• @[email protected]
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    31210 months ago

    This is Culver’s. They’re a burger fast food joint located throughout the Midwest and have things called “Scoopy Night” where a percentage of the proceeds go toward a specific cause. Schools, dance groups, etc can partake and the kids who attend that school/dance group/etc help take orders and deliver food to tables. Not quite as dystopian as OP has made it seem.

    • @[email protected]
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      9910 months ago

      Honestly… the idea that they do this work, and the money goes to a school instead of them, makes it even worse to me?

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        It’s a fundraiser likely for an after school program. It typically pays out a lot better than a car wash or brat fry. Typically the students run orders out to cars.

        And yeah, we probably should put more funding into schools for stuff like this instead of asking kids to fundraise.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          Our schools do a “spirit night” fundraiser at a business once a month. The business donates a portion of the sales to the school during a specific time frame. Child labor is not involved.

      • @[email protected]
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        2610 months ago

        Yea it makes it worse tbh. We won’t fund fun things at the schools so instead we make them work fast food to earn that funding.

        It is indeed even more dystopian when you put it like that. It’s got the same energy as people giving their coworker PTO so they can deliver a baby or whatever.

    • @[email protected]
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      3910 months ago

      Are the kids required to work in order to get the money? Because that sounds like a job with good PR.

      • ObliviousEnlightenment
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        2510 months ago

        My thoughts exactly. If it’s optional, cool, the kids get some experience and maybe takehome money. If it’s required, fuck that shit.

        • Mario_Dies.wav
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          910 months ago

          This is what it is, and it’s sad that it’s so normalized that people are defending it.

          Everyone knows the kids aren’t technically required, but they’re “required” by social pressure.

          I remember having to go door to door selling things when I was a kid. It may have been voluntary in a technical sense, but I was pretty well mandated to do so if I wanted to be part of that group with my friends. And there was even more pressure from my mom and dad because they didn’t want to be the family whose kid didn’t do the thing.

          I think it’s time we start taking a long hard look at some of these things like fundraisers and de facto coerced employment of youth (without pay) and ask ourselves if a healthy system would allow this.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        The one near me that does fundraisers doesn’t have any students working. Usually the teachers go to say hi to families that come.

    • @[email protected]
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      3710 months ago

      when we needed to do fundraisers THE PARENTS IN THE PTA DID IT FOR THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.

      We had plenty of ‘kids’ working at fast food and grocery stores but not until 15 minimum. this kid looks like he’s 9. that’s too young to be fucking around near fryers and hot grills.

      • @[email protected]
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        010 months ago

        Next up, they’re going to go scream at the girl scouts on the corner that they’re being exploited

        • @[email protected]
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          010 months ago

          The way this thread is going it sure would seem that way. A little bit of menial work to earn money for an activity is hardly the same as if this kid was on his 9-5 grind just itching for his next smoke break.

    • @[email protected]
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      1910 months ago

      Whoa whoa whoa, how dare you provide context! I want to be rage baited into thinking America Bad!

      • kamen
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        3410 months ago

        Don’t worry, America still Bad.

      • Billegh
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        1510 months ago

        Don’t worry, there’s plenty of legitimate outrage to be had without manufacturing it…

          • @[email protected]
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            210 months ago

            Why pay any attention to manufactured outrage? If there’s actual events to be outraged about, then we should talk about them instead of fictions. If there’s only manufactured events, then it isn’t an issue in the first place.

            This is different from hypotheticals too. A realistic hypothetical holds as much water as an actual event. If there’s a 1% chance of a catastrophic hypothetical, and it happens hundreds of times daily, that’s a big fucking deal.

            To put it another way, if there’s something to be legitimately outraged about, why bother with creating fictitious scenarios?

    • @[email protected]
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      1410 months ago

      No, that’s still idiotic. It doesn’t matter what the context is of why a child is working at a fast food restaurant. There’s a child working at a fast food restaurant. This isn’t selling chocolates to raise money for a class hamster.

      • @[email protected]
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        1310 months ago

        Being intent on remaining outraged is idiotic. Spending a few hours doing a handful of minor tasks at a fast food restaurant for fun is worlds apart from being required to labor for day after day for a pay check.

        • @[email protected]
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          010 months ago

          That’s why we need to have ubi for everyone, even these kids. Then they will just have money to spend on their dance clubs and stuff without having to work for it.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        Selling chocolates is so much worse though. That always creeped me out because it’s either A) kids learning how to hawk wares on the street outside of stores, B) kids learning how to be door-to-door cold call solicitors or C) run a MLM pyramid scheme by convincing their parents to push their product at work.

