A growing consensus among the youth is the drive to start working. For one reason or another more and more 15-17 year olds are scrambling to join the workforce. However working affects your life when you’re young, and has a substantial impact on your life when you start.

Betsy Ayon-Magallanes is a manager at Michael’s, and has been for 13 years, and she has seen her share of teenagers and how they react when they’re put in the field. She’s stuck with the idea that it’s good for the youth to work, but has some other thoughts to go with that.

When asked on the work ethic of my generation Betsy said she is very split. “There’s a growing disconnect between kids and home and they usually react in two ways,” Ayon-Magallanes says, “They either carry more weight than some my age or they crash and burn because they have no sense of self discipline.”

While she was concerned with the group of kids who don’t show up for shifts and call out 10 minutes beforehand, she does like giving kids the opportunity to experience jobs early and shared what she looks for in a potential hire: Eye contact, flexibility, positive attitude, and communication.

There are a lot of kids now working for a serious goal on growth, and Olivia Fehrman is one of them. She started at JC Penny’s at 16 to pay for her own braces. Working has been a positive experience all around for her.

“It brought me out of my shell” Fehrman said. As for the social time she lost at work, it was made up for in the friendships she has made with her coworkers.

I then asked her what she thought about Ayon-Magallanes and her thoughts on the divide. Fehrman agreed that there was a split in our generation and that there was a connection between how we mature and where we come from.

However both agrees that at the end of the day work needs to be a learning experience. Ayon-Magallanes says “kids need accountability. They need to be held responsible”.

Kids are getting jobs for many reasons; money, wanting to grow up quicker, family, etc. Though kids need to remember it is a job, and they have a responsibility with that.