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Overwhelmed with work

Ninetales

Ninetales

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  • Age 23
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  • Seen Apr 15, 2024
Recently I took it upon myself to find a second job. However, I feel as if work is beginning to consume my life in a way that it shouldn't. For background information, I am a high school student in grade 12 and for the last while I've been working 5 times a week. Initially, I had no issue with it and I was glad to work. Last week was absolutely insane, I worked Black Friday and the majority of the week. This week I was hoping to work perhaps a bit less, considering that we wouldn't be as busy. However, I work another 5 days. At this point I'm honestly feeling burnt out. I don't have a lot of time to spend on schoolwork anymore, which has led to an increase of stress. (Typically, I consider myself to be relatively nonchalant and it is very rare for me to be overcome with excessive stress.) I've also been asked repeatedly to cover shifts a minimum of twice a week, I understand that it is the Christmas season and naturally the retail industry is going to be busy. However, it still is