Having a job in high school can teach students discipline, time management, commitment and money management. However, it can also come with stress. Students may experience anxiety when balancing the high school workload, social life, extracurricular activities and external stressors, thus, adding work to the mix makes for a difficult adjustment.

In the case of financial instability, some students must work in order to support their family. This can directly affect students’ grades and overall focus on school as they are dedicating their time towards earning money. 

In fact, as stated in the “Bureau of Labor Statistics,” there are 283,000 people unemployed in Florida. Seeing how this rate is so outrageous, there is added pressure on the child to compensate for their parents’ lack of income.

Balancing a job to earn money for the family and staying on top of schoolwork can be a difficult task for many students. Urban Institute found that 563,000 students dropped out of high school to work. 

Delaney Hernandez, sophomore, works at Teapots and Treasures nine hours a week.

“Work adds extra stress because I have less time to do homework,” Hernandez said. 

Students can also struggle with exhaustion from a large workload. “77 percent of respondents say they have experienced employee burnout at their current job” as quoted in Deloitte US. This overwork leads to exhaustion, therefore, not getting as much done in the long run. 

“I have struggled with burnout because of exhaustion due to overdoing it sometimes,” Hernandez said. 

Caleb Elias, sophomore, works at Riko’s Pizza 16 hours a week. With more intense classes, the workload outside of school becomes larger and even more stressful on students. 

“I just try to finish assignments as early as I can so I don’t have homework after,” Elias said. 

Mental health can be just as affected by juggling work and school. Too much work could have negative implications on a student’s mental health.

“My mental health has been affected while managing work because of how tired I get,” Elias said.

As hard as work gets, there are some positive effects. Work can give students life lessons such as the value of a dollar earned. It can teach how hard work is rewarded. Since working young already gives a young person experience with a job, they are more likely to succeed later on in the workforce. 

A study by Drexel University shows that “…work experience in a formal job during high school (from ages 16 to 19) corresponds to a 20 to 25 percent increase in salary for teens almost a decade later.”

“It’s worth it, work teaches you about hard work and discipline,” Elias said.