By Alex Irizarry
Staff Writer

Picture this: You are pulling into a Starbucks before work, getting your daily kick start before a long day of taking calls and sitting through meetings. Before you is a line halfway through the door, full of angry customers, while one barista rushes to take orders and one stands in the corner eyes locked on their screen.

Wait, what?

Yes, shocking as it may seem, teens take their jobs just about as serious as they do most things in their lives – as in not serious at all. The laid back, smart mouth behavior that is exhibited by teens all across the nation is a poor idea of how students should act at work, or anywhere for that matter. How you act in class, with your friends or even at home should greatly differ.

From the get-go, a teen never thinks of a job as anything more than a chore, something they will do on the side to get a little extra spending money for their next trip to the mall. Not many take it seriously and fewer still see it as a true job.

For some individuals, it seems like their job is just another social meeting place for them. Just somewhere you are stuck because you need the money, or your parents forced you to get a job. But the honest truth is that there is more at stake than your personal wants and needs, like it or not your employer hired you to do a job, not to sit back and text your friends to avoid work.

If not for your own sake, think of your employer. They have to deal with most likely more than one teen, some of them acting out just as much as you are. At least show them the respect they deserve and do the job you are payed to do, no one is forcing you to get a job so don’t treat it like an imposition.

It has to be made clear to teens that they will be held to the same standard as adult workers, that is also how they should be treated. No special treatment should be given or any extra chances because they will never learn to fend for themselves if they are fed what they must do over and over again without repercussions.

So, teens, getting your first job or a job in general is always a big deal. It should not be taken lightly and employers deserve your commitment and respect. No free handouts should be expected, and it is going to be hard work. Because before you can go on to what comes after high school, you have to learn these simple things to be successful wherever you wind up.

There comes a point where it is no longer acceptable to act like a child. Or to depend on others to just cart you through life. If you want something in life you have to work for it, and sometimes it will be hard, but it is necessary, for teens especially, to learn this now rather than later.