In defense of the teenage summer job

Pew Research recently shared findings around a societal decline in teen summer jobs. While discussing the overall decrease in youth employment, with regards to summer, here is an attempt to understand why:

Researchers have advanced multiple explanations for why fewer young people are finding jobs: fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs than in decades past; more schools restarting before Labor Day; more students enrolled in high school or college over the summer; more teens doing unpaid community service work as part of their graduation requirements or to burnish their college applications; and more students taking unpaid internships, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not consider being employed.

All of these seem like valid reasons: school schedules, volunteering and summer coursework. But as someone who worked a food service job from age 16 on, I cannot express how invaluable having a summer job outside of an academic atmosphere was in grounding me as the person I am today.

Source: Pew Research Center / Bureau of Labor Statistics

The summer of 2007, I filled out an online application for a T.G.I. Friday’s in Glenview. There were not many thoughts or expectations that went into this: I had time during the summer to kill, assumed working was something everyone had to do, liked the idea of working with people and did not like the idea of being in downtown Northbrook. Shortly, I interviewed with the associate general manager (who still works in food service in Chicago today) and got the job.

Any people skills I had as a teenager were accentuated and grew three-fold. Talking with complete strangers as they entered and exited, telling North Shore families they would need to wait a few more minutes for their table, and dealing with the mood swings of the servers and managers themselves helped me learn to get along with all types of people. The wait staff was nothing like my Glenbrook North classmates - the majority of my coworkers had not attended college and/or had children of all ages. Many were in relationships with each other and some lived paycheck to paycheck. Bar regulars began to know your name and story, caring about your whereabouts and future. They watched me grow up, I watched many of them mature. Working at Friday’s and becoming acquainted with this staff over four years helped me break out of a suburban bubble and understand what all aspects of adulthood were like.

Weird things happened. Servers stuffed their aprons with leftover food on guests’ plates. Our frequent guests and restaurant “regulars” invited us to their homes. I had nights where I drove to other Friday’s locations and the biggest stressor of the evening was if I could get back in time with more steak. High school friends went to bars with my coworkers, and I had more than one situation bursting into tears in the bathroom. But those are life skills that I never could have acquired in a summer class or an unpaid internship in a corporate or non-profit setting.

Even if summer jobs are on the decline country-wide, hopefully we can encourage the young ones we know to try a different job than a standard internship. I promise they will walk out of this experience a better and more well-rounded person.