• Replies 46 replies
  • Subscribers 22 subscribers
  • Views 17902 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Was your weekend job when you were young the best job you ever had?

Paul Carter

Hello everyone,

I am Paul Carter, a CIPD member and HR professional. I love to write and record podcasts about the world of work. My next blog and podcast are taking a nostalgic look at how the weekend jobs we had when we were younger shaped us and our attitude to work. We were care free, earning just enough money to have fun, buy clothes and run a car. We developed our interpersonal skills through meeting new people, being part of a team, being managed for the first time and dealing with tricky customers. A small taste of financial independence and what work would be like when we left higher education. We were dazed and confused, loving and hating it but always going back for the next shift. It may have only lasted for a couple of years but you will always remember your favourite weekend job. 

Was your favourite weekend job the best job you ever had? What did you learn from it? Do you still see people you worked with all those years ago?

Does your company employ weekend workers? A 2020 report by the Resolution Foundation indicated that the employment rate of 16- to 17-year-olds with weekend jobs had halved in a two-decade period. Should a weekend job be a rite of passage as a teenager? What are teenagers missing if they do not get this experience?

Please share your views and complete my short survey https://forms.office.com/r/VgPnf1mYLF?origin=lprLink 

If you would like to contribute to my blog and podcast, let me know.

Thank you

Paul

Parents
  • I had several jobs at 16 as I had to pay rent, so I had no car, and my clothes were from a charity shop. I mostly attended evening classes so that I could work more hours. A few of my first jobs I didn’t enjoy much, but at 18 I got a job in a video store. It was a small franchise of three shops and by far the best job I ever had.

    I got to choose what played on the TVs in the shops, as long as it was rated U or PG. I put on everything from Labyrinth to Lawrence of Arabia. I used to love getting to know the locals and recommending films for them, as well as watching previews of new releases and getting to take films home for free. Most of the time I worked by myself and was very proud to have the responsibility of a keyholder position, but I loved my colleagues too.

    Sadly, it was during the decline of the video store era. The film companies stopped offering rental periods, downloads became widespread, and one day I went into work and was told it was my last day – the store was going into liquidation. We were all in tears.

    Something that has always stayed with me from those years is the low pay across all my early jobs. There was – and still is – an assumption that young adults are financially supported by their parents. At the time, both the Student Loans Company and EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) assessed eligibility based on parental income, which didn’t reflect my situation at all. I found it frustrating that I was paid less purely because of my age, even though I was working just as hard, and in many ways needed the money more. It saddens me that this remains the case today, and arguably even more so, with recent changes to Universal Credit and PIP for people under 22. It has made me very sensitive to the unfairness of age-related pay differences.
Reply
  • I had several jobs at 16 as I had to pay rent, so I had no car, and my clothes were from a charity shop. I mostly attended evening classes so that I could work more hours. A few of my first jobs I didn’t enjoy much, but at 18 I got a job in a video store. It was a small franchise of three shops and by far the best job I ever had.

    I got to choose what played on the TVs in the shops, as long as it was rated U or PG. I put on everything from Labyrinth to Lawrence of Arabia. I used to love getting to know the locals and recommending films for them, as well as watching previews of new releases and getting to take films home for free. Most of the time I worked by myself and was very proud to have the responsibility of a keyholder position, but I loved my colleagues too.

    Sadly, it was during the decline of the video store era. The film companies stopped offering rental periods, downloads became widespread, and one day I went into work and was told it was my last day – the store was going into liquidation. We were all in tears.

    Something that has always stayed with me from those years is the low pay across all my early jobs. There was – and still is – an assumption that young adults are financially supported by their parents. At the time, both the Student Loans Company and EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) assessed eligibility based on parental income, which didn’t reflect my situation at all. I found it frustrating that I was paid less purely because of my age, even though I was working just as hard, and in many ways needed the money more. It saddens me that this remains the case today, and arguably even more so, with recent changes to Universal Credit and PIP for people under 22. It has made me very sensitive to the unfairness of age-related pay differences.
Children