• @GUBERNACULUM@lemmy.world
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    2915 months ago

    This is Culver’s. They’re a burger fast food joint located throughout the Midwest and have things called “Scoopy Night” where a percentage of the proceeds go toward a specific cause. Schools, dance groups, etc can partake and the kids who attend that school/dance group/etc help take orders and deliver food to tables. Not quite as dystopian as OP has made it seem.

    • @ericbomb@lemmy.world
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      895 months ago

      Honestly… the idea that they do this work, and the money goes to a school instead of them, makes it even worse to me?

      • @stewsters@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It’s a fundraiser likely for an after school program. It typically pays out a lot better than a car wash or brat fry. Typically the students run orders out to cars.

        And yeah, we probably should put more funding into schools for stuff like this instead of asking kids to fundraise.

        • @AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world
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          25 months ago

          Our schools do a “spirit night” fundraiser at a business once a month. The business donates a portion of the sales to the school during a specific time frame. Child labor is not involved.

      • @cazsiel@lemmy.world
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        245 months ago

        Yea it makes it worse tbh. We won’t fund fun things at the schools so instead we make them work fast food to earn that funding.

        It is indeed even more dystopian when you put it like that. It’s got the same energy as people giving their coworker PTO so they can deliver a baby or whatever.

      • ObliviousEnlightenment
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        225 months ago

        My thoughts exactly. If it’s optional, cool, the kids get some experience and maybe takehome money. If it’s required, fuck that shit.

        • Mario_Dies.wav
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          95 months ago

          This is what it is, and it’s sad that it’s so normalized that people are defending it.

          Everyone knows the kids aren’t technically required, but they’re “required” by social pressure.

          I remember having to go door to door selling things when I was a kid. It may have been voluntary in a technical sense, but I was pretty well mandated to do so if I wanted to be part of that group with my friends. And there was even more pressure from my mom and dad because they didn’t want to be the family whose kid didn’t do the thing.

          I think it’s time we start taking a long hard look at some of these things like fundraisers and de facto coerced employment of youth (without pay) and ask ourselves if a healthy system would allow this.

    • @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      345 months ago

      when we needed to do fundraisers THE PARENTS IN THE PTA DID IT FOR THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.

      We had plenty of ‘kids’ working at fast food and grocery stores but not until 15 minimum. this kid looks like he’s 9. that’s too young to be fucking around near fryers and hot grills.

        • @JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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          05 months ago

          The way this thread is going it sure would seem that way. A little bit of menial work to earn money for an activity is hardly the same as if this kid was on his 9-5 grind just itching for his next smoke break.

      • kamen
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        315 months ago

        Don’t worry, America still Bad.

      • Billegh
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        135 months ago

        Don’t worry, there’s plenty of legitimate outrage to be had without manufacturing it…

          • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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            25 months ago

            Why pay any attention to manufactured outrage? If there’s actual events to be outraged about, then we should talk about them instead of fictions. If there’s only manufactured events, then it isn’t an issue in the first place.

            This is different from hypotheticals too. A realistic hypothetical holds as much water as an actual event. If there’s a 1% chance of a catastrophic hypothetical, and it happens hundreds of times daily, that’s a big fucking deal.

            To put it another way, if there’s something to be legitimately outraged about, why bother with creating fictitious scenarios?

    • @dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      155 months ago

      No, that’s still idiotic. It doesn’t matter what the context is of why a child is working at a fast food restaurant. There’s a child working at a fast food restaurant. This isn’t selling chocolates to raise money for a class hamster.

      • @jimbo@lemmy.world
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        145 months ago

        Being intent on remaining outraged is idiotic. Spending a few hours doing a handful of minor tasks at a fast food restaurant for fun is worlds apart from being required to labor for day after day for a pay check.

        • @PopcornTin@lemmy.world
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          05 months ago

          That’s why we need to have ubi for everyone, even these kids. Then they will just have money to spend on their dance clubs and stuff without having to work for it.

      • @WelcomeBear@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Selling chocolates is so much worse though. That always creeped me out because it’s either A) kids learning how to hawk wares on the street outside of stores, B) kids learning how to be door-to-door cold call solicitors or C) run a MLM pyramid scheme by convincing their parents to push their product at work.

        Maybe even D) a combination of all of those for the ultimate street hustler training.

        This is just kids “playing house” for a few hours. Most probably love that shit. I would have killed to see what the buttons on the register do and how the fries are made.

    • @Fades@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s indicative of a larger effort by republicans to force children back to work, this is part of that dystopia even if it’s on the “light dystopia” side of the spectrum.