        Maybe even D) a combination of all of those for the ultimate street hustler training.

        This is just kids “playing house” for a few hours. Most probably love that shit. I would have killed to see what the buttons on the register do and how the fries are made.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        Honestly, I would err on the side of caution anyway. The worst that can happen is minor embarrassment that came from good intentions.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      It’s indicative of a larger effort by republicans to force children back to work, this is part of that dystopia even if it’s on the “light dystopia” side of the spectrum.

      Fuck off whiteknight, keep enabling corporate’s ability to normalize and capitalize off of child labor. This ain’t no goddamn bake sale or car wash.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/04/18/child-labor-returns/

      https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-hyundai/

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html

      Keep downvoting, bootlickers

      • @[email protected]
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        -410 months ago

        Would you want your child working at a fast food restaurant? Doesn’t matter what kind of cutesy name gets attached to child labor.

        • @[email protected]
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          10 months ago

          For a few hours? Sure, why not. They’re not actually useful labor. The store is doing you a favor. Your average 8 year old peeled away from Minecraft and told to do a task is going to fuck up more than they help. I know, because I was that kid and I fucked up a lot. Sometimes in very expensive ways. My only worry would be that they would leave the job thinking every day will be fresh and new like that day, and that people are gracious and polite.

          For a few weeks? Oh hell yes, now we’re talking. Then they’ll see the monotony and how much corporate sucks. Even more, how much customers suck. At that point, the value of learning a skill that keeps you out of the fast food/retail mines will be obvious.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          Depends on the kid. Do they treat workers disrespectfully, or not understand that money shouldn’t be recklessly spent? Absolutely have them work fast food for a night – so long as an adult is there to make sure there’s no safety issues and they’re paid full minimum wage for it, I’m all for it.

          I had a chemistry teacher in high school who maintained that everyone should have to work retail or fast food once, and as I’ve grown older I completely understand what they meant. Some people are naturally not dicks. They don’t look down on workers at Walmart or McDonald’s. For others, it’s a lesson they have to learn. They need to work in that position to understand what it’s like.

          That doesn’t mean we should draft all kindergarteners into the work force. But the occasional experience to show them what a minimum wage job is like? Absolutely. If we want kids to grow up voting for minimum wage increases and universal labor rights, they have to learn these things somehow.

        • @[email protected]
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          -110 months ago

          Yes, of course I would. It’s a great experience. We actually did that back in school, had a week when we all went out to check out different jobs. It was a great thrill and fun for all. Certainly not labor. We got to do grownup things. That was shortly before seventh grade, iirc.

          And then, we’ve had school things where we would bake and cook and sell it right there on campus. Is that labor as well? Oh, and when I was in the boy scouts, we sometimes went door to door raising funds and selling trinkets. Child labor?

          It’s not like we had to do eight-hour days, week for week. A few hours, once in your life. That’s not labor. That’s a fun thing to do.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          I.e. your locally owned mom-and-pop Chinese takeout. I’ve seen the kiddos answer the phones there a couple of times, tho most of the time when picking up food for the wife they’re just playing in a blocked off side area that used to be dining pre-pandemic.

      • @[email protected]
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        3410 months ago

        I think many states allow children as young as 12 to work in specific non-dangerous jobs with permission from the parents. A company recently got in trouble when they had like 20 12-15 year olds working in a meat processing plant which definitely did not qualify for the “not dangerous” qualifier.

      • mommykink
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        -3410 months ago

        Yeah, I agree it’s fucked up but there’s almost no way that kid’s under 14, which is the youngest age Culver’s will hire at, he’s just a late bloomer probably. I think a lot of people would disagree with calling that age group a “literal child.”

        • @[email protected]
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          10 months ago

          A lot of people wouldn’t call a fourteen-year-old a child? Which people? I don’t know of any.

          Assuming the literal meaning of “literal”, a child is, according to the OED, literally:

          a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.

          Can you explain how the pictured human being does not fit the description above?

          • @[email protected]
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            810 months ago

            Can you explain how the pictured human being does not fit the description above?

            R Kelly has entered the chat.

          • UltraMagnus0001
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            110 months ago

            Those people might say, back in my days I fought wars even though we know better.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            Assuming the literal meaning of “literal”, a child is, according to the OED, literally:

            a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.

            I’m not in any way defending child labor in general or Culvers in particular, but factually speaking, a 14-year-old fits between those two definitions (above the age of puberty but below the legal age of majority).

