Before I left reddit I was shut down for expressing the option that children shouldnt even be laboring to sell cookies, popcorn, or candy bars. It’s all exploitative. Some people think this is character building.
I’ve seen the opinion before, in community college. I was assigned to read something, and it laid out a damn good argument for why working a register never taught anyone “life skills.”
That’s not entirely accurate. My first customer service jobs in high school taught me invaluable lessons about how douchey people can be to a kid slinging popcorn at a movie theater. I learned a great deal about how to deal with assholes with an inflated sense of importance. Above all I learned that I would never be like those assholes.
These are skills that I still use in my job today.
I agree. I worked McDonald’s whilst I was at college. I learnt a huge amount about dealing with different types of people, both customers and staff!
A lot of people in the UK look down upon people working low tier service roles which I now strongly defend. It also taught me, as it did you, how stupid and ignorant an average person can be and I always try to keep that in mind not just for the actions of others, but my own.
I’m a “skilled” worker now, but should needs must, I’d be absolutely unopposed to going back to a job like McDonald’s.
I used to joke that I’m against national service, but that everyone should be drafted to work two years in the service industry!
You can absolutely learn life skills from working a cash register provided you are doing more than just checking out and bagging. At the very least you should glean some basic customer service skills
With all due respect, fuck that. It would be one thing if they were forced to do that to support their families, but they’re not. In 99% of cases they’re doing it to support an activity they enjoy. For instance, the girl scouts of America is not a business and their activities are not free. Selling cookies is how they afford to do fun shit.
Do they really need to be selling junk to people to do fun shit? Can’t the families and community support them without making them labor to sell some company’s junk product for a pittance?