The first time I got sacked, I thought it was funny. A manager at the call centre I worked in back in 2006 had listened into a conversation I’d been having with a co-worker through our headsets; let’s just say it definitely wasn’t about increasing sales revenue. The second time I got sacked, I sobbed as my awkward, male boss tried to explain I couldn’t sit and chat to friends every time they came into the café where I worked. I quickly got over my dismissal and met a friend there for lunch the following week, much to my former boss’s dismay.
The third time I got sacked, my parents started to notice a pattern and had a stern word with me. But what are weekend jobs for when you’re a teenager, if not to learn how NOT to act in the working world? I’m not proud that I was ‘let go’ from every café and call centre in Leeds, but I’m relieved it happened before I had found an industry I loved and a career I cared about; at an age where the biggest consequence was not being able to afford a festival ticket, rather than have my house repossessed.
I’m not proud that I was ‘let go’ from every café and call centre in Leeds, but I’m relieved it happened before I had found an industry I loved
And yet, according to a report by the think tank Resolution Foundation, employment of 16 - 17-year-olds has almost halved over the past 20 years. Many are calling it the death of the Saturday job. The research suggests young people are prioritising their studies instead. Studies! What has become of this generation? Having a weekend job always used to be a rite of passage; even Brooklyn Beckham worked in a coffee shop and Harry Styles in a bakery when they were younger. Better still, Beyoncé swept hairs from the floor of her mother's hair salon.
As for me, I cleared tables, loaded dishwashers, took bins out and sold something for British Gas in a call centre - I’m still not entirely sure what it was I was meant to be selling. It was invaluable life experience, or at the very least it was character building. There were days where it felt like the clock was ticking backwards I was so bored. On the other hand, there were moments when I couldn’t believe the £50 that dropped into my bank account was down to my own hard graft. I graduated into the working world ready to handle its pressures and disappointments. It taught me about work ethic, punctuality and opened my eyes to a space where you couldn’t just do what you wanted.
These days, we’re often quick to point the finger at young people and call them lazy or entitled snowflakes. But it's not necessarily their fault that the Saturday job is dying out. The decline of the high street means there are fewer shops to stack shelves in – and get sacked from – these days. Many have swapped paid work for internships because today’s employers expect a decade of experience for entry-level positions. The laws around teens working have also been tightened up.
And even if they are at home sprawled across a sofa binging on Netflix, maybe they deserve to rest now seeing as they'll be working until the age of 105. But if the Saturday job becomes completely extinct, it’s certainly something to be mourned – even if it’s just for the anecdotes about how you were so hungover you couldn’t see the customer you were serving. I dread to think about how I would have fared later on if I hadn’t started out with that vital work experience.
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