> Midpeninsula residents can post odd jobs for teenagers such as gardening, washing cars...

When was the last time you saw a local teen doing any of the above or even cutting a lawn?

> Kids today don't have the time for a traditional job the way she did when growing up because of school pressure,

'Pressure' = maintaining adequate time for texting/tweeting & hanging out at the mall. Those priorities take prescedence over 'school pressure'.

A kid down the street gets a $400/month allowance (for doing nothing) and when I ran a similar concept by him, he replied that that would only work for $45+/hour if at all. He said that anything near CA minimum wage is for peons.

@Kids Today Are LAZY
LMFTFY: many affluent Kids Today Are LAZY


The young lass who ground my beans at a coffee shop this morning (not in PA) is working plenty hard for low wages. We yakked; she's a high school senior...

me: oh, how exciting. Any plans for next year?

her: well, going away for my first year.

me: well there ya go, even more exciting. Where to?

her: MIT


Assigning generational values based on anecdotal stories in CP is folly.

"Assigning generational values based on anecdotal stories in CP is folly."

The coffee gal obviously & probably does not reside in Palo Alto or Crescent Park for that matter.

Palo Alto = the land of privileged spoiled brats.

@Kids today are lazy,

Of course it depends on the kids and the families but my observation of the kids in town is that they work very hard. Times have changed, there aren't newspaper routes and communication channels are obviously different and they aren't hanging out in the neighborhood all day. Many are in sports, theater, music, or other activities (see recent article on garage robotics teams) which develop a work ethic not different from any other job. Others volunteer, are politically active.

I'm glad this app is available and hope to use it for some computer stuff, as I have some things that I'm sure kids are much better at than I am.

Before people run off and say that today's kids are lazy, they should remember that most of the jobs that I and others had when we were teenagers are now given to adult employees and many companies wouldn't even think/dare to employee teenagers as:

meat cutter at supermarkests, welder/pipe fitter at HVAC company, mowing lawns, driving a tractor at a nursery, operate a trash compacter, deliver newspapers, clerk at hardware store, haul lumber at construction site.

If companies did employee teenagers there would be other adults that scream that the teenagers were being taken advantage off/abused and would call for an investigation and criminal penalties.

/marc

>> Before people run off and say that today's kids are lazy, they should remember that most of the jobs that I and others had when we were teenagers are now given to adult employees...

In which case there should be entitlement programs for teenagers who now displaced from the labor market by adult workers.

If adults can collect welfare & unemployment, why shouldn't teenagers who after showing they made an honest effort to seek work, cannot be placed accordingly?

Either that or adult parents based on their income level should be required by law to remunerate their teen-aged children with a mandatory stipend of say, $100.00 per month.

For those parents who cannot afford this allowance, the state should have a mandatory social services program that pays maybe $35.00 per month with a required job seek program.

This will reduce or alleviate teenage shoplifting, drug dealing and all of the things adults do when they are short on cash.

I know a couple of people who are recruiters or HR for tech companies.

One thing hirers take into consideration is previous experience. If a college grad has no work experience, then it has hard to what their work ethics may be at a job level (as opposed to academic level). They take into account those who list on their resume after school jobs, weekend jobs and vacation jobs. They take note that these prospective employees have kept a job for a while, have been diligent with time keeping and work place rules, they have turned up dressed appropriately and are able to do their job without too much oversight.

Community service programs and after school activities may get them into college, but quite often those are of little interest to future employers who really want to know about work ethic and work experience.

I think this sounds like a great app for teens and wish all teens well who earn money and more importantly work skills to stand by them for future employment.

Whether it is washing cars or mowing lawns, or scooping ice cream or checking movie tickets, work experience is a good preparation for future employment.

>...he replied that that would only work for $45+/hour if at all. He said that anything near CA minimum wage is for peons.

Minimum wage is an exploitation of people & labor.

> Whether it is washing cars or mowing lawns, or scooping ice cream or checking movie tickets, work experience is a good preparation for future employment.

Can you make $45/hour for the above jobs? If so, I have no problem with them.

On the other hand, if the purpose of going to college is to get a good job shouldn't these menial jobs be reserved for those who don't go or won't be going to college?

A guy down the street moved back home after graduating from Brown & now works as a barrista at an upscale coffee shop for minimum wage + tips. His parents are very disappointed and said he could have gone to Foothill to do that kind of work.

I've already got it figured out. I'm going to college but during the summers I'll be working in the union construction trades once I turn 18. Some of those experienced guys make far more money than college graduates...like way more.

And you get to drink beer at the end of the day with your co-workers!

To: Justin/15

You are correct in that if you want a high paying job you don't need a 4 year college degree. Welding, plumbing, electrical work, NC machine tools will all get you high paying jobs that are indoors and don't talk physical toll on your body that roofing, home construction, etc will do.

Specialize in technical welding, medical/technical instrument plumbing and commercial electrical work are all in short supply, 2 - 4 year apprentice programs will get you a job and you get paid while you are doing it.

/marc

>...many affluent Kids Today Are LAZY

So what else is new?

The upper-middle class often enables while the extreme lower classes frequently turn to crime.

It's the upper lower to lower middle class kids that actually work these days.