Op-Ed: Working hard or hardly working at OHS
By Makenzy Holm
Picture of Mallory Sepúlveda working at Chick-fil-a taken by Marla Sepúlveda
Turning 16 is a huge milestone. It is when you can finally get your driver's license and start looking for a job, since most jobs in Owasso don’t start hiring until the age of 16. Once you get said job, the hard part begins. Now you have to juggle school, a social life, extracurriculars and a job. Oh, and don’t forget to sleep and spend time with your family. The real question is: how many hours should you work in a regular week? Junior and senior counselor Stephanie Curfman has some personal insight on the subject.
“I see students who work a wide range of hours. Some students I know work 5-10 hours per week, and some work a full 40,” Curfman shares.
Curfman knows that finding a job is important in high school, especially when trying to save up for college or a car. But how do you know how many hours a week will be okay for your mental health?
“I generally suggest to students, when looking for a job, to figure out their work schedules. I usually suggest around 10 to 20, because obviously they are working for money. So if they are just working a few hours per week, that’s probably not giving you a ton of extra money to do what you want to be doing, but you don’t want to work too much where school is falling behind,” she expresses.
Curfman explains how the breaking point is different for everyone, and knowing where yours is will help in the future.
“It’s going to be different for everybody because each person has a different threshold for what they can manage. So, I think what that comes down to is really listening to what your body and your brain are telling you when you’re working a certain number of hours,” says Curfman.
There are ways, however, to combat feeling overwhelmed all the time.
“I suggest talking to your teachers, working with them and telling them what’s going on because teachers are understanding of that. Most of us had jobs when we were in high school too, so we remember the struggle,” Curfman suggests.
However, school is unavoidable, so cutting back on hours per week may be the better option to keep grades up.
“But then I hear back from kids a lot too that they are saying [their] job won’t let [them] and [their job] doesn’t have anyone else to do that shift,” Curfman says, frustrated.
When at the breaking point, it might be time to look at a different option, like switching out of harder classes.
“Maybe that’s when it is time to say … ‘Maybe I scale back on my classes … next semester if this is too much for me and I have to work a certain number of hours. So maybe I don’t have to take this advanced class, maybe I can take an on-level class.’ And that’s okay. It’s going to be fine, I promise,” smiles Curfman.
When finding a job, it is important to realize that you are human and you can’t carry the whole world on your shoulders. Cutting back on hours and enrolling in easier classes to maintain balance is sometimes the best way to keep our bodies rich.