Job hunting is making our sixteen year old sick to her stomach.  “I’m soooooooo nervous,” she said, clutching her waist. “They aren’t going to like me.  They’re going to think I’m stupid.  I don’t look cool in this weird shirt. It covers everything!”

I was driving Kelsey to her first job interview at a local Subway. Ever since we moved, she has been toying with the idea of getting a job instead of taking up another sport.  She’s picked up some applications.  Filled them out half way.  Talked a lot about how impossibly hard it is to get a job.  Even though this is the first application she actually turned in.

Poor kid. Must be tough to be the firstborn child of people who actually believe in the power of work.   Not everyone does these days.  Colleges look for extracurricular activities, but  they don’t have a special box to check if kids have done their time at  Hardees or Taco Bell.  Some of the parents I know think a teen’s job isn’t worth having unless it is in their particular “field.” 

I’m not that way. I think we should require all kids to work food service or retail before they graduate from high school.  I think we would raise a better class of worker, a better class of human being if more kids spent a few hours on their feet.  There is just so much to learn at work that can’t be put off until you do your time in the military.

As I sat in that parking lot, I scribbled down a few things I want my daughter to learn about this job. Add to my list if you like:

1. Time flies.
When I worked at Burger King in 1983, one of the first things I learned was how long it took to avoid work.  If we were goofing off, the clock clicked slower and slower.  If we were trying to plow through an enormous stack of trays that had to be washed, the hours flew by.  When it comes to work, busy is good.

2. Do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.
It was hard to learn that I wasn’t being paid to standing around making friends.  I was hired to accomplish a certain amount of actual work.  If I didn’t do the work, someone else had to take up my slack.  No one likes a slacker—especially at work.

3. Bosses have favorites.
Some bosses in all companies have favorites  who get what they want merely by sucking up. I don’t worry too much about that.  But I do want my kid to see that bosses also divide people up according to performance.   The ones who see what needs to be done and do it are more valuable than the ones that have to be prodded every step of the way.

4. Take hours when you can get hours.
I used to complain a lot about the hours I got.  Then again, I was the kind of person who rarely showed up on time and often called in “sick”.  I did that right up until I noticed that the people with the most hours at the best times weren’t the fun ones or the smart ones but the reliable ones.  Can’t beat that.

5. Work with other kinds of people.
I used to work with this 26 year old guy who was really smart. His wife and baby would come in sometimes on his break. Big difference between working at fast food for gas money and working at fast food for rent and formula and the electric bill and pizza and penicillin.

6.Common courtesy
Clean up after someone else’s toddler. Watch nine people walk in the door at two minutes until closing.  Let a whole day pass without having one person look you in the eye.  Mop a bathroom on a Saturday night. Do this as a teenager for a while and maybe you’ll turn into the kind of adult who tips better, refrains from talking on the cell phone at the drive through, says please and  thank you…

Kelsey was in the store a long time. “I start on Tuesday!” she said before the door opened.  “I need black pants and some comfortable shoes,”  She went on and on  about the interview. I listened happily and tucked my list away. After all, some things have to be learned on the job.