Several of my peers are college students, and one particular thing I noticed is how difficult of a time they have working retail jobs.
Now I can’t rule out their work ethic/motivation/attitude in this. But one thing that seemed to be rather universal at these places is that anybody who was a student had a harder time of things. Some employers seemed to use their limited availability as ammo against them.
Another thing that makes it hard for students (such as my girlfriend) to find work is that many places already have a glut of students, and won’t hire people that cannot work in the mornings/afternoons (because 90% of their employees have class during that time). I suggested to my girlfriend that in the future she try a less conventional school schedule (such as night classes) to improve her chances of getting hired by being available when most other student’s aren’t.
What do you want them to do? Employers need employees that have certain characterics such as availability. A beach isn’t going to hire a lifeguard that can only work nights. Employers usually have a range of people to choose from. Why would they go with the one that has schedules that conflict with the business. This isn’t limited to students. Working parents often have the same problem.
At the same time, most businesses don’t hire students to abuse them. Retail establishments and restaurants need people that have stamina, blend in with their target customer, and work for a fairly low wage.
When I was in college, I applyed for several jobs that turned out wouldn’t fit my schedule. I moved on and found even better jobs that did. There are all sorts of jobs out there. I did catering, bartending, and work study all at the same time.
I think your peers aren’t trying or being creative enough.
There are a lot of variables that could either advantage or disadvantage college students for retail jobs: part-time versus full-time, a store that’s open 7 days a week versus 5, the store’s hours, students’ class loads, and so forth.
When I worked in a mall that was typically open until 9, the people who worked in the evening were largely college students. I usually went in at 5, so I didn’t have to restrict my class times. In that case, as a part-time worker, being a college student was an advantage to my employment if not my social life.
Well, I worked in a restaurant in college. I really disliked the attitude of many of the managers there. They realized that we’d all be gone within a couple of years and I think there was some jealousy. Most people don’t wake up wanting to manage a restauraunt, especially a chain restauraunt in a college town. The managers were petty and the better shifts were given to attractive females.
When I worked in a bookstore as a college student, I felt that the manager was unfair to me. I worked all the shifts no one wanted to and always came when they were in trouble, but if I ever asked for a shift off because of school, he would be a jerk to me about it, even if I gave a month’s notice.
I’m guessing some retail managers are, but I can understand it to a point. The store I worked at though most of college had lots of college students who were available only evenings or weekend days.
I arranged my classes so that I only took MWF or TTh classes each semester. It made for long days, but I could work opening or mid-day at least a couple days during the week as well as weekends. I also volunteered to open on weekends, something most college kids didn’t want to do (can’t party all night and be at work at 8am).
I think if you want (or need, as in my case) to hold a job while in college, you have to learn to blend your class schedule and work schedule so they mesh.
There are companies that do try to take advantage of students. Some to greater degrees than others.
The most egregious example I can think of was something that Cumberland Farms (a CT based convenience store chain) did during the 80’s and early 90’s. They were having problems with shrink. And a lot of their clerks were students of one stripe or another. So they’d have their shrink prevention teams stake out stores to get the ‘scoop’ on whether any of the workers were involved with the shrink losses.
Then, if they got any proof on any of the student workers, they’d explain to the student that he or she could repay all the store losses for a period of time (usually on the order of several thousand dollars) or face criminal charges for grand theft.
This shakedown plan worked for years, until one of the parents of a college aged kid decided they weren’t going to go along with it. I don’t recall the specifics, but I think that it ended up costing the company huge money to clean up the mess after that.
Having said that, I suspect that much of the sort of thing that Incubus is seeing is rather a result of managerial bias rather than corporate bias. I know I’ve had managers as a part timer (whether student or not) who took any attempt on the part of a worker to ask for a scheduling break as an attempted murder. Or worse. (I don’t even want to say break, we’re talking about saying, three weeks in advance, “I can’t work Tuesday the 11th, in the morning, because of a doctor’s appt.”)
The answer is yes and no - students are not being treated unfairly when they’re passed over for jobs when they only want to work 15 hours a week and can only work nights. Managers need to cover all shifts with as few people as possible - it’s that simple.
On the other hand, I’ve definitely seen cases of managers being especially petty or cruel to students. I’d argue that most retail mangers are either failed students or failed careerpeople themselves, so there’s a certain amount of built-in resentment and jealousy. I had a particularly bitter manager who always called me “college boy” in that particuarly disdainful way, with an unspoken “you think you’re better than me?” He would mercilessly taunt me, saying things like “You think you’re going to go out into the world and get a job? I bet you are. I bet you just can’t wait to get a better job than this one,” even though I was nice, polite, and hardworking. He was always especially unhelpful when it came to scheduling and so on.