There are many benefits to allowing your teen to work part time. A job can help a teen learn responsibility and accountability while providing spending cash that doesn’t come from mom or dad. It can also help your teen develop skills useful for college and life in general. A part-time job can help your teen build self-confidence and become more independent. It can even help him learn how to budget, save and spend responsibly. However, each teen is unique, and it can be difficult to determine if your adolescent is ready. Here are some tips for deciding:
1. If your teen wakes up to her own alarm clock and gets ready for her day without a lot of nagging from you, she may be ready for a part-time job. Holding a part-time job requires a certain level of responsibility and independence. Your teen will have to note his work schedule and then put effort into getting to her place of employment on time.
2. If your teen practices good hygiene without your constant reminders, he may be ready for a part-time job. This may seem like an odd qualifier, but some teens do not shower regularly or even consistently brush their teeth and comb their hair without reminders from mom and dad. Employers will expect your teen to show up clean and smelling reasonably fresh, as his personal appearance will affect the company’s reputation.
3. If your teen wears clean clothing that is appropriate for the situation at hand, she may be ready for a part-time job. Employers will expect her to show up for work clean and appropriately dressed. She may even have to wear embroidered workwear, especially if the business requires its employees to wear a work uniform to further promote their brand. If your teen is unwilling to comply, she is not ready to work.
4. If your teen gets along reasonably well with his peers and authority figures, he may be ready for a part-time job. The workplace is no environment for petty skirmishes or rebellion. Your teen will need to put personal feelings and frustrations aside in order to keep a part-time job.
5. Does your teen have good organizational skills? If so, she may be ready for a part-time job. Your teen will need good organizational skills in order to keep things in their proper order at work, including her time card. She’ll also need these skills at home in order to avoid misplacing important work-related items, such as her schedule, ID card, and uniform.
6. If your teen can handle criticism, he may be ready for a part-time job. No one is perfect, and your teen is likely to hear criticism from an employer more often than he likes. In order to keep a job, he will have to accept it with maturity and any criticism he receives to do a better job going forward.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that determine whether a teen is ready for a job. However, it is a good start. If your teen meets most of these, chances are he or she is ready to work.