            • @[email protected]
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              110 months ago

              So that’s an inclusive “or” in the definition. If EITHER of those criteria are fulfilled, then the definition can be applied. Since the criterion about the age of majority is true then the definition is true.
              So conversely, a person above the age of majority who hasn’t reached puberty yet (medical condition maybe? Just suspend disbelief for the sake of the argument) is still by definition a child.

          • @[email protected]
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            I have a 14 year old right now and I’d have zero issues with him getting a job. He’s already been eyeing some places. I know this isn’t what you’re exactly saying, but once they hit puberty they’re a bit different than young kids.

            • @[email protected]
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              410 months ago

              Getting a job as an indulgence because they are interested is fine. Getting a job because their parents are not capable of giving them a dignified lifestyle is downright disgusting and such kids should be rescued. Often greedy parents mask the latter as the former because they are scum.

              • phillaholic
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                210 months ago

                Getting a job because their parents are not capable of giving them a dignified lifestyle is downright disgusting and such kids should be rescued

                I just don’t understand this leap to conclusions that every young person is out there working because their parents aren’t feeding or clothing them. I grew up with rich friends, middle class friends, and poor friends. Random assortments of all three groups grew up working. The vast majority of the time it to earn money for themselves to buy luxuries. One friend was working to support their family due to a parental situation. There’s no way putting that person in the foster care system would have been better. They Graduated with decent grades too.

                • mommykink
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                  -110 months ago

                  Don’t get too worked up over it. The average Stay-At-Home-Lemmy is completely unable to understand the concept that not everyone’s mom and dad will buy them an Xbox and that sometimes teenagers will get jobs to pay for things they want.

            • @[email protected]
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              10 months ago

              I respect that, but your 14 year old is probably quite unusual in that respect. To his credit, of course! Some kids mature faster, and in different areas at different rates. I have a 13 year old and a 16 year old and neither of them would be capable of paid work in my opinion. I love them from the bottom of my heart but they would crumble after a shift at BK

              • @[email protected]
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                10 months ago

                I got my first job in ‘95 when I was 13. This was in a Toronto suburb at a computer shop and it was awesome although only got $5 an hour and had to stay in the back mostly shrink-wrapping a million cd cases. There was a cute 16 year old older girl at the register that I still remember lol.

                Didn’t love wearing a large Windows ‘95 box costume and standing at the corner like a hooker though.

                • @[email protected]
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                  10 months ago

                  Jeeziz. We’re about the same age and I was unable to even make a sandwich at that age I think. Mind you, I bet 13 year old you was ecstatic about that 5 dollars an hour in 1995. I hope you’ve got a picture of yourself in that box for the laughs.

                  My first job was call centre work at 16. I answered an advert in the local paper. Trying to use a script to swindle old ladies out of their pension for a commission, it was horrifying. I remember thinking “is this what adults do for a living? Cheat each other??” Looking back, I wasn’t that far off in a lot of cases I think.

              • @[email protected]
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                -510 months ago

                I was laying lines blueberry raking at 14, and doing dishes in a restaurant at 16. I wanted money and it certainly taught me how difficult manual labor is without putting me in any real danger. The worst I got was bread cuts. I’d 100% put my daughter in the same situation when she’s older.

          • mommykink
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            -1510 months ago

            From my reply to the other comment:

            Fourteen

            I don’t think most people would disagree that “teenager” is a more accurate word to describe that age. Trust me, there is plenty fucked up with the OP picture, we don’t need to resort to hyperbolic language to get our point across.

            • @[email protected]
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              1310 months ago

              It is blatantly the opposite of accurate. When teenager describes both a thirteen year old who hasn’t hit puberty and a nineteen year old who could fight and die for their country, it’s obviously not an accurate enough term

          • mommykink
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            -1910 months ago

            Fourteen.

            I don’t think most people would disagree that “teenager” is a more accurate word to describe that age. Trust me, there is plenty fucked up with the OP picture, we don’t need to resort to hyperbolic language to get our point across.

            • @[email protected]
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              10 months ago

              Its not hyperbolic, 14 is a teenage child. Teenager is not more accurate, because when you say a ‘teenage worker’ most would assume they were at least in the usually accepted ‘young adult’ range, 16-19, the image here is of a child worker. If they were 17 or 16 that might be different, though still literally, legally a child.

        • fmstrat
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          -810 months ago

          You’re getting a lot of down votes, but you’re spot on. I started working fast food at 14, and I looked like I was 9.

