what it is, and it’s sad that it’s so normalized that people are defending it.
Everyone knows the kids aren’t technically required, but they’re “required” by social pressure.
I remember having to go door to door selling things when I was a kid. It may have been voluntary in a technical sense, but I was pretty well mandated to do so if I wanted to be part of that group with my friends. And there was even more pressure from my mom and dad because they didn’t want to be the family whose kid didn’t do the thing.
I think it’s time we start taking a long hard look at some of these things like fundraisers and de facto coerced employment of youth (without pay) and ask ourselves if a healthy system would allow this.
Children do work at McDonald’s though
Just they would keep them in the back so they can’t be seen
yup. 10 year olds running deep fryers.
In this thread, a bunch of people that have never heard of doing a fundraiser.
Next up, they’re going to go scream at the girl scouts on the corner that they’re being exploited
The way this thread is going it sure would seem that way. A little bit of menial work to earn money for an activity is hardly the same as if this kid was on his 9-5 grind just itching for his next smoke break.
Whoa whoa whoa, how dare you provide context! I want to be rage baited into thinking America Bad!
Don’t worry, America still Bad.
Well that’s a relief.
If you think this context makes it OK, you’re fucking delusional lmao.
Don’t worry, there’s plenty of legitimate outrage to be had without manufacturing it…
Why not both?
Why pay any attention to manufactured outrage? If there’s actual events to be outraged about, then we should talk about them instead of fictions. If there’s only manufactured events, then it isn’t an issue in the first place.
This is different from hypotheticals too. A realistic hypothetical holds as much water as an actual event. If there’s a 1% chance of a catastrophic hypothetical, and it happens hundreds of times daily, that’s a big fucking deal.
To put it another way, if there’s something to be legitimately outraged about, why bother with creating fictitious scenarios?
No, that’s still idiotic. It doesn’t matter what the context is of why a child is working at a fast food restaurant. There’s a child working at a fast food restaurant. This isn’t selling chocolates to raise money for a class hamster.
Being intent on remaining outraged is idiotic. Spending a few hours doing a handful of minor tasks at a fast food restaurant for fun is worlds apart from being required to labor for day after day for a pay check.
That’s why we need to have ubi for everyone, even these kids. Then they will just have money to spend on their dance clubs and stuff without having to work for it.
Selling chocolates is so much worse though. That always creeped me out because it’s either A) kids learning how to hawk wares on the street outside of stores, B) kids learning how to be door-to-door cold call solicitors or C) run a MLM pyramid scheme by convincing their parents to push their product at work.
Maybe even D) a combination of all of those for the ultimate street hustler training.
This is just kids “playing house” for a few hours. Most probably love that shit. I would have killed to see what the buttons on the register do and how the fries are made.
Honestly, I would err on the side of caution anyway. The worst that can happen is minor embarrassment that came from good intentions.
It’s indicative of a larger effort by republicans to force children back to work, this is part of that dystopia even if it’s on the “light dystopia” side of the spectrum.
Fuck off whiteknight, keep enabling corporate’s ability to normalize and capitalize off of child labor. This ain’t no goddamn bake sale or car wash.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/04/18/child-labor-returns/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-hyundai/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html
Keep downvoting, bootlickers
Work experience at school is legitimately a thing though here in the UK.
I had a paper round at 13 and washed dishes in a pub at 15. It was my choice to work and earn money. Not sure what’s so dystopian about that.
In germany as well. We had a week where we could try out a few jobs and occupations hands-on. It was great. Seventh grade, I believe.
And that was 33 years ago.
It’s is in the US too after age 15.
More proof that we do live in a dystopia
I don’t know how I even survived bussing tables 8 hours a week at age 14 🙄
Really, a part time job and saving while still in high school made it a hell of a lot easier to start out on my own after.
Indeed, florida’s plan to make up for the migrants they shit on and terrorized out of the state is child labor. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/11/2216798/-Florida-has-a-solution-to-education-issues-It-s-called-child-labor
How does that boot taste?
“no, no, its not bad! The child worker is working for charity!”
Oh nice, so its worse
scoopie night The abuse has to stop. Look at those abused kids. The horror.
Would you want your child working at a fast food restaurant? Doesn’t matter what kind of cutesy name gets attached to child labor.
