Subscribe
Community
On the bottom rung
Area teens earn cash, life lessons on the job
Friday, Oct. 3, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Source: The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Division of Labor and Industry
Nisha Baylor, left, starts her shift at Chick-fil-A in Waldorf, while manager Ed Younan talks with Olivia Lewis.
|
E-Mail This Article
More than 6 million teens between the ages of 16 and 19 worked for a paycheck in 2006, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, with more than 4 million clocking in to part-time jobs.
While summer is the season most populated with working teens, during the school year local youths continue to earn, all while juggling a loaded class schedule and other activities.
1950s feel, 2008 reality
On a Friday evening, Bert’s 50s Diner looks more like a high school hallway than a restaurant. Almost all of the employees taking and filling orders, working the cash register, scooping ice cream and delivering food to diners are teens.
‘‘When Bert’s opened ... [the owner] started hiring teenagers,” said Jessica Sloper, the diner’s general manager who started years ago as a dishwasher at 13. ‘‘It was really the only opportunity at the time for them to get a job.”
Katie Morrison, 17, is a full-time student at Chopticon High School who has worked at Bert’s for about three years. She has become an expert at balancing her schedule, even if it does leave her exhausted at times.
‘‘It’s difficult,” she admitted. ‘‘I get home from school at about 3:15; do homework for about an hour.” She leaves for her 5 p.m. shift at Bert’s around 4:30 p.m. and works until 11:30 p.m.
‘‘I’m wired. ... I can’t go to bed until around 1 a.m. and then I wake up at 6 a.m.”
Despite the grueling schedule for a kid living in what has been called by some the ‘‘best years of a person’s life,” Morrison enjoys working at the diner.
‘‘I love it here,” she said. In addition to having a fun job, Morrison likes the perks that come along with a steady paycheck. ‘‘I drive. I pay my car insurance, for my cell phone, for gas,” she said. ‘‘I started working so I could shop. I learned how to spend my money wisely. When I go shopping I go right to the clearance racks.”
Like Morrison, who wants to study nursing at the College of Southern Maryland, Krystal Edwards took a job at Bert’s to pay for car insurance and cell phone service.
A College of Southern Maryland freshman looking into studying elementary education, Edwards, 18, works full time and after her shift recently, tucked herself into an out-of-the-way counter seat to work on her homework.
Edwards has a full college schedule and works 40 hours a week at the diner. As stretched as her time is, she manages the juggling act.
Age matters
When Ryan Cleaveland, 14, opted not to play soccer this year at North Point High School in Waldorf, his parents suggested he fill his sudden down time with a job. He works about 10 hours a week, usually the 4 to 7 p.m. shift, at Waldorf’s Chick-fil-A restaurant on U.S. 301.
Having a block schedule at school allows Cleaveland to complete homework during the day, although he admits some weeks, when schoolwork grows intensive, it can prove difficult to juggle all the demands of work, school and free time.
‘‘I’m going to try to go to my friend’s birthday party on Saturday,” said Cleaveland, a sophomore taking honors classes. ‘‘But [the restaurant] makes it pretty easy to schedule everything.
‘‘I have a great time here,” he added about the restaurant. ‘‘I want to stay.”
He hopes to earn a college scholarship that Chick-fil-A offers employees.
‘‘Most of the [teens] we have ... we’re fortunate to have good ones,” said Ed Younan, Chick-fil-A’s manager. ‘‘[Owner] Ken Weikel does a great job selecting the ones we’re looking for.”
Kevin Storm, the manager of Jasper’s American Grill in Prince Frederick, is also lucky to have a number of dedicated teenagers working for him. ‘‘It’s hit or miss, but usually it’s not an issue,” he said. ‘‘For a lot of them this is their first job and they want to be here.”
Like Sloper, Storm has been working in restaurants since he was a teenager. He started off in the business as a busboy and held every position in between that and his current job as general manager. He understands the importance of keeping school schedules in mind when it comes to filling out a work schedule and has no shortage of those wanting to work.
The depressed economy is affecting all, including teenagers. ‘‘I [work] to help my family out with the bills,” said Olivia Lewis, 17, a North Point senior who also works at Chick-fil-A. ‘‘I buy clothes, the food I need, I paid my senior dues.”
She drives her mother’s car to work and her father pays for the teen’s car insurance, but Lewis, who takes a sabbatical from working weekdays from March to June to play tennis for her school, has to buy gas. And escalating prices at the pump are draining her wallet.
However, she likes the freedom working gives her. ‘‘I’m not dependent on my parents,” Lewis said.
She likes being independent. ‘‘Especially with guys,” she added. ‘‘It’s nice to say you can pay for yourself.”
Cost of teen living
Lewis isn’t the only one feeling the pressure at the pump. Huntingtown High School senior Ashley Syverson has to foot the bill for filling up her car’s tank.
‘‘It’s a killer,” said the 17-year-old who has worked at Jasper’s for about a year.
Splitting time at Jasper’s working as a hostess and making desserts, Syverson usually clocks four or five days a week for a total of about 25 hours. Unlike many of her peers, she is on a work-release schedule and has only four classes, getting out of school at 10:45 a.m. each day — plenty of time to catch up on homework before heading to work.
She looked for a job for reasons many teens do. ‘‘I needed the money to get a car,” Syverson said. That mission accomplished, she soon set her sights on another goal. ‘‘Now I’m saving up for college,” she said.
An avid horseback rider who is off work on Wednesdays for lessons, Syverson has her eye on attending St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina to study therapeutic horsemanship.
What she doesn’t squirrel away in savings, she uses to buy clothes, cosmetics or other extras. ‘‘I’ve definitely gained respect [for money],” she said. ‘‘Before, I would just blow it. Without a job, I would be holding out my hand to my parents [for money.]”
Working has also matured her, she said. ‘‘It brings a sense of timing. You have to be on time,” she said.
Co-worker and fellow Huntingtown senior Nick Malay knows about responsibility. Working at the restaurant since July 2007, Malay, 18, has moved up the ranks from hosting to helping run the new ‘‘to-go” service.
As a high school freshman he was on the swim team and played lacrosse but eventually decided he’d rather work than play.
The youngest of three boys, Malay said in his family you’re expected to ‘‘pull your own weight,” and after becoming an Eagle Scout in July, he continues to work, trying to save up for college.
Interested in business, Malay is concerned about the recession and his prospects for the future.
He’ll likely attend community college, paying for classes with the tip money he earns from serving at the restaurant.
It’s feast or famine in the business, he said. The first weekend he worked he earned $500 in tips but not every weekend brings such a windfall. ‘‘Football season is coming up,” he said, brightening slightly at the thought of more customers.
Malay, who has a full schedule at school, believes his peers who want to work have to be ready for it, have to know they will sacrifice something in order to earn. ‘‘You have to have responsibility going into it,” he said. ‘‘You have to be independent.”