          • SonnyVabitch
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            110 months ago

            And you should have been given pocket money and sent to the playground.

            • fmstrat
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              110 months ago

              I enjoyed it. The work was easy and it gave me a sense of purpose and I needed that. It taught me the value of my time, and enabled me to get a car when I turned 16. Some people grow up fast, simply because they have to, or sometimes because they just, do. One size does not fit all.

  • @[email protected]
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    15910 months ago

    They do this often at the Culver’s near me. It’s a fundraiser for school / extracurricular activities. The group works for a few hours and Culver’s donates the receipts for that time.

    It’s better than having them go door to door selling wreaths and shit.

      • @[email protected]
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        1110 months ago

        Most School systems are financially gutted to the bone. It’s dark but most red counties school districts are near bankruptcy and blue areas are slightly better off. So expect more of this as public schools try to keep the doors open.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          When looking at homes in the more rural areas I noticed that the schools basically shoved all the kids from a good bit around different towns and areas into one. I’d guess to consolidate as much funds as possible in an effective manner, rather than having to pay for more infrastructure that was really needed.

          While I would have liked the slower pace….all I could afford out that way were 100 year old farmhouses with very questionable bones. One you could literally walk the dip between the kitchen and living room. Another had electric, propane and fireplaces for the heating in different areas of the home. Had to tell my wife to stop looking at those.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        I remember having school assemblies in middle school with some third party fundraising company trying to get us to sell…I don’t even remember what as a fundraiser for the entire school. At the time it felt weird and as an adult looking back I find it far more concerning that that’s how they made up the budget shortfalls instead of raising property taxes by fraction of a percent

      • memfree
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        -710 months ago

        They got mad at her when an item was missing out of a 4-bag $80 order (they unbagged and checked everything there on the counter).

        That one seems valid. That person got burned before with the staff not bothering to do their job and were NOT going to short their friend whatever item(s) the staff kept for themselves. Sure, you can say the counter girl didn’t do the bagging, but she’s the one that the customer is supposed to tell, and it is hard not to be angry when you’ve paid for stuff and you’re getting shorted – AND there’s almost surely another person relying on you to get it right this time. It shouldn’t take so much effort to just get the stuff you paid for.

        • @[email protected]
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          1110 months ago

          But you can nicely check your items and say “ope looks like one of the fries got missed” and not make a big stink about it

          • memfree
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            -210 months ago

            That’s true, but I don’t know how much of a stink was made. If someone is unbagging everything at the counter, they’ve probably been burned before, so I can see some reason to take a harsh tone – enough to show they’re tired of the BS. If, instead, they started throwing things and screaming obscenities, yeah, that’d be an overreaction.

          • @[email protected]
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            110 months ago

            Meanwhile on the other side of the coin, people have literally been shot and killed for having an extra item in their bag that they didn’t pay for.

          • memfree
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            -410 months ago

            … but they WEREN’T doing their job. I’ve been a counter cashier at a burger joint. Most of the job was getting the order correct and taking in money properly, but I also has to to things like add extra relish packets and see that I was giving them the correct food. That’s the job. You give the customer what they ordered. That is the EASY part. The hard part is dealing with the people trying to scam you with bill-switching/wrong-change schemes (though I suspect those are less common as fewer people use cash now).

  • @[email protected]
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    12010 months ago

    This kid is way too young to be taking verbal abuse from customers. I remember being 19-but-looked-15 and grown-ass adult customers calling me stupid and useless, and generally speaking to and looking at me like I was a piece of dung stuck to the bottom of their shoe. People who thought I was a literal child behaved this way. Not to mention all the perverts. Kids shouldn’t be working customer service, not in a world where adults have such disgusting behavior.

    • @[email protected]
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      2010 months ago

      I’m sorry that this all happened to you. I know this happened in the past, but you deserve a little hug. I hope things are better for you on a day to day basis. ♥

      • @[email protected]
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        1110 months ago

        Thanks, that’s sweet of you. <3 Things are much better for me now that I’m out of that line of work, so I do my best to stand up to trashy customers on behalf of the people who can’t.

    • THCDenton
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      510 months ago

      Fuckin same. Honestly no age is old enough to take shit working at fuckin Office Depot.

  • cheee
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    11510 months ago

    Nah, you got the wrong end of the stick, this is an uplifting story - it’s a kid working hard to provide for his mum’s cancer treatment that in any other developed nation would be covered by taxes. Uplifting. Right? So Uplifting. He doesn’t need to be with his mum in her time of need, he should be suckin that capitalist dick.