For a few hours? Sure, why not. They’re not actually useful labor. The store is doing you a favor. Your average 8 year old peeled away from Minecraft and told to do a task is going to fuck up more than they help. I know, because I was that kid and I fucked up a lot. Sometimes in very expensive ways. My only worry would be that they would leave the job thinking every day will be fresh and new like that day, and that people are gracious and polite.
For a few weeks? Oh hell yes, now we’re talking. Then they’ll see the monotony and how much corporate sucks. Even more, how much customers suck. At that point, the value of learning a skill that keeps you out of the fast food/retail mines will be obvious.
Depends on the kid. Do they treat workers disrespectfully, or not understand that money shouldn’t be recklessly spent? Absolutely have them work fast food for a night – so long as an adult is there to make sure there’s no safety issues and they’re paid full minimum wage for it, I’m all for it.
I had a chemistry teacher in high school who maintained that everyone should have to work retail or fast food once, and as I’ve grown older I completely understand what they meant. Some people are naturally not dicks. They don’t look down on workers at Walmart or McDonald’s. For others, it’s a lesson they have to learn. They need to work in that position to understand what it’s like.
That doesn’t mean we should draft all kindergarteners into the work force. But the occasional experience to show them what a minimum wage job is like? Absolutely. If we want kids to grow up voting for minimum wage increases and universal labor rights, they have to learn these things somehow.
Yes, of course I would. It’s a great experience. We actually did that back in school, had a week when we all went out to check out different jobs. It was a great thrill and fun for all. Certainly not labor. We got to do grownup things. That was shortly before seventh grade, iirc.
And then, we’ve had school things where we would bake and cook and sell it right there on campus. Is that labor as well? Oh, and when I was in the boy scouts, we sometimes went door to door raising funds and selling trinkets. Child labor?
It’s not like we had to do eight-hour days, week for week. A few hours, once in your life. That’s not labor. That’s a fun thing to do.
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I remember doing something similar in HS 20+ years ago.
Name and shame which Culver’s it is.
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you can work for your parents in many places regardless of age
I.e. your locally owned mom-and-pop Chinese takeout. I’ve seen the kiddos answer the phones there a couple of times, tho most of the time when picking up food for the wife they’re just playing in a blocked off side area that used to be dining pre-pandemic.
I think many states allow children as young as 12 to work in specific non-dangerous jobs with permission from the parents. A company recently got in trouble when they had like 20 12-15 year olds working in a meat processing plant which definitely did not qualify for the “not dangerous” qualifier.
Yeah, I agree it’s fucked up but there’s almost no way that kid’s under 14, which is the youngest age Culver’s will hire at, he’s just a late bloomer probably. I think a lot of people would disagree with calling that age group a “literal child.”
A lot of people wouldn’t call a fourteen-year-old a child? Which people? I don’t know of any.
Assuming the literal meaning of “literal”, a child is, according to the OED, literally:
a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.
Can you explain how the pictured human being does not fit the description above?
Can you explain how the pictured human being does not fit the description above?
R Kelly has entered the chat.
Those people might say, back in my days I fought wars even though we know better.
Could be a Shawna Rae thing
Assuming the literal meaning of “literal”, a child is, according to the OED, literally:
a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.
I’m not in any way defending child labor in general or Culvers in particular, but factually speaking, a 14-year-old fits between those two definitions (above the age of puberty but below the legal age of majority).
So that’s an inclusive “or” in the definition. If EITHER of those criteria are fulfilled, then the definition can be applied. Since the criterion about the age of majority is true then the definition is true.
So conversely, a person above the age of majority who hasn’t reached puberty yet (medical condition maybe? Just suspend disbelief for the sake of the argument) is still by definition a child.
I have a 14 year old right now and I’d have zero issues with him getting a job. He’s already been eyeing some places. I know this isn’t what you’re exactly saying, but once they hit puberty they’re a bit different than young kids.
Getting a job as an indulgence because they are interested is fine. Getting a job because their parents are not capable of giving them a dignified lifestyle is downright disgusting and such kids should be rescued. Often greedy parents mask the latter as the former because they are scum.