      Fuck off whiteknight, keep enabling corporate’s ability to normalize and capitalize off of child labor. This ain’t no goddamn bake sale or car wash.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/04/18/child-labor-returns/

      https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-hyundai/

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html

      Keep downvoting, bootlickers

        • @WelcomeBear@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          For a few hours? Sure, why not. They’re not actually useful labor. The store is doing you a favor. Your average 8 year old peeled away from Minecraft and told to do a task is going to fuck up more than they help. I know, because I was that kid and I fucked up a lot. Sometimes in very expensive ways. My only worry would be that they would leave the job thinking every day will be fresh and new like that day, and that people are gracious and polite.

          For a few weeks? Oh hell yes, now we’re talking. Then they’ll see the monotony and how much corporate sucks. Even more, how much customers suck. At that point, the value of learning a skill that keeps you out of the fast food/retail mines will be obvious.

        • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          25 months ago

          Depends on the kid. Do they treat workers disrespectfully, or not understand that money shouldn’t be recklessly spent? Absolutely have them work fast food for a night – so long as an adult is there to make sure there’s no safety issues and they’re paid full minimum wage for it, I’m all for it.

          I had a chemistry teacher in high school who maintained that everyone should have to work retail or fast food once, and as I’ve grown older I completely understand what they meant. Some people are naturally not dicks. They don’t look down on workers at Walmart or McDonald’s. For others, it’s a lesson they have to learn. They need to work in that position to understand what it’s like.

          That doesn’t mean we should draft all kindergarteners into the work force. But the occasional experience to show them what a minimum wage job is like? Absolutely. If we want kids to grow up voting for minimum wage increases and universal labor rights, they have to learn these things somehow.

        • @NotJustForMe@lemmy.ml
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          05 months ago

          Yes, of course I would. It’s a great experience. We actually did that back in school, had a week when we all went out to check out different jobs. It was a great thrill and fun for all. Certainly not labor. We got to do grownup things. That was shortly before seventh grade, iirc.

          And then, we’ve had school things where we would bake and cook and sell it right there on campus. Is that labor as well? Oh, and when I was in the boy scouts, we sometimes went door to door raising funds and selling trinkets. Child labor?

          It’s not like we had to do eight-hour days, week for week. A few hours, once in your life. That’s not labor. That’s a fun thing to do.

  • Deceptichum
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    1916 months ago

    So many Americans in here defending this, get a clue you idiots.

    • @saltesc@lemmy.world
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      386 months ago

      I’m Australian and this reminds me of working at the local fish and.chip store when I was 12. I asked the local general store, but they’d only pay me to do odd jobs, the local bakery said no,.and the local fish and.chip shop said I could help take orders and.package meals during their busy hours each evening.

      My Lego collection grew, I got real good at Time Crisis 3, and I went to see a movie each Saturday. It was awesome. I didn’t see it any different to scoring cash for mowing lawns or washing cars, just stable and they appreciated my help so I felt good too.

      If you’d told me I wasn’t allowed, I’d have done it behind your back and said I was going to friend’s houses.

      • Deceptichum
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        696 months ago

        Cool story mate!

        Lots of people are fine with bad things they grew up with because it didn’t personally affect them.

        • R0cket_M00se
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          16 months ago

          Do you think kids shouldn’t be allowed to work in any capacity? What if they are self employed? Is that wrong even if they want to?

          • Deceptichum
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            6 months ago

            Yes, and yes.

            I think children should be free to focus on more important things than working.

            Do you think we should send the kids back to the mines? Some of them might prefer to be out of school. What if they’re a self-employed mine owner?

            • @grff@lemmy.world
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              126 months ago

              Your example is very extreme. Having an after school part time job as you’re growing up will prepare you for quite a bit, and set us apart from our peers that didn’t work, and instead wasted their days after school or on the weekends. I take it you never worked growing up ? It’s building essential life skills, not inhaling noxious fumes working 16 hr days in mines, this isn’t the 1800’s. I loved flipping burgers and making a paycheck at 15

              • @BossDj@lemm.ee
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                156 months ago

                I wasn’t sure where I stood on this and read a lot of comments.

                One thing that seems common is that many of those who worked young seem to think it made them better than the other kids somehow. They “wasted” their summer, while you built “essential life skills” unlike the person you’re replying to, who did not? Are you still “set apart” from the person you replied to?

                I might think getting thrown into the system at a younger age is the real waste of life. I’ve had a job since I was 15, but I really don’t think it made me better than anyone.

