My 15 year old has his first job this summer working with other teens as a janitorial assistant. He got this job with most of his buddies as well as other high schoolers.
He loved his job and did really well, especially since his friends were there. All his friends play football so they gave their notice early. This week he has been working without his fiends but with the other kids.
I can see he is not happy and has been slacking off and not socializing with the other kids. I told him to try making friends with them but he wouldn’t.
Today he called me and said he got fired. His boss found him shooting hoops in the gym instead of working. His boss told him to pack up and leave.
My son seemed sad but also not as concerned since it’s his last week (he has soccer tryouts next week and can’t work full time). I told my son to call his boss, apologize and say he will do better and ask to come back to work. He did and his boss said he can come back tomorrow.
This is where I might have messed up. I also called his manager to thank him and ask him if my son can come back part time next week to prove himself and learn to work with the other kids. He sounded cool and said he understands and he can come back next week, but he also said he will have him apologize to a couple of the other employees. I’m not happy about that part since they are all peers. I feel he will put himself in an inferior position by apologizing to his peers and may impact his high school connections. How can we handle the apology to the peers part?