Working Her Way To a Job

The ordeal of the summer had been obtaining a job.  She managed to find a really good job in a bakery opening in town, and with her bubbling personality, the job seemed a natural fit.  It would have been a good fit, but the bakery was not as organized getting opened as planned.  Or lack of planning, as it turns out, when they did get open....


Molly found herself in an ethical dilemma.  She had been clear when hired that she was a college student, and needed to have a job to help defray her expenses.  Making the decision to stay at home this first year was a good decision for all the right reasons.  She saved lots of money, she was here while her dad was going through his medical ordeal, and she got to be here as an adult, since she was out of high school.  It's been win/win to have her home this semester, but it was frustrating knowing how hard she was trying to get some hours to work.


The bakery had had several false starts in getting fully open.  Part of it was beyond their control when important equipment, such as their fountain, did not arrive as expected.  But part of it was that it was a family business, and when nit got down to grit, non family members were shorted on hours.  Translation: college students such as Molly got few hours, if any.


Her dilemma has been in trying to maintain her loyalty to a job that was only providing frustration, and not a paycheck.  In reality, if the bakery had opened as planned, community support would have been there to keep things flowing.  That didn't happen, and customers who did come in were frequently disappointed to find they couldn't get what they had come in for.   So week after week Molly went in checking for hours, and talking to them about keeping her on the schedule.


Since she's now in adultville, and no longer living in kiddeeland, I have to try to steer the conversation to her choices and preferences, because she needs to make her own decisions.  I think it's fine that we can provide feedback, or give some insight into different situations, but ultimately she has to make her own decisions and live with the consequences.


She made the decision to apply elsewhere, which is the recommendation I would have given her.  It's just unfortunate that she wasted so many months of work time waiting for her employers to get their collective acts together so she could work where she had been given a job.  On the plus side for her, she's applying at a chain which has a restaurant in the town where she will transfer next year.  If she gets the job, and does a good job, she'll have the opportunity to transfer and work there as well.  


Her first semester of college is almost over, and working more might not have allowed her to do as well as she is doing.  She's acknowledged that she feels she has a better understanding of what she's in for when she does move away to college.  I like knowing she feels better prepared, and knowing she's right.  But it won't be the same when she does eventually leave.  Especially now that she's lived with us on an adult level.  Her plan is to work more next semester and get prepared to moved.  I think she's on the right track.