Getting a job because their parents are not capable of giving them a dignified lifestyle is downright disgusting and such kids should be rescued
I just don’t understand this leap to conclusions that every young person is out there working because their parents aren’t feeding or clothing them. I grew up with rich friends, middle class friends, and poor friends. Random assortments of all three groups grew up working. The vast majority of the time it to earn money for themselves to buy luxuries. One friend was working to support their family due to a parental situation. There’s no way putting that person in the foster care system would have been better. They Graduated with decent grades too.
Don’t get too worked up over it. The average Stay-At-Home-Lemmy is completely unable to understand the concept that not everyone’s mom and dad will buy them an Xbox and that sometimes teenagers will get jobs to pay for things they want.
I respect that, but your 14 year old is probably quite unusual in that respect. To his credit, of course! Some kids mature faster, and in different areas at different rates. I have a 13 year old and a 16 year old and neither of them would be capable of paid work in my opinion. I love them from the bottom of my heart but they would crumble after a shift at BK
I got my first job in ‘95 when I was 13. This was in a Toronto suburb at a computer shop and it was awesome although only got $5 an hour and had to stay in the back mostly shrink-wrapping a million cd cases. There was a cute 16 year old older girl at the register that I still remember lol.
Didn’t love wearing a large Windows ‘95 box costume and standing at the corner like a hooker though.
Jeeziz. We’re about the same age and I was unable to even make a sandwich at that age I think. Mind you, I bet 13 year old you was ecstatic about that 5 dollars an hour in 1995. I hope you’ve got a picture of yourself in that box for the laughs.
My first job was call centre work at 16. I answered an advert in the local paper. Trying to use a script to swindle old ladies out of their pension for a commission, it was horrifying. I remember thinking “is this what adults do for a living? Cheat each other??” Looking back, I wasn’t that far off in a lot of cases I think.
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It’s really good life experience I think. I don’t want my kids missing out on it either.
From my reply to the other comment:
Fourteen
I don’t think most people would disagree that “teenager” is a more accurate word to describe that age. Trust me, there is plenty fucked up with the OP picture, we don’t need to resort to hyperbolic language to get our point across.
It is blatantly the opposite of accurate. When teenager describes both a thirteen year old who hasn’t hit puberty and a nineteen year old who could fight and die for their country, it’s obviously not an accurate enough term
I agree with you and Priests and Republicans that 14 isn’t a Child. 😉
You’re getting a lot of down votes, but you’re spot on. I started working fast food at 14, and I looked like I was 9.
Shame them for what? You don’t know what’s going on in that picture.
They do this often at the Culver’s near me. It’s a fundraiser for school / extracurricular activities. The group works for a few hours and Culver’s donates the receipts for that time.
It’s better than having them go door to door selling wreaths and shit.
Somehow that made it even more dystopian. The school system is in on it
The children are working to fund the school.
Nuf said?
-
The school is funded already through taxpayers. The fact that “the children are working to fund the school” is an acceptable line of logic is already dystopian.
-
Traditionally, children do fundraisers to fund extracurricular activities, like a field trip. If the school is taking that money to add to their budget, that’s crossing the line into exploiting kids’ labor for money.
- The school is funded already through taxpayers.
Where do you live that public schools are properly funded by taxes? American schools are embarrassingly underfunded, and teachers are tragically underpaid and typically have to spend their own money to buy supplies for their students.
The fact that public schools used to be properly funded by taxes and aren’t any longer is part of the dystopia. Do you think I’m defending the current system?
https://usafacts.org/topics/education/
I was surprised to find out how much the U.S. actually does spend on education, given how shitty it is. Idk where the money is going, but it’s definitely funded
I’m not sure if I’m reading the data wrong or what, but that usafacts.org says 35% of people 25 or older have at least a bachelors degree. When I checked the census data, it says only 27.4% have that… https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2021.S1501?q=EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT&g=010XX00US$0400000&tid=ACSST1Y2021.S1501
Link doesn’t work for me, but I’ll look it up
The US spends the second most per student in the world.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/education-spending-highest-school-brazil-chile-italy-mexico/
Part of this comes from the fact that most public schools are funded from local property taxes, so naturally wealthier residents have better public schools due to better funding as they naturally pay more in taxes
Imagine if they spent anything on teachers
-
I remember having school assemblies in middle school with some third party fundraising company trying to get us to sell…I don’t even remember what as a fundraiser for the entire school. At the time it felt weird and as an adult looking back I find it far more concerning that that’s how they made up the budget shortfalls instead of raising property taxes by fraction of a percent
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They got mad at her when an item was missing out of a 4-bag $80 order (they unbagged and checked everything there on the counter).
