My Work | Teen Ink

My Work

April 25, 2018
By Anonymous

Even when she thanked me, I was the closest I’ve ever been to hurting someone. Some people do not understand that all people, no matter what age, deserve the mutual respect from others. Like most seniors in high school, I have a minimum wage job. For the most part, I work four days a week, each of those days five hour shifts at the ice cream place. For the most part, my job is fun. My coworkers are my friends, and my boss is someone who could be my grandma. Scooping ice cream is harder than it may seem, but what is even worse is scooping out the drama that comes along with my job. Through this job, I’ve learned the importance of hard work and responsibility, yet I’m still not treated with the respect I believed everyone treated others with. One afternoon a woman approached the ice cream stand and demanded a mint chocolate chip shake. I kindly explained that we only serve soft serve chocolate or vanilla shakes. This woman insisted that she had, “definitely had a mint chocolate chip shake from this ice cream shop before,” and that, “it couldn’t be that hard to scoop some of that flavor and blend that flavor up.” With no consideration for the rules I had been given to follow by my boss, she continued to demand a mint chocolate chip shake with a smug look on her face. She then proceeded to say, “Give me your boss’s number. I will be calling her tomorrow to tell her about this.” Now, since these rules have been given to me by my boss, I then said, “Well ma’am, my boss will tell you the same exact thing I just told you, so go right ahead.” My response bought me a little time of peace and quiet until she continued again. Annoyed with her superior attitude, I said, “I’ll make you the shake, but please know we don’t normally do this, so don’t ask for it ever again.” I scooped the ice cream, put the ice cream through the blender, added whipped cream on top, and handed the shake to this woman with zero facial expression. She thanked me for being so kind, but I couldn’t help but still want to punch her. This whole exchange may seem miniscule regarding other problems in the world, but this woman is just one of many. I was raised to treat everyone with the respect that I want to be treated with. I thought this is how everyone was raised. Working at this place made me realize my illusion was just that, an illusion. Even though I treat every customer the way any other person would, I am still looked down upon. I’ve come to the conclusion that high schoolers in the workforce are not treated the same as “adults.”



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