In our last class we were talking about the employees at McDonald’s which in its majority are teenagers. Instead of relying upon a well-trained workforce, McDonald‘s seeks out part-time workers, with no experience and whom are willing to accept low pay. Probably many of you are familiar with this, since you are in the same situation; working after school and without any experience making some extra money, even though payment is not good, the “flexible scheduled” they offered is convenient for you. But what happens when a chain as important as McDonald’s start to demand more hours from its employees? Many of these workers have to stay extra hours, which means they would have to stay until late at night and probably until 3:00 in the morning. When this occurs, then students start dropping out of school in order to keep their jobs, some of them do it because they feel the neediness to help their families. Leaving in poverty make them neglect their homework to stay late at their jobs during the night. On the contrary some other takes jobs after school in order to buy a car, or to make a trip, buy clothes, and to be independent from Mom and Dad. According to Schlosser, "The fast-food industry has created millions of new jobs at a time when other businesses have been firing workers. It now employs some of the poorest, most disadvantaged members of American society". Many of these employees are student under 16. The reality is that students working full time after school are more willing to be disrespectful in class and use more violence with their classmates and teachers, Without mention the consequences that this act have in the future. schlosser says in his chapter "Behind the Counter" that, "as more kids work full time after school, fewer participate in after-school programs sports and activities" which could keep them away from crime and any kind of substances abuse.
Also, Schlosser stays in the same chapter ("Behind the counter”) that “numerous studies have found that kids who work up to twenty hours a week or during the school year generally benefit from the experience, gaining an increased sense of personal responsibility and self-esteem. But kids who work more than that are far more likely to cut classes and drop out of high school. Teenage boys who work longer hours are much likely to develop substance abuse problems and commit petty crimes. The negative effects of working are easy to explain: when the kids go to work, they are neither at home nor at school. If the job is boring, overly regimented, or meaningless, it can create a lifelong aversion to work”. This helps to understand how McDonald’s and more fast food restaurants can help students to build a sense of responsibility by providing a job, but also how it have influenced adolescents to drop out of school in order to keep a position in their fantastic world.When a manager from McDonald’s or any fast food chain demands their employee to work more than 20 hours a week is contributing to this problem. many of these teenagers has dreamed of a job in a place like McDonald's during their childhood (which is supposed to be a clean and wonderful place for all-Americans) and later they start to hate the job, and even worse many are injured due to stress, and pressure from their managers. Therefore some of them start to get desperate to get another job in a clothing store, or anything else except fast food restaurants. In addition, when the job seems to be so stressful, many kids start forming a sort of repugnance to work, but they still want to make money, this leads them to engage in consumption and sale of illicit substances, dealing drugs as well as members of organized crime. However according to the author, some of the kids liked to work at McDonald’s, even though they complained the job is boring, they like to hang out with friends and getting away from school and their parents.
I have a few friends that work at a McDonald’s and some other used to work at Burger King. they all enjoy making money. That gives them a sense of independence. It’s good to be able to buy your own clothes, your ipod, have responsibilities such as paying your cell phone bill, and just feel free to do whatever you want with your money without Mom and Dad telling you what to do. My best friend dropped out of school when she was a senior in high school. By that time she was working at a McDonald’s. She started with a flexible scheduled; 4 days a week, and about 16 hours. I remember that during the first week she was feeling comfortable. She was making new friends whom work at the kitchen, and even though she worked at the counter she always found the time to chat with them. It seemed that she was really having a great time working there, (for a moment I hoped I could get a job like that). Everything was good during the first days, but a few weeks later she started complaining about the extra time she had to stay cleaning out the tables, organizing the frozen food for the next day and above all of this have to deal with crazy and embittered customers. Some of them yelled at her for whatever reason, and all she had to do was stay calm and try to serve them in the best way that she could. Afterwards the manager wanted her to work on Saturdays and Sundays since 7:00 in the morning to 3:00 pm in the afternoon. She started missing homework and gradually school. When I called her to find out why she missed school one day, she would tell me that she was working until late and couldn’t wake up in the morning. After 2 months working full time at McDonald’s she was not longer attending school. Curiously two months after dropping out of school she quit that job because the more availability she showed, the more time the manager demanded from her. At the end she couldn’t take so much stress and decided to get another job in a supermarket, which ended up the same way. This example concludes the idea I wanted to point out in this piece of writing; almost every one of us has been directly or indirectly involved in this situation. I think having a job as a teenager would develop your skills and also create a sense of responsibility and self-esteem, however, when the balance on how to manage time between school and job and when the important things for the upcoming future are lost, then it becomes a problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment