Natalie King
   Publisher

“Ugh, I wish I didn’t have to work!” It’s a statement many of us say on a regular basis. In general, no one particularly loves the part-time work they have to do in high school and/or college in order to pay some bills, but, hey, it’s character building.

One of the most common jobs for first-time-job teens is working in a restaurant. According to youngworkers.org, in 2012, about 44 percent of all teenagers aged 16 to 18 were working in the foodservice industry for their first job. Today, that number has drastically declined to about 21 percent. This is due to the fact that since 2010, the total number of employed youth has been decreasing by about 500-1,000 teens each year. Kids these days just do not want to work.

Coming from someone who has spent five years in the fast food industry, I can tell you that it basically sucks. Food service, on most days, makes you hate the general population. People are rude and inconsiderate when they are waiting in line for their number five eight-count nugget, and when you have been at work since six in the morning, who wants to deal with that? Everything from the smell and uniform to the long dragging shifts makes working in food service the absolute worst. Your feet always hurt and your non-slip shoes are likely coming apart at the seams, letting God only knows what seep into your socks. You have said, “Hey, how are you?” to a hundred people who only respond by shouting their order at you through a speaker that barely works. Oh, I’m fine, thanks for asking.

For me, the worst part of working in fast food were those people who asked for their straw literally as soon as you hand them their drink. I couldn’t even get two words out before they would look at me like I was an idiot and ask, “Uh, can I have a straw?” Many of them would even jerk their hand back and not take the drink until they had a straw. Thinking hateful thoughts, I would blankly say, “It’s in the bag.”

Despite the fact that I clearly still haven’t recovered from the years of working at Chic-Fil-A, I do feel like everyone could benefit from putting some time in with any type of food service job. The first reason being that, as I mentioned earlier, teens and millennials need to learn the value of hard work. You don’t just get to walk into your dream job; we all have to start somewhere in order to gain work experience.

Another important thing I got out of working in fast food was a deep, deep appreciation for any job that follows. I now work in retail, which is not a walk in the park either, but compared to food, I’m in heaven. Teens need to learn to appreciate the jobs they have since so many people are not fortunate enough to have a job at all.

Looking back, those five years spent serving food really made me a better person (cue cheesy, sappy music). I know how it feels to work your butt off for a paycheck and, in turn, I understand the value of a dollar. The fact that teens are slowly ceasing to work at all is frightening.

No matter the financial situation they are in, I feel it is vital for teens and millennials to learn the life lessons that only a crappy job can teach them.