5 ms·

I had a "shitty job" as a high schooler. I was a janitor at a public elementary school where I'd have to clean the unspeakable things that kids do in the bathro

I had a "shitty job" as a high schooler. I was a janitor at a public elementary school where I'd have to clean the unspeakable things that kids do in the bathrooms and classrooms. While it was a literal "shitty" job, anyone could do it for the $10/hr. I saw that it was a dead-end though. I would be looking at my twenty-something year old boss and wanting much more for myself than the fun job he had. I saw that I could make a positive out of a negative. I would work my ass off to give myself an extra hour each day after I locked up the school to then learn how to code online and did all of my lagging coursework on the computer we had in the janitor office/closet. Looking back now after being part of a successful startup and working for big tech for the last 6 years, I believe this "shitty" job is one of the big reasons I made it. I think we underestimate the privilege that certain jobs can give us. I think it's especially important that you have enough time to work on your personal development in someway at any job. Sometimes you have to make that time for yourself somehow even if there are risks of being terminated. Also it helps to have a job where nobody else is around and all people care about is the job gets done each day.

oaiey 5y ago
.. the privilege of a teenager with unlimited time and no responsibility. I get your point but the personal development can only happen if the primal needs are covered.
- wpietri 5y ago
  For sure. There are so many people out there who use that "extra" time to take care of siblings or make extra money for the household budget or just deal with the trauma of their day-to-day living.
GoodJokes 5y ago
hamiltonians 5y ago
this is why i think teen summer jobs squander potential. young adults should be learning skills instead of doing shitty jobs, although someone has to do that work.
- ip26 5y ago
  Summer jobs do teach skills. Customer service, working in a team, working independently... you take those things for granted, but a fourteen year old is not usually born with these things.
  - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
    Those jobs also aren't effective teachers of skills. Some exceptionally engaged employees will pick them up. Most of the rest will pick up the attitude that it doesn't matter if you get fired from one jobby job because you can get hired to do the same thing across the street and then take your original job back once you're fired from the other place and your current manager has left for better opportunities. A strong concern for long-term professional reputation is for white-collar work and independent tradesmen.
    - ip26 5y ago
      That’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t considered. How would you envision nudging “the rest” to pick up skills over their summer, assuming they weren’t working?
      - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
        The "assuming they weren't working" adds a major wrinkle because my default suggestion would be to get them into better jobs where professionalism and responsibility actually matter. At least as far as teamwork (and possibly independent work) is concerned, sports or marching band are the first two summer opportunities to come to mind. However, that still leaves out customer service (and the effectiveness of that actually being picked up by most teenage employees is debatable, at best).
- seibelj 5y ago
  I could not possibly disagree harder. I started working in 8th grade and worked through high school and college. As my friends partied in college I remembered those shitty jobs and why I was in college, it was 100% a motivator for me to work very hard. My son is treated like a prince but he’s going to scoop ice cream and sell pizza slices or he isn’t getting an iota of help from me. You don’t understand the world unless you work those jobs.

oaiey 5y ago

.. the privilege of a teenager with unlimited time and no responsibility. I get your point but the personal development can only happen if the primal needs are covered.

wpietri 5y ago
For sure. There are so many people out there who use that "extra" time to take care of siblings or make extra money for the household budget or just deal with the trauma of their day-to-day living.

GoodJokes 5y ago

hamiltonians 5y ago

this is why i think teen summer jobs squander potential. young adults should be learning skills instead of doing shitty jobs, although someone has to do that work.

ip26 5y ago
Summer jobs do teach skills. Customer service, working in a team, working independently... you take those things for granted, but a fourteen year old is not usually born with these things.
- BeFlatXIII 5y ago
  Those jobs also aren't effective teachers of skills. Some exceptionally engaged employees will pick them up. Most of the rest will pick up the attitude that it doesn't matter if you get fired from one jobby job because you can get hired to do the same thing across the street and then take your original job back once you're fired from the other place and your current manager has left for better opportunities. A strong concern for long-term professional reputation is for white-collar work and independent tradesmen.
  - ip26 5y ago
    That’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t considered. How would you envision nudging “the rest” to pick up skills over their summer, assuming they weren’t working?
    - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
      The "assuming they weren't working" adds a major wrinkle because my default suggestion would be to get them into better jobs where professionalism and responsibility actually matter. At least as far as teamwork (and possibly independent work) is concerned, sports or marching band are the first two summer opportunities to come to mind. However, that still leaves out customer service (and the effectiveness of that actually being picked up by most teenage employees is debatable, at best).
seibelj 5y ago
I could not possibly disagree harder. I started working in 8th grade and worked through high school and college. As my friends partied in college I remembered those shitty jobs and why I was in college, it was 100% a motivator for me to work very hard. My son is treated like a prince but he’s going to scoop ice cream and sell pizza slices or he isn’t getting an iota of help from me. You don’t understand the world unless you work those jobs.