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March 18, 2004
A balancing act of books and bucks
Under the dim yellow lights, senior Joshua Garcia balances a tray of dishes while walking between a pair of stone pillars and clusters of people seated in the Italian-style Macaroni Grill located in downtown Silver Spring. It is 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 2, and Garcia has six more hours of serving customers until he drives home at 1:30 a.m., sleeps for a few hours, then rises before dawn for his first-period class.
Garcia is one of about 200 Blazers who currently maintains a working permit, according to Sharon Williams, Blair’s college career information coordinator. Working Blair students are a part of an estimated 5.5 million American teens between the ages of 12 and 17 who are employed.
The cost of making money
Working Blazers say the even-ing hours pay off. Garcia points triumphantly to his new car that he purchased just a few days ago, a reward for his six-hour-a-day, five-days-a-week job at Macaroni Grill. Garcia adds that the job will also provide extra savings for when he goes to college.
However, working for the future can adversely impact the present. For Garcia, the day is not over until he has finished cleaning the tables of Macaroni Grill at times as late as 2:00 a.m. After his shift, Garcia returns home and begins roughly an hour and a half of homework before he finally goes to sleep at around 3:00 a.m. He has to be at school by 7:25 a.m. the next morning.
Lack of sleep does not dramatically affect his everyday life, says Garcia. “I’m young!" he says, “So it doesn’t really get to me."
Most teens impaired from lack of sleep are unaware of it, says Dr. James Maas, a professor of psychology at Cornell University. Maas says that sleep deprivation is similar to alcohol because it slows judgment and reaction time, causing over 100,000 traffic accidents each year.
Teens who sleep four to six hours a night for two consecutive weeks show deficits in cognitive performance equivalent to those of going without sleep for up to three days in a row, according to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, which found that lack of sleep causes a reduced ability to concentrate.
To accommodate his late working hours, Garcia has prioritized when to arrive at Blair. “I make an effort to wake up when I have English and math," he says. “My school schedule is so easy I can afford to miss my whole even days, almost."
Breaking the laws
As an 18-year-old, Garcia is legally allowed to work such strenuous hours. But as minors, most Blazers may not work more than 12 hours in any combination of school hours and work hours per day. Minors must also have eight consecutive hours without work or school.
Not all corporations comply with such rules, says 17-year-old senior Emeka Ezeokoli. During first semester, Ezeokoli says that he worked at a restaurant in downtown Silver Spring for six or seven hours a day after school. Ezeokoli usually would work until midnight but at one point stayed as late as 2:00 a.m. on the job before catching a public bus home. He says that he was unaware of labor laws concerning minors and therefore did not complain to his management. Ezeokoli eventually discontinued the job during second semester to avoid the post-midnight school nights.
Williams says that a few years ago, the Maryland Department of Labor would institute random checks on businesses to make sure that companies were adhering to labor laws. However, because of the deteriorating economy, cuts in budget have undermined such efforts, says Williams.
Because of labor regulations for minors, senior Yulin Moore says that she has had minimal success finding a job despite searching since her junior year. “The companies don’t hire teenagers as quick as they used to because of the restrictions," she says. “It’s not until you’re 18 that you can truly find one."
Sean Oliver, general manager of Panera Bread in Silver Spring, says that regulations on minors do affect which employees are selected for the job. “It’s tough to hire when you’re looking at age restrictions. You obviously don’t want to hurt school schedules," he says.
Striving to make it
Williams says that many of the Blazers who apply for a work permit do so for economic reasons.
Junior Heather Baker says that her father and stepmother asked her to apply for a job at the beginning of the school year. Because her family must pay child support for her unemployed mother and brother in New York, Baker says she must help her parents, who are “struggling to make it" financially.
Six months ago, Baker accepted a job at Montgomery Mall’s Build-A-Bear, working Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays. Her commute takes 90 minutes each way on the Metro.
Senior Rochelle Morton works between four and six hours a night at least three weekdays to save money for college. Morton says that otherwise, she doubts that she would be able to afford higher education. In addition, she sometimes helps her mother pay the bills when money is scarce in the household.
While Morton admits that she does not receive enough sleep, she says that her job does not keep her from doing her homework. Morton still wakes up every morning to arrive at school by the 7:25 a.m. bell. “If anything, I’m more determined to get work done," she says.
Senior Joshua Garcia waits on customers at Macaroni Grill on March 2.
Garcia is one of about 200 Blazers who currently maintains a working permit, according to Sharon Williams, Blair’s college career information coordinator. Working Blair students are a part of an estimated 5.5 million American teens between the ages of 12 and 17 who are employed.
