A Strong Work-School Balance Can Help Some Students With Time Management

One in four high school students over the age of 16 has a job, according to the US Census. While the US Census may be able to determine the amount of students who work, in-depth interviews with faculty and students revealed that the effect working has on a student depends on the particular student.

“Having a part-time job in high school is challenging,” Ms. Alexandria Taylor, dean of students, says. She claims it can be a stressor to students who do not have good time-management skills and to those who lack work ethic.

While junior Taylor Huff does believe this can play as a disadvantage, she also thinks that it “totally depends.” Some students may be able to handle the time commitment working requires, and some may not; it is wrong to believe every student will handle having a job in the same way.

Ms. Jessica Walters, school social worker, agrees with Taylor when she says, “If you have great time management skills it can be great, but if you don’t, I think it can definitely add to a level of anxiety.” This can be proven in an essay written by the BYU employment services, a service dedicated to qualified students’ employment. The essay states that 74% of student workers say that employment has forced them to become more efficient, but 64% reported that employment also increased their level of stress.

Senior Brittany Lantz has dealt with the stress and anxiety of  having a job for her entire high school career. For the first three years of high school, Lantz worked from 2:30-5:30 p.m. at her family-run daycare Monday through Friday. She says she lost a lot of sleep because there are academic deadlines she has to meet, “and sometimes [I] can’t meet those deadlines because [I] work all day.”

This year, Lantz only works four days a week, and that has made all the difference. Lantz states, “This year, my GPA has really stayed up because I have gotten a day off and I’m able to do my homework in that day that I have off.”

The BYU employment services essay supports Lantz’s statement because it claims that students who work 15-20 hours a week have better grades/GPAs than students who do not work at all, or those who work 20 plus hours like Lantz did before. The high schoolers who maintain a job on top of their school work are forced to mature faster and learn the necessary skills having a job in the future will require. Similarly to Lantz, a good student can become a great one simply by maintaining a job for a certain amount of hours per week.

Junior Taylor Huff feels her job, coaching basketball for the AAU program Flow’s team, has caused her to “have extremely good time management, because if I don’t than I won’t get my work done for school.” Huff believes maintaining a job has forced her to mature tremendously, along with improving her time management skills.

Although students who work 15-20 hours a week prove to have better grades, overworking has the potential of being a huge disadvantage. The BYU employment services research states that working more than 20 hours a week has a negative impact on students’ grades.

Working this many hours may also increase a student’s chances of dropping out. Ms. Alicia Washburn, German teacher, worked at McDonalds when she was in high school, so she understands the effects working long and late hours can have on a student.

Ms. Washburn’s experience taught her that, “anything that is going to take up a student’s time can have a negative effect on the grade because they don’t have enough time to study and they are tired and don’t get enough rest.” But with hard work, dedication, and reasonable hours, she believes any student can do it.

Through faculty and student interviews, it is evident that the effects working has on a student’s GPA comes down to the student themselves. As long as a student works a reasonable amount of hours and utilizes their time responsibly, having a job can prove to be extremely beneficial.