  • @[email protected]
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    4410 months ago

    When I was 13 I was ‘encouraged’ by my family to get a job. I had no interest. They pulled some strings and I began illegally working (14 was the legal age) for a small family diner. At this time I just wanted to fiddle on my tech as I was very nerdy, but my family didn’t want me to “stay in my room all the time,” so pointless labour it was.

    I did appreciate the liberation I gained from my family, even if I didn’t have the knowledge of what to do with it; How to expand upon it. Probably for the best imo. I spent my whole first paycheck on some games that me and my homies would play in the garage and made great memories. If there was a life lesson to be learned during this whole experience, I never understood it at the time. Eventually I was let go from work since no-one taught me how to perform my job duties well enough. That’s life, though!

    By luck, one of my caring high-school teachers managed to slip-in his own curriculum. He taught a class of ~15 students some important financial skills… how mortgages work… how to create and manage savings… credit building… Bunch of important life stuff that I would consider essential knowledge in our society was an optional course I learned through word-of-mouth/happenstance.

    ???

    why

    Meanwhile and my ultimate gripe with this thread and tying this back into a dystopian - I see some people mention they learned valuable life lessons and a bunch of other copium. Witness me and your kin around you. Is the knowledge you gained - the wisdom acquired through action and experience - is it gained through labour? No. I didn’t and others didn’t either. Can it be taught safely without forcing children with a young developing brain into dangerous work environments? Yes. I gained such wisdom later from the safety and comfort of my school. And we rest on the final point with a question:

    How many opportunities in the common layman eye are there for children to receive education on the matter?

    If your experience had 1 or more, I’d love for you to share such experiences here as it’s eye-opening to those who received and did not receive such privilege. I’m certainly interested! :)

    • @[email protected]
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      3410 months ago

      As someone who was pulled out of school at 14 and sent to work rebuilding old houses and breaking my back for $100 a week, education is where it’s at.

      Appalachia is a whole different world (especially 25-30 years ago, the internet is changing it though).

      The dude I worked for was molesting little girls and using the boys to stand up for him in court later to talk about how great he was. Unfortunately (for him that is) he made some mistakes and didn’t get our support, but boy he tried.

      I remember one time he took us to the lake. He said, “I’m psychic, you know. I know things that no one else knows.” I replied, “there’s no such thing. Prove it.” He said, “Ok, when you and Regina sat on the train tracks and you ate her pussy and she sucked your dick. I just seen that in my mind.” He blew my mind in that moment.

      I grew up and realized, Regina put my penis in her mouth because someone was teaching her that shit. I put my mouth on her vagina because she instructed me to do it. She did so because someone taught her this stuff. We were 11 and 9.

      I know that’s disturbing and I’m sorry.

      Kids shouldn’t be handed over to strange adults to work. If I’m not proof of that I don’t know what is.

      • Herbal Gamer
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        510 months ago

        As someone who was pulled out of school at 14 and sent to work rebuilding old houses and breaking my back for $100 a week, education is where it’s at.

        I’m just gonna say if they got me building houses for a day or two each week, I would’ve loved that shit and might’ve stayed in school.

        The rest of the story is beyond me.

    • @[email protected]
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      1810 months ago

      Good reference to a great book. Anyone who hasn’t read it, should. In a similar vein, anyone who hasn’t watched the streaming adaptation with Martin Sheen and David Tennant is in for a very nice surprise!

  • @[email protected]
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    3610 months ago

    Legal working age of 15 1/2 (in my state) plus a kid who looks young for their age - may not be the most appealing situation, bit this probably completely above board.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      No age restrictions if family owned business, that’s a federal law no state can bypass, but I doubt the owner of Culver’s needs their kids to work to support the family.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        That’s a federal law aimed at farm families from back in the day. And farm kids are still helping and working along side Grandpa and Dad. And where I live, in the middle of a forest, they also help and work along side in logging families also.

        Growing up on a farm, my earliest memory in life is walking behind a tractor pulling a ‘stoneboat’ and picking up rocks in the fields along side my father and grandfather. I was driving a tractor pulling wagons and hay trailers by 8 years old and by 12 I was driving trucks hauling grain from the field to storage bins and unloading them. Plus getting up a 5AM to help milk cows every morning and again at 5PM. It was absolutely crucial when my Grandfather got sick with “Farmer’s Lung” and couldn’t work much anymore. I pretty much started running his farm at 14.