That one seems valid. That person got burned before with the staff not bothering to do their job and were NOT going to short their friend whatever item(s) the staff kept for themselves. Sure, you can say the counter girl didn’t do the bagging, but she’s the one that the customer is supposed to tell, and it is hard not to be angry when you’ve paid for stuff and you’re getting shorted – AND there’s almost surely another person relying on you to get it right this time. It shouldn’t take so much effort to just get the stuff you paid for.
But you can nicely check your items and say “ope looks like one of the fries got missed” and not make a big stink about it
That’s true, but I don’t know how much of a stink was made. If someone is unbagging everything at the counter, they’ve probably been burned before, so I can see some reason to take a harsh tone – enough to show they’re tired of the BS. If, instead, they started throwing things and screaming obscenities, yeah, that’d be an overreaction.
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Be Polite and don’t come back. That’s my rule of thumb.
Meanwhile on the other side of the coin, people have literally been shot and killed for having an extra item in their bag that they didn’t pay for.
… but they WEREN’T doing their job. I’ve been a counter cashier at a burger joint. Most of the job was getting the order correct and taking in money properly, but I also has to to things like add extra relish packets and see that I was giving them the correct food. That’s the job. You give the customer what they ordered. That is the EASY part. The hard part is dealing with the people trying to scam you with bill-switching/wrong-change schemes (though I suspect those are less common as fewer people use cash now).
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Nah, you got the wrong end of the stick, this is an uplifting story - it’s a kid working hard to provide for his mum’s cancer treatment that in any other developed nation would be covered by taxes. Uplifting. Right? So Uplifting. He doesn’t need to be with his mum in her time of need, he should be suckin that capitalist dick.
The orphan crushing machine is at it again!
Is there a orphancrushingmachine community yet?
I’m unsure I haven’t looked for it yet.
This kid is way too young to be taking verbal abuse from customers. I remember being 19-but-looked-15 and grown-ass adult customers calling me stupid and useless, and generally speaking to and looking at me like I was a piece of dung stuck to the bottom of their shoe. People who thought I was a literal child behaved this way. Not to mention all the perverts. Kids shouldn’t be working customer service, not in a world where adults have such disgusting behavior.
I’m sorry that this all happened to you. I know this happened in the past, but you deserve a little hug. I hope things are better for you on a day to day basis. ♥
Thanks, that’s sweet of you. <3 Things are much better for me now that I’m out of that line of work, so I do my best to stand up to trashy customers on behalf of the people who can’t.
Fuckin same. Honestly no age is old enough to take shit working at fuckin Office Depot.
ps5 wont buy itself keep hustlin
Rise and grind and watch spongebob
gotta work hard to play hard fr fr
When I was 13 I was ‘encouraged’ by my family to get a job. I had no interest. They pulled some strings and I began illegally working (14 was the legal age) for a small family diner. At this time I just wanted to fiddle on my tech as I was very nerdy, but my family didn’t want me to “stay in my room all the time,” so pointless labour it was.
I did appreciate the liberation I gained from my family, even if I didn’t have the knowledge of what to do with it; How to expand upon it. Probably for the best imo. I spent my whole first paycheck on some games that me and my homies would play in the garage and made great memories. If there was a life lesson to be learned during this whole experience, I never understood it at the time. Eventually I was let go from work since no-one taught me how to perform my job duties well enough. That’s life, though!
By luck, one of my caring high-school teachers managed to slip-in his own curriculum. He taught a class of ~15 students some important financial skills… how mortgages work… how to create and manage savings… credit building… Bunch of important life stuff that I would consider essential knowledge in our society was an optional course I learned through word-of-mouth/happenstance.