                • @garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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                  46 months ago

                  It didn’t make me “better” but from talking to people I went to college with (that didn’t get jobs early), I’d definitely say I was more prepared for the workforce.

                  Also having money was dope and my fast food job was fun. I still enjoyed my life and summer outside of work, even more so because I could afford to do and get shit that my parents might not have been able to give me. It’s not an all or nothing deal it’s just a different life experience. I think it would be infantilizing to take the choice away from teenagers, though it is important to regulate it as shitty people will take advantage of it.

            • @roscoe@startrek.website
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              6 months ago

              I had a paper route when I was 12.

              The work itself wasn’t important but learning responsibility and the value of money was important.

              It was the first time I did anything completely on my own without being directed in some way by a parent, teacher, coach, etc. Without that job and after-school/summer jobs I had when I was older there is a good chance I would have made poor financial decisions in early adulthood.

              With 18 year-olds getting credit cards shoved in their face the day they show up for orientation, after probably signing up for student loans, it’s probably a good idea for them to have earned money on their own for a while.

              • @grff@lemmy.world
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                96 months ago

                I don’t understand the people down voting you. Having a job growing up taught me a lot of responsibility and how to manage my own money and act in a professional environment. Invaluable skills that you wouldn’t get anywhere else, certainly not school

                • @Witchhatswamp@lemmy.world
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                  46 months ago

                  These jobs you are speaking of–washing cars, mowing lawns, even kids working in their parents’ store–do you think that is the same as working for a multinational conglomerate handling food with no breaks and minimum wage?

                • @roscoe@startrek.website
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                  06 months ago

                  Right?

                  Learning things a little at a time, when the stakes are low/non-existent is the way to go. From early teens to partway through college when you get an off campus apartment you can learn how to apply for a job, how to interview, responsibility, managing your money, responsible credit use, professionalism, bill paying. All this over the course of years, with a support system when you make mistakes (hopefully).

                  I guess some people think you should just have all that dropped on you like a ton of bricks the day after you get a diploma.

            • @Soulg@lemmy.world
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              36 months ago

              First of all, I generally agree with you that child labor such as in the OP is bad.

              That being said, responding to people who had positive experiences with it in their own lives by jumping directly to sending then to the mines is absolutely fucking insane. They are not the same thing.

            • @saltesc@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Sometimes I read comments online and initially think they’re sarcastic but then realise the person’s serious and flexing way above their capacity, usually by straw manning. And here’s one of those moments…

              Do you think we should send the kids back to the mines?

              facepalm

              About as much as you think the police should be shutting down lemonade stands.

            • R0cket_M00se
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              -66 months ago

              I think children should be free to focus on more important things than working.

              “Freedom” to do what you want them to and nothing more, not even to earn it over summer break or learn the value of money.

              Fuck 'em, just wait until they get out of highschool at 18 before they ever even see real money and have no idea how any of it works, who the predators are, and what the risk is.

              • @Esqplorer@lemmy.zip
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                46 months ago

                Fuck 'em, just wait until they get out of highschool at 18 before they ever even see real money and have no idea how any of it works, who the predators are, and what the risk is.

                Why is this worse than the literal same thing at a younger age?

              • @saltesc@lemmy.world
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                15 months ago

                They completely missed an entire part of my initial comment that started this tangent.

                Literally, it was all my idea and what I wanted to do.

                “Children should be free to focus on things.”

                12 year old me: “Cool! I want to work at the local fish and chip store and they already said it’s okay, pleeeeease?.”

                “NO!!!”

                • R0cket_M00se
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                  05 months ago

                  This place is insane sometimes. In their heads they’re thinking children being forced into labor, obviously that’s not what we’re talking about here. I had various gigs I did as a kid to earn some extra money, snow shoveling in the winter, mowing in the summer, I’m doing much better financially than my peers. Most of the guys I was in the military with were losing their whole paychecks just days after getting them, never having that much money in their lives. No one ever taught them and they never developed the skills on their own.

                  Say what you will, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting a kid work in an entrepreneur kind of fashion or in limited capacity like what you did on weekends, summer break, etc.

                  You can’t raise someone into an adult if you hand them the keys for the first time on their 18th birthday. Most of us learn by doing and it’s best to get the hands on experience.

      • @Nath@aussie.zone
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        116 months ago

        I don’t know why, but paper boys (yes we were all boys) were some sort of exception to child labour laws. I was selling newspapers when I was 12-13 for 5c ea.