    • BruceTwarzen
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      310 months ago

      So they should just make the legal working age 12 and the problem is solved

  • @[email protected]
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    3410 months ago

    I was at a tim Hortons in Canada. Had this experience seeing a youngin’ working, except it literally seemed like the whole staff was this age. It was enough kids to prompt us to ask what the working age was in Canada. The young lady informed us it was 13 or so

  • Stoneykins [any]
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    3310 months ago

    “This is a systemic problem. Children should have their needs met without the need for work, and this child working is an obvious symptom of the problem at hand.”

    “Have you ever considered that I, an individual, worked at a mcdonalds at the age of 15? I used the money to buy a video game. Therefore your argument is invalid.”

    This comment section is fuckin weird.

  • @[email protected]
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    2910 months ago

    In pretty much every state you can legally work limited hours at 14. Considering this is a Culver’s, I highly doubt they illegally hired this kid.

    There’s nothing wrong with a part time job at a place like this at 14. I’d argue it’s better than having no work experience at all as a minor.

      • @[email protected]
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        3010 months ago

        Hard to tell from all 16 pixels. I’ve seen some pretty young looking 14 year olds though.

        Additionally, I looked it up and in some states you can work at a family business at 12.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        I work in the Media Center of a High School. Some 9th and even a few 10th graders definitely look like they still belong in middle school, some kids mature late. I’d totally believe that there’s a possibility this person is actually at least 14.

        • @[email protected]
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          910 months ago

          I worked as a waiter at a retirement home at 14, and definitely looked younger at the time, so I think there’s a good chance this is the case.

    • hannes3120
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      2910 months ago

      I’d argue that kids are not fit for the stress put on people in service positions with customer contact. It’s fine if they have a holiday job cutting grass or delivering newspapers or something like that but standing behind a counter taking orders from people that often don’t even acknowledge that you’re human, too? That’s hard enough on adults already - I definitely don’t think it’s the kind of job for kids.

      Also which business is hiring kids to work a couple of weeks during school holidays and then is fine having one less worker again? The time spent on teaching the child what to do and how to handle different situations as well as the paperwork probably takes more time and money than not having the help for a couple of weeks - even less so as you probably have to have another person nearby in case of customers overstepping so I’m not sure this is just some holiday job for the kid to earn pocket money or get job experience

      • @[email protected]
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        110 months ago

        Judging by the comments here, everyone is going to be thrown off sufficiently to watch their behavior.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 months ago

          You’d think so, but people can be downright cruel to those they think are ‘under’ them, and guess what every person working a job that can’t get them fired (so no business-to-business contacts) is to them?

          I remember working in a customer facing role when I was a teen, and occasionally had to tell people the place was closed due to weather. They would accuse me of being everything under the sun and personally on a vendetta to make their lives miserable… and there was nothing I could do about it aside from calling the police if they actually started making threats.

    • Rhaedas
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      1310 months ago

      I’ve always been about kids getting out there early and getting a taste of working, but these days feel different. I wouldn’t want to go back into customer service now and I’ve got experience and age to back be up in dealing with customers.

      I do think that people who cause the disruptive behavior that I’m referring to should be required to serve time doing those jobs, as I think part of their entitlement is ignorance of what’s it’s like behind the counter.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        I mean service jobs are never great, but most of my jobs from 14 through early adulthood were all service and they weren’t that bad.

        You encounter plenty of rude and unpleasant people, but you just get on with it. It’s not traumatic for the vast majority of people. Learning to handle people like that is a good skill to have.

        I totally agree that people would be better to each other if everyone had so service job experience.

        • @[email protected]
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          -110 months ago

          Waiting tables at the tail end of high school and throughout college really boosted my intrapersonal skills. I have no problem interacting with most anyone and can usually pick up on cues that go beyond what the person is saying. I work in engineering at a fortune 500 now it’s really amusing how bad a decent swath of employees are at getting their point across, understanding what someone else is trying to tell them, and reading the room.

          That said, I had a stint in retail. Waiting tables was more stress, but the people were generally quite a bit nicer.

  • @[email protected]
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    2810 months ago

    I saw this on Reddit a while back. This isn’t an actual employee, it’s the kid of a manager who brought them to work for the day (school was closed or something). The dumbass manager thought it would be cute to dress her kid up and put them on the register, but patrons were rightly weirded out. Culver’s corp found out and were pissed - I’m not sure if the manager got fired or not, but this definitely wasn’t something Culver’s was cool with.