The cost of making money
Working Blazers say the even-ing hours pay off. Garcia points triumphantly to his new car that he purchased just a few days ago, a reward for his six-hour-a-day, five-days-a-week job at Macaroni Grill. Garcia adds that the job will also provide extra savings for when he goes to college.
However, working for the future can adversely impact the present. For Garcia, the day is not over until he has finished cleaning the tables of Macaroni Grill at times as late as 2:00 a.m. After his shift, Garcia returns home and begins roughly an hour and a half of homework before he finally goes to sleep at around 3:00 a.m. He has to be at school by 7:25 a.m. the next morning.
Lack of sleep does not dramatically affect his everyday life, says Garcia. “I’m young!" he says, “So it doesn’t really get to me."
Most teens impaired from lack of sleep are unaware of it, says Dr. James Maas, a professor of psychology at Cornell University. Maas says that sleep deprivation is similar to alcohol because it slows judgment and reaction time, causing over 100,000 traffic accidents each year.
Teens who sleep four to six hours a night for two consecutive weeks show deficits in cognitive performance equivalent to those of going without sleep for up to three days in a row, according to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, which found that lack of sleep causes a reduced ability to concentrate.
To accommodate his late working hours, Garcia has prioritized when to arrive at Blair. “I make an effort to wake up when I have English and math," he says. “My school schedule is so easy I can afford to miss my whole even days, almost."
Breaking the laws
As an 18-year-old, Garcia is legally allowed to work such strenuous hours. But as minors, most Blazers may not work more than 12 hours in any combination of school hours and work hours per day. Minors must also have eight consecutive hours without work or school.
Not all corporations comply with such rules, says 17-year-old senior Emeka Ezeokoli. During first semester, Ezeokoli says that he worked at a restaurant in downtown Silver Spring for six or seven hours a day after school. Ezeokoli usually would work until midnight but at one point stayed as late as 2:00 a.m. on the job before catching a public bus home. He says that he was unaware of labor laws concerning minors and therefore did not complain to his management. Ezeokoli eventually discontinued the job during second semester to avoid the post-midnight school nights.
Williams says that a few years ago, the Maryland Department of Labor would institute random checks on businesses to make sure that companies were adhering to labor laws. However, because of the deteriorating economy, cuts in budget have undermined such efforts, says Williams.
Because of labor regulations for minors, senior Yulin Moore says that she has had minimal success finding a job despite searching since her junior year. “The companies don’t hire teenagers as quick as they used to because of the restrictions," she says. “It’s not until you’re 18 that you can truly find one."
Sean Oliver, general manager of Panera Bread in Silver Spring, says that regulations on minors do affect which employees are selected for the job. “It’s tough to hire when you’re looking at age restrictions. You obviously don’t want to hurt school schedules," he says.
Striving to make it
Williams says that many of the Blazers who apply for a work permit do so for economic reasons.
Junior Heather Baker says that her father and stepmother asked her to apply for a job at the beginning of the school year. Because her family must pay child support for her unemployed mother and brother in New York, Baker says she must help her parents, who are “struggling to make it" financially.
Six months ago, Baker accepted a job at Montgomery Mall’s Build-A-Bear, working Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays. Her commute takes 90 minutes each way on the Metro.
Senior Rochelle Morton works between four and six hours a night at least three weekdays to save money for college. Morton says that otherwise, she doubts that she would be able to afford higher education. In addition, she sometimes helps her mother pay the bills when money is scarce in the household.
While Morton admits that she does not receive enough sleep, she says that her job does not keep her from doing her homework. Morton still wakes up every morning to arrive at school by the 7:25 a.m. bell. “If anything, I’m more determined to get work done," she says.
Discuss this Article
Half of yall dont have a job or things you have to do, and yet yall still complain about school!
My parents asked me to get a job so I could learn responsibility with money, not so I could pay for rent or they could take my money or anything like that. We're not dirt poor, but we're definitely struggling. I help out because I want to, not because I'm forced to. I feel like if I'm old enough to have a job and my parents are struggling, it's part of my responsibility to help them out if possible.
Good job on the article, Karima. You definitely told it like it is.
But if you don't absolutely need the money, and working means you get 4 hrs of sleep most nights, AND you're driving to school/ work on that much sleep, you should really think about ditching the job. I have a friend who fell asleep at the wheel, crashed, got his colon severed, and injured like 2 other people. That can't be worth the extra cash.
All the old people and immigrants took them.
(hee,hee)