???
why
Meanwhile and my ultimate gripe with this thread and tying this back into a dystopian - I see some people mention they learned valuable life lessons and a bunch of other copium. Witness me and your kin around you. Is the knowledge you gained - the wisdom acquired through action and experience - is it gained through labour? No. I didn’t and others didn’t either. Can it be taught safely without forcing children with a young developing brain into dangerous work environments? Yes. I gained such wisdom later from the safety and comfort of my school. And we rest on the final point with a question:
How many opportunities in the common layman eye are there for children to receive education on the matter?
If your experience had 1 or more, I’d love for you to share such experiences here as it’s eye-opening to those who received and did not receive such privilege. I’m certainly interested! :)
As someone who was pulled out of school at 14 and sent to work rebuilding old houses and breaking my back for $100 a week, education is where it’s at.
Appalachia is a whole different world (especially 25-30 years ago, the internet is changing it though).
The dude I worked for was molesting little girls and using the boys to stand up for him in court later to talk about how great he was. Unfortunately (for him that is) he made some mistakes and didn’t get our support, but boy he tried.
I remember one time he took us to the lake. He said, “I’m psychic, you know. I know things that no one else knows.” I replied, “there’s no such thing. Prove it.” He said, “Ok, when you and Regina sat on the train tracks and you ate her pussy and she sucked your dick. I just seen that in my mind.” He blew my mind in that moment.
I grew up and realized, Regina put my penis in her mouth because someone was teaching her that shit. I put my mouth on her vagina because she instructed me to do it. She did so because someone taught her this stuff. We were 11 and 9.
I know that’s disturbing and I’m sorry.
Kids shouldn’t be handed over to strange adults to work. If I’m not proof of that I don’t know what is.
Holy shit, man, you okay?
Oh yeah. Life is great these days bud. Thank you for asking.
As someone who was pulled out of school at 14 and sent to work rebuilding old houses and breaking my back for $100 a week, education is where it’s at.
I’m just gonna say if they got me building houses for a day or two each week, I would’ve loved that shit and might’ve stayed in school.
The rest of the story is beyond me.
How old are you now?
She pressed the little pictogram squares on her till. (Literacy was no longer a requirement for employment in these restaurants. Smiling was.)
Good reference to a great book. Anyone who hasn’t read it, should. In a similar vein, anyone who hasn’t watched the streaming adaptation with Martin Sheen and David Tennant is in for a very nice surprise!
Martin Sheen!?
That’s President Kennedy, you idiot!
Well same difference! He played Kennedy once!
The children yearn for the fast food jobs, Overcooked and Roblox games have proven that.
Legal working age of 15 1/2 (in my state) plus a kid who looks young for their age - may not be the most appealing situation, bit this probably completely above board.
No age restrictions if family owned business, that’s a federal law no state can bypass, but I doubt the owner of Culver’s needs their kids to work to support the family.
I’m assuming it is the franchise owner’s kid. Not the owner of Culver’s.
I mean still…
That’s a federal law aimed at farm families from back in the day. And farm kids are still helping and working along side Grandpa and Dad. And where I live, in the middle of a forest, they also help and work along side in logging families also.
Growing up on a farm, my earliest memory in life is walking behind a tractor pulling a ‘stoneboat’ and picking up rocks in the fields along side my father and grandfather. I was driving a tractor pulling wagons and hay trailers by 8 years old and by 12 I was driving trucks hauling grain from the field to storage bins and unloading them. Plus getting up a 5AM to help milk cows every morning and again at 5PM. It was absolutely crucial when my Grandfather got sick with “Farmer’s Lung” and couldn’t work much anymore. I pretty much started running his farm at 14.
So they should just make the legal working age 12 and the problem is solved
I was at a tim Hortons in Canada. Had this experience seeing a youngin’ working, except it literally seemed like the whole staff was this age. It was enough kids to prompt us to ask what the working age was in Canada. The young lady informed us it was 13 or so
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This photo was taken years and years ago, look how young Neil Gaiman is in it.
“This is a systemic problem. Children should have their needs met without the need for work, and this child working is an obvious symptom of the problem at hand.”
“Have you ever considered that I, an individual, worked at a mcdonalds at the age of 15? I used the money to buy a video game. Therefore your argument is invalid.”
This comment section is fuckin weird.
Your comment was on top when I came here and made me look through the rest of the thread, and holy shit lmao
I remember having to do stuff like this when I was a kid. It was dystopian then, and it’s dystopian now.
