The Importance Of A “Shit” Minimum Wage Part-Time Job
I have been someone that almost my entire life has avoided doing a part time job and actively looked for opportunities that let me work outside of the box. Other than a four month period of working at a supermarket as a cashier, I have never worked a “shit job” for minimum wage. At the same time, parts of me wish I did and I completely understand why my father wanted me to for a long time. There are benefits to doing so, that may clash with my views of individuality, but also instill important values in coming of age children, such as discipline, order. Not to mention that you can learn a lot about life in general working at these types of jobs. I want to talk about why I think it is a good idea and why I will most likely have my future children work a minimum wage job in high school.
Before I start this, I want to say I’m all about finding alternative solutions and starting entrepreneurial ventures as a young adult, but with that route I also feel like I lost out on some structural needs that I am finding hard to change now, while I am searching for a job. Having a part time job for minimum wage requires you to be on time and to be at the bottom of the ladder and almost always disposable labor when it comes to the company. If you don’t show up on time or if you frequently call out sick, you won’t be working there for very long. I think a large part of life is realizing there are things you have to do even if you don’t want to. This is a lesson I have always found hard to cope with and I think a structured employment opportunity would have helped with that.
Next is the idea that having a full time schedule forces you to create good organizational and time managerial skills that become essential in college and in the work force. I think having good time management skills is essential for any entrepreneur, worker or student. We only have so much time in the day and picking the most important tasks in an efficient manner helps in all aspects of life. At the time you may feel as if you are being forced to manage your time but ultimately in the long run you will find it beneficial. Time management is another skill that I have nowhere near mastered and although I am trying, find myself falling short much of the time.
Perhaps the most important lesson that a shit minimum wage job teaches you is how important education or pursuing an in demand skill really is in the real world. Realizing that you are disposable at any point and only scraping by is a terrible realization that many in the world make every day. There is no future in the vast majority of minimum wage work because you are paid only what the value you are offering is and many of those jobs will be replaced in the next 20-50 years. The era of the cashier is coming to an end as we speak, which is a job many high school students do.
Even the grocery store I used to work at fired half of their staff and now has half of the lanes as self-check outs. It will only be worse for our children once they come of age. Giving them the realization that if they want to enjoy life and what it has to offer, they have to develop a skill that is in demand and people need for their companies to run. I came to this realization on my own, but many people I know sort of just went through college with majors that have no marketability or demand unless the person themselves has a personality that is.
I want my children to think differently in the long run and not work a dead end job, unhappily for the rest of their lives. I think that a part time job will make them a more rounded and better acting human being in society. In my opinion there are stepping stones that everyone needs to learn at some level to function in a productive manner and many of them can be learned from working a part time minimum wage job. It isn’t about the skills the specific job itself will teach you, but rather the inward searching that will happen within yourself that is the most valuable. You can’t teach people certain ways to act if they don’t experience the necessity to do so by themselves and I believe a part time job can do that.
-Calaber24p
Another great post @calaber24p! I agree with you, it is important to work in places that are not well paid. It is never a waste of time. It made me appreciate my income so I did not spend it on unnecessary things. It made me strive for more, get better, do some more studying. I will never have to put myself in low paid people's shoes because once I was one of them and all I have is respect. And I have to thank my parents for that. Things were not just given to me, I had to earn money to buy anything that was considered commodity. I am thankful for the way I was raised and I am sure your children will appreciate your effort also.
I was in the Navy for 4 years, and worked shitty part time jobs for my first couple years of college, before i discovered poker.
My observation has been that people who find some easy, profitible endeavor right from the absolute get go, either poker guys or business people who either succees as kids out of highschool or after going to college on their parents dime, tend to squander their opportunities. They always seem to have it in their mind that they can find some other easy profitable niche if whats making them money now doesnt work out. I actually knew a lot of people who came up with me in the poker world who were probably better than me in terms of actual poker, but simply weren't willing to put the time and effort into a daily grind because they had no basis of comparison to realize how good they had it, even as low stakes grinders.
Here's my shit part time job story:
When i first started college, the Navy was paying my tuition, but i was on my own for food and housing. I got a part time job at walmart unloading trucks. I was making minimum wage. I walked there and back every day, on the night shift(it took about a half an hour). I made enough to support myself, though things were always pretty tight
Fast forward nearly 20 years. A small fortune in poker, a big fortune in business and a huge fortune in law later. I get a post card in the mail directing me here:
http://www.walmartpaclassaction.com/
Turns out walmart cooked the books and my minimum wage job was actually a less-than-minimum-wage job. They Got caught, got hauled into court, lost appealed, lost again and were ordered to pay a 100-million plus class action settlement.
Im supposed to get like 1200 bucks at some point. Completely meaningless to me now, but actually kind of life changing money for the year or so i was a walmart employee who ate ramen noodles for dinner almost every night.
sonofabitch
I can say coming from a paperboy, grocery carryout, busboy, dishwasher, delivery to entrepreneur, your post is spot on. :)
Minimum wage jobs were only meant as a stepping stone for kids to learn about life and how to excel.
unfortunately, there are so many drop outs that have no skills and think, shortsightedly, that being a cashier is a career and thus should get paid more. Interesting post but I don't appreciate the profanity. No need for it.
The funny part being that once you're established in a corporate job no one really cares much if you're on time.
Not just those jobs, a lot of middle class jobs will be automated as well. The "gig economy" is probably the future... we'll see if it's sustainable or not.
Another good post, and you're absolutely right. It's all about the accumulation of human capital; the sooner you start, the better. Min wage jobs are too often discounted by people not living on the margin, but they're an excellent entry point upon which to build.
Интересная статья)))