( Tw: Abortion)I worked overnights, overtime, and many unpaid hours. This is my story and this is a part of the reason why I don’t work right now as a 22NB
I was a literal child when I first started working in Oregon usa. My first job was with family I was 13 years old helping my mom with my aunts friends work. I was a dishwasher but I was out in the open where many of the customers would see me. I don’t know the labor laws but I was often told I needed to keep quiet about “working”
At 14-15 still was working there.
In august of 2015 the store closed so when I turned 16 I found a job closer to me as I was paying my mothers rent. I went from working 10-15 hours a week during school (30-35 summers) at the old job to working 30-45+ hours a week at this fast food establishment. I was 17 when they asked me to do my first over night. It was a Friday night so I understood but my boss has to tell my mother, my mother was desperate for extra money and I needed to pay her rent.
Note this is the same boss that told my mother (without my permission that I was going through an abortion) which was also a red flag
Months went by of me doing overnights at 17 years old. I started getting even more hours almost working 50 hour weeks while in school and trying to still be able to function as any 17 year old could.
I was burnt out by the age of 20. I have not worked more than a week at any certain job I’ve had many great interviews and have had great times with a few coworkers but the systems need to change and the people who are in charge of work places need to appreciate hard workers and people who show up and do their jobs.
Edit: don’t have literal children do work. Have fun as a child. Make friends. Make dumb decisions and learn from them. When I was 14 I wish I had the chance to go to parties or to meet new people now as almost a 22 year old, I have no social skills nor an ability to meet and talk with people. My best friend and only friend is my husband that I met during one of my overnights when I was 17… he’s 37 now. (Yes I know age difference)
I understand the age of starting to work is like 15? I’m not sure now but that’s not the issue at stake here. The issue is overworking children literal children…. I get having a few shifts here and there maybe 16 hours max. But when you take into account of homework, school, transportation and hanging out as a normal teenager with friends you don’t have much time as a kid.
I used to ride the school bus to work, there was a stop right by my work as I was in 2 towns over (about 45 mins to the fast food place) I overly asked for my shift to start later than expected as I was trying to take accountability for the bus rides to work. There were a few of us school kids when I worked at the fast food place that were always late for their shifts because we were all riding the bus. The staff and management knew we were all going to be late. They would all write us up when we were. I witnessed many teens loosing their jobs over being 5 mins late because of the school bus, I was almost one of them however I was one of the only overnighters so they couldn’t fire me. Many times I would work from 4 pm (school was out at 3:30) that I begged my bus driver to drop me off first so that us workers could get to our work faster. I fought with management to not write us up. I fought with other coworkers to help stay an extra 15 mins so that they wouldn’t be short staffed. I fought with the manager who was in charge of scheduling to make sure that we had enough time to get to work. Nothing I did nor others helped and eventually I moved and I quit