The fact that it’s so normalized here in the US that people scramble to defend this is really tragic and illustrates how hard it is for people to step back and see the true nature of a situation and ask ourselves if this is something a healthy functional society would produce. “I enjoyed it, therefore it’s good” is one of the worst defenses for anything, ever.
In pretty much every state you can legally work limited hours at 14. Considering this is a Culver’s, I highly doubt they illegally hired this kid.
There’s nothing wrong with a part time job at a place like this at 14. I’d argue it’s better than having no work experience at all as a minor.
Is that kid 14 or 10?
Hard to tell from all 16 pixels. I’ve seen some pretty young looking 14 year olds though.
Additionally, I looked it up and in some states you can work at a family business at 12.
work at a family business at 12.
I’m assuming that store is a franchise, that’s the only way I can think of it being technically a “family business”?
Yeah, I’m pretty sure all Culver’s are franchises. I don’t know why a franchise owned by one’s parents wouldn’t be considered a family business.
Can confirm at least some of them are franchises, for sure (if not all of them).
Nope, that’s little Billy Culver in that picture
Loopholes, baby!
I work in the Media Center of a High School. Some 9th and even a few 10th graders definitely look like they still belong in middle school, some kids mature late. I’d totally believe that there’s a possibility this person is actually at least 14.
I worked as a waiter at a retirement home at 14, and definitely looked younger at the time, so I think there’s a good chance this is the case.
NO ONE HERE ACTUALLY KNOWS.
I’d argue that kids are not fit for the stress put on people in service positions with customer contact. It’s fine if they have a holiday job cutting grass or delivering newspapers or something like that but standing behind a counter taking orders from people that often don’t even acknowledge that you’re human, too? That’s hard enough on adults already - I definitely don’t think it’s the kind of job for kids.
Also which business is hiring kids to work a couple of weeks during school holidays and then is fine having one less worker again? The time spent on teaching the child what to do and how to handle different situations as well as the paperwork probably takes more time and money than not having the help for a couple of weeks - even less so as you probably have to have another person nearby in case of customers overstepping so I’m not sure this is just some holiday job for the kid to earn pocket money or get job experience
Judging by the comments here, everyone is going to be thrown off sufficiently to watch their behavior.
You’d think so, but people can be downright cruel to those they think are ‘under’ them, and guess what every person working a job that can’t get them fired (so no business-to-business contacts) is to them?
I remember working in a customer facing role when I was a teen, and occasionally had to tell people the place was closed due to weather. They would accuse me of being everything under the sun and personally on a vendetta to make their lives miserable… and there was nothing I could do about it aside from calling the police if they actually started making threats.
I’ve always been about kids getting out there early and getting a taste of working, but these days feel different. I wouldn’t want to go back into customer service now and I’ve got experience and age to back be up in dealing with customers.
I do think that people who cause the disruptive behavior that I’m referring to should be required to serve time doing those jobs, as I think part of their entitlement is ignorance of what’s it’s like behind the counter.
I mean service jobs are never great, but most of my jobs from 14 through early adulthood were all service and they weren’t that bad.
You encounter plenty of rude and unpleasant people, but you just get on with it. It’s not traumatic for the vast majority of people. Learning to handle people like that is a good skill to have.
I totally agree that people would be better to each other if everyone had so service job experience.
Waiting tables at the tail end of high school and throughout college really boosted my intrapersonal skills. I have no problem interacting with most anyone and can usually pick up on cues that go beyond what the person is saying. I work in engineering at a fortune 500 now it’s really amusing how bad a decent swath of employees are at getting their point across, understanding what someone else is trying to tell them, and reading the room.
That said, I had a stint in retail. Waiting tables was more stress, but the people were generally quite a bit nicer.
I got my first real job at 15. I might have looked like this kid. Lol
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I saw this on Reddit a while back. This isn’t an actual employee, it’s the kid of a manager who brought them to work for the day (school was closed or something). The dumbass manager thought it would be cute to dress her kid up and put them on the register, but patrons were rightly weirded out. Culver’s corp found out and were pissed - I’m not sure if the manager got fired or not, but this definitely wasn’t something Culver’s was cool with.
Don’t be silly, sense isn’t what people do. They do outrage.
