A LESSON IN TEENAGE LABOR: DON’T

There I was, covered in grease and soy sauce, scrubbing down the charred grill.

This was maybe my 137th time cleaning this grill at the end of an evening rush. I have no idea how I still had this job after eight months of being mediocre. I had never cooked anything except cheap ramen noodles and cereal, but here I was, an almost full-time cook in a Korean restaurant. I was 17, and this was my first crummy job of many. This is what I took away from it. And I took away a lot I did not want to.

Most people think it is good advice for high school students to work somewhere while in high school. I strongly disagree with this. Mostly because the common reason for people under 18 to work at a job is because they can ‘learn a lot,’ but it is a crapshoot in my opinion. I don’t really see how a menial labor job could teach anyone anything. It is literally work that requires very little skill.

Looking back on it, because my family didn’t really require me to work, I would have been better off just focusing on my education and getting the best grades possible, which would have paid off if I tried to go to college later. I took some college credits in high school, and it saved me a year of community college six years later.

My boss at the Korean place would regularly yell at me, and growing up with an abusive dad, I thought it was normal for authority figures to berate you. Which leads me into my next point: I was 17, working with grown-ass people in the back of scummy restaurants. Any chance older people got, they usually took advantage of me or bullied me.

This is a slightly bigger opinion, but it is a quote from some random dude I met on the bus: “Letting children work teaches them to be subservient to strangers.” Working in my high school years honestly set me up with a really unhealthy outlook on jobs for a pretty long time. It took me a long time to learn to stand up for myself against my bosses.

Keep in mind that my boss at the Korean eatery was a pretty chill dude. He literally got me a birthday present and a graduation present. He showed me how to grill and cook awesome food, a skill I use all the time to feed myself and to get laid. But looking back on the situation, if he were really my friend, he would have told me to focus on school and get good grades so this could be my last kitchen job.

By the way, it was like the first of five such jobs. Which is something that stays with me now: No matter how much love co-workers and bosses have for you, remember it is a business arrangement, and they need you to get a job done. Rarely will people put you before their bottom line.

Follow your dreams, and work hard, but don’t spend too much time at a dead-end job!

Ken Perez