        The 80s was a wild place.

        • @roscoe@startrek.website
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          6 months ago

          And what about those assholes that never wanted to pay? Just pay the kid you cheap ass. I see your cars, your lights are on, I know you’re home motherfucker.

          I identified so hard with that “I want my two dollars” kid from Better Off Dead.

          • @Nath@aussie.zone
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            36 months ago

            One of my customers went and died owing me 80c. I just took the loss. But it would have been hilarious to see some young kid chasing the estate for his debt!

      • @heyoni@lemm.ee
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        26 months ago

        Honestly it’s the uniform for me. It implies so much like maybe that kids gotta punch in with a time card of has their pay docked.

      • @RecallMadness@lemmy.nz
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        26 months ago

        Amen.

        Got money, bought a PC my parents couldn’t afford, learned to code, got a desk job.

        Taught me life skills too, like dealing with dickhead managers and customers, time keeping, and just general responsibility.

    • circuitfarmer
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      06 months ago

      I’m American and I totally agree. It feels like there are two different countries here, with the red one generally mooching off of the blue one while simultaneously claiming they’re the “real America”. I’m so tired.

    • @jimbo@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      There’s hardly anything to defend because there’s nothing here other than a photo with zero confirmed information about what appears in the photo. People are just making baseless assumptions.

  • @CPMSP@midwest.social
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    1466 months ago

    They do this often at the Culver’s near me. It’s a fundraiser for school / extracurricular activities. The group works for a few hours and Culver’s donates the receipts for that time.

    It’s better than having them go door to door selling wreaths and shit.

      • @NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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        116 months ago

        Most School systems are financially gutted to the bone. It’s dark but most red counties school districts are near bankruptcy and blue areas are slightly better off. So expect more of this as public schools try to keep the doors open.

        • @Kadaj21@lemmy.world
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          25 months ago

          When looking at homes in the more rural areas I noticed that the schools basically shoved all the kids from a good bit around different towns and areas into one. I’d guess to consolidate as much funds as possible in an effective manner, rather than having to pay for more infrastructure that was really needed.

          While I would have liked the slower pace….all I could afford out that way were 100 year old farmhouses with very questionable bones. One you could literally walk the dip between the kitchen and living room. Another had electric, propane and fireplaces for the heating in different areas of the home. Had to tell my wife to stop looking at those.

      • @Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        46 months ago

        I remember having school assemblies in middle school with some third party fundraising company trying to get us to sell…I don’t even remember what as a fundraiser for the entire school. At the time it felt weird and as an adult looking back I find it far more concerning that that’s how they made up the budget shortfalls instead of raising property taxes by fraction of a percent

      • memfree
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        -76 months ago

        They got mad at her when an item was missing out of a 4-bag $80 order (they unbagged and checked everything there on the counter).

        That one seems valid. That person got burned before with the staff not bothering to do their job and were NOT going to short their friend whatever item(s) the staff kept for themselves. Sure, you can say the counter girl didn’t do the bagging, but she’s the one that the customer is supposed to tell, and it is hard not to be angry when you’ve paid for stuff and you’re getting shorted – AND there’s almost surely another person relying on you to get it right this time. It shouldn’t take so much effort to just get the stuff you paid for.

        • @Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          116 months ago

          But you can nicely check your items and say “ope looks like one of the fries got missed” and not make a big stink about it

          • memfree
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            -16 months ago

            That’s true, but I don’t know how much of a stink was made. If someone is unbagging everything at the counter, they’ve probably been burned before, so I can see some reason to take a harsh tone – enough to show they’re tired of the BS. If, instead, they started throwing things and screaming obscenities, yeah, that’d be an overreaction.

          • @ira@lemmy.ml
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            16 months ago

            Meanwhile on the other side of the coin, people have literally been shot and killed for having an extra item in their bag that they didn’t pay for.

          • memfree
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            -26 months ago

            … but they WEREN’T doing their job. I’ve been a counter cashier at a burger joint. Most of the job was getting the order correct and taking in money properly, but I also has to to things like add extra relish packets and see that I was giving them the correct food. That’s the job. You give the customer what they ordered. That is the EASY part. The hard part is dealing with the people trying to scam you with bill-switching/wrong-change schemes (though I suspect those are less common as fewer people use cash now).

  • @marshadow@lemmy.world
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    1166 months ago

    This kid is way too young to be taking verbal abuse from customers. I remember being 19-but-looked-15 and grown-ass adult customers calling me stupid and useless, and generally speaking to and looking at me like I was a piece of dung stuck to the bottom of their shoe. People who thought I was a literal child behaved this way. Not to mention all the perverts. Kids shouldn’t be working customer service, not in a world where adults have such disgusting behavior.

    • @inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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      186 months ago

      I’m sorry that this all happened to you. I know this happened in the past, but you deserve a little hug. I hope things are better for you on a day to day basis. ♥

      • @marshadow@lemmy.world
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        106 months ago

        Thanks, that’s sweet of you. <3 Things are much better for me now that I’m out of that line of work, so I do my best to stand up to trashy customers on behalf of the people who can’t.

    • THCDenton
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      55 months ago

      Fuckin same. Honestly no age is old enough to take shit working at fuckin Office Depot.

  • cheee
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    1006 months ago

    Nah, you got the wrong end of the stick, this is an uplifting story - it’s a kid working hard to provide for his mum’s cancer treatment that in any other developed nation would be covered by taxes. Uplifting. Right? So Uplifting. He doesn’t need to be with his mum in her time of need, he should be suckin that capitalist dick.

  • Deceptichum
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    756 months ago

    “We made this shitty thing legal, so you can’t disagree with it. Checkmate athieists”

  • @Vampiric_Luma@lemmy.ca
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    396 months ago

    When I was 13 I was ‘encouraged’ by my family to get a job. I had no interest. They pulled some strings and I began illegally working (14 was the legal age) for a small family diner. At this time I just wanted to fiddle on my tech as I was very nerdy, but my family didn’t want me to “stay in my room all the time,” so pointless labour it was.

    I did appreciate the liberation I gained from my family, even if I didn’t have the knowledge of what to do with it; How to expand upon it. Probably for the best imo. I spent my whole first paycheck on some games that me and my homies would play in the garage and made great memories. If there was a life lesson to be learned during this whole experience, I never understood it at the time. Eventually I was let go from work since no-one taught me how to perform my job duties well enough. That’s life, though!

    By luck, one of my caring high-school teachers managed to slip-in his own curriculum. He taught a class of ~15 students some important financial skills… how mortgages work… how to create and manage savings… credit building… Bunch of important life stuff that I would consider essential knowledge in our society was an optional course I learned through word-of-mouth/happenstance.

    ???

    why

    Meanwhile and my ultimate gripe with this thread and tying this back into a dystopian - I see some people mention they learned valuable life lessons and a bunch of other copium. Witness me and your kin around you. Is the knowledge you gained - the wisdom acquired through action and experience - is it gained through labour? No. I didn’t and others didn’t either. Can it be taught safely without forcing children with a young developing brain into dangerous work environments? Yes. I gained such wisdom later from the safety and comfort of my school. And we rest on the final point with a question:

    How many opportunities in the common layman eye are there for children to receive education on the matter?

    If your experience had 1 or more, I’d love for you to share such experiences here as it’s eye-opening to those who received and did not receive such privilege. I’m certainly interested! :)

    • @theangryseal@lemmy.world
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      326 months ago

      As someone who was pulled out of school at 14 and sent to work rebuilding old houses and breaking my back for $100 a week, education is where it’s at.

      Appalachia is a whole different world (especially 25-30 years ago, the internet is changing it though).

      The dude I worked for was molesting little girls and using the boys to stand up for him in court later to talk about how great he was. Unfortunately (for him that is) he made some mistakes and didn’t get our support, but boy he tried.

      I remember one time he took us to the lake. He said, “I’m psychic, you know. I know things that no one else knows.” I replied, “there’s no such thing. Prove it.” He said, “Ok, when you and Regina sat on the train tracks and you ate her pussy and she sucked your dick. I just seen that in my mind.” He blew my mind in that moment.

      I grew up and realized, Regina put my penis in her mouth because someone was teaching her that shit. I put my mouth on her vagina because she instructed me to do it. She did so because someone taught her this stuff. We were 11 and 9.

      I know that’s disturbing and I’m sorry.

      Kids shouldn’t be handed over to strange adults to work. If I’m not proof of that I don’t know what is.

  • @Pandawhiskers@lemmy.world
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    316 months ago

    I was at a tim Hortons in Canada. Had this experience seeing a youngin’ working, except it literally seemed like the whole staff was this age. It was enough kids to prompt us to ask what the working age was in Canada. The young lady informed us it was 13 or so

  • @Dlayknee@lemmy.world
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    295 months ago

    I saw this on Reddit a while back. This isn’t an actual employee, it’s the kid of a manager who brought them to work for the day (school was closed or something). The dumbass manager thought it would be cute to dress her kid up and put them on the register, but patrons were rightly weirded out. Culver’s corp found out and were pissed - I’m not sure if the manager got fired or not, but this definitely wasn’t something Culver’s was cool with.

  • @bhmnscmm@lemmy.world
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    296 months ago

    In pretty much every state you can legally work limited hours at 14. Considering this is a Culver’s, I highly doubt they illegally hired this kid.

    There’s nothing wrong with a part time job at a place like this at 14. I’d argue it’s better than having no work experience at all as a minor.

      • @bhmnscmm@lemmy.world
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        266 months ago

        Hard to tell from all 16 pixels. I’ve seen some pretty young looking 14 year olds though.

        Additionally, I looked it up and in some states you can work at a family business at 12.

      • @JaymesRS@literature.cafe
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        6 months ago

        I work in the Media Center of a High School. Some 9th and even a few 10th graders definitely look like they still belong in middle school, some kids mature late. I’d totally believe that there’s a possibility this person is actually at least 14.

        • @lapommedeterre@lemmy.world
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          96 months ago

          I worked as a waiter at a retirement home at 14, and definitely looked younger at the time, so I think there’s a good chance this is the case.

    • hannes3120
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      276 months ago

      I’d argue that kids are not fit for the stress put on people in service positions with customer contact. It’s fine if they have a holiday job cutting grass or delivering newspapers or something like that but standing behind a counter taking orders from people that often don’t even acknowledge that you’re human, too? That’s hard enough on adults already - I definitely don’t think it’s the kind of job for kids.

      Also which business is hiring kids to work a couple of weeks during school holidays and then is fine having one less worker again? The time spent on teaching the child what to do and how to handle different situations as well as the paperwork probably takes more time and money than not having the help for a couple of weeks - even less so as you probably have to have another person nearby in case of customers overstepping so I’m not sure this is just some holiday job for the kid to earn pocket money or get job experience

        • @PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi
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          15 months ago

          You’d think so, but people can be downright cruel to those they think are ‘under’ them, and guess what every person working a job that can’t get them fired (so no business-to-business contacts) is to them?

          I remember working in a customer facing role when I was a teen, and occasionally had to tell people the place was closed due to weather. They would accuse me of being everything under the sun and personally on a vendetta to make their lives miserable… and there was nothing I could do about it aside from calling the police if they actually started making threats.

    • Rhaedas
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      116 months ago

      I’ve always been about kids getting out there early and getting a taste of working, but these days feel different. I wouldn’t want to go back into customer service now and I’ve got experience and age to back be up in dealing with customers.

      I do think that people who cause the disruptive behavior that I’m referring to should be required to serve time doing those jobs, as I think part of their entitlement is ignorance of what’s it’s like behind the counter.

      • @bhmnscmm@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I mean service jobs are never great, but most of my jobs from 14 through early adulthood were all service and they weren’t that bad.

        You encounter plenty of rude and unpleasant people, but you just get on with it. It’s not traumatic for the vast majority of people. Learning to handle people like that is a good skill to have.

        I totally agree that people would be better to each other if everyone had so service job experience.

        • @IMALlama@lemmy.world
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          06 months ago

          Waiting tables at the tail end of high school and throughout college really boosted my intrapersonal skills. I have no problem interacting with most anyone and can usually pick up on cues that go beyond what the person is saying. I work in engineering at a fortune 500 now it’s really amusing how bad a decent swath of employees are at getting their point across, understanding what someone else is trying to tell them, and reading the room.

          That said, I had a stint in retail. Waiting tables was more stress, but the people were generally quite a bit nicer.

  • Stoneykins [any]
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    285 months ago

    “This is a systemic problem. Children should have their needs met without the need for work, and this child working is an obvious symptom of the problem at hand.”

    “Have you ever considered that I, an individual, worked at a mcdonalds at the age of 15? I used the money to buy a video game. Therefore your argument is invalid.”

    This comment section is fuckin weird.

    • Mario_Dies.wav
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      85 months ago

      Your comment was on top when I came here and made me look through the rest of the thread, and holy shit lmao

      I remember having to do stuff like this when I was a kid. It was dystopian then, and it’s dystopian now.

      The fact that it’s so normalized here in the US that people scramble to defend this is really tragic and illustrates how hard it is for people to step back and see the true nature of a situation and ask ourselves if this is something a healthy functional society would produce. “I enjoyed it, therefore it’s good” is one of the worst defenses for anything, ever.