While in high school, it is common for students to take on part-time jobs during the school week and on weekends. Examples of students working while in high school include being a cashier at a grocery store, babysitting, or being a host or hostess at a restaurant.

Students typically work during the school year for different reasons. Some students get a job to help pay for gas for their car, while others get a job just so they have something to do in their spare time.

Nicole Lewis Quick, senior, is a shift leader at Dairy Queen. Lewis Quick said, “[As a shift leader] I can open and close the store and make blizzards.” She typically works four to five days a week during the summer but just Saturdays and Sundays during the school year. 

Lewis Quick said, “[The] first week back in school [was a lot], and then I had to go to work, and then come right back to school.”

Managing a job while also being a high school student can be stressful. If a student is involved in a lot of extracurricular activities with their school, plays a sport, or is involved in the arts, it can be difficult trying to balance school life, work life and home life.

Ben Mangin, junior, is a receptionist at Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids in Brier Creek. Mangin said over text, “[A typical shift includes] waiting for a customer to come in, greeting, waiting [anywhere from] ten to thirty minutes, checking customers out, sweeping, and vacuuming.” 

When working a closing shift, Mangin is responsible for taking out the trash, mopping the store, balancing the register, filling balloons, and reorganizing. Mangin said over text, “I was extremely scared to start working because I was in theatre, and that takes a hefty chunk of my time during the school year… if I did not have such an advantage in my scheduling, I don’t know how well I’d be faring.”

Students often complain about coming home from a shift at work on a weeknight only to have multiple assignments waiting for them. Although it would be easier to simply just work on the weekends to avoid stress during the week, this schedule does not work for all students.

Whether it’s working as shift leader at Dairy Queen or a receptionist at Sharky’s, high school students are finding ways to stay busy and manage their time juggling different things during the school year.