By: Kate Gruetter
Editor-in-Chief
As high school students juggle academic, extracurricular, and athletic demands, it seems that our community often paints holding a job as a lower priority for students. However, the reasoning behind students being unemployed is flawed and fails to recognize the benefits of working while in high school. It is true that students need to prioritize downtime and avoid overbooking themselves, however this does not mean that our community should entirely write off high schoolers from working.
Most of the time, workplaces employ a variety of different people from different backgrounds, age ranges, and cultures. This exposes teenagers to new people and life paths that they may have been unaware of before. For example, while working with people a couple of years older than I am, I got to witness the benefits of non-traditional post-high school plans. Even the customers whom you serve make an impact on your life and viewpoints. You may meet someone older who experienced events you’ve only learned about in textbooks, or someone working in the field you hope to major in one day. When working with and for other people, teenagers quickly learn important social skills and modes of communication they can also utilize outside the workplace.
Additionally, working a job while your parents still support you financially means you get the opportunity to learn money management strategies in a lower-risk environment. Having an income under your parents’ roof means that you can understand the value of saving versus spending money without risking your financial security or quality of life. Also, when it comes time to ask for a tax refund or assess your income, you have your parents close by to help explain the intricacies of the economy to you.
In general, having a job also teaches you obvious but necessary skills like time management and responsibility. As jobs put more of an emphasis on attendance and timeliness, they prepare students for college and the real world, where their grade or income depends on how often or long they are going to class or working a shift. The responsibilities of a job — cleaning, customer service, and counting money — also teach students important life skills that apply to both high school and life post-graduation.
For the sake of full transparency, I will admit that at the time I am writing this article, I do not currently hold a job. However, having worked multiple different jobs over the past three years, I’ve experienced the benefits of employment firsthand. While this cannot be a constant reality for some students, including myself, it is an opportunity that every student should experience at least once. Not only does having a job in high school reap enormous benefits, but it also makes being a teenager easier, as you have more financial freedom to buy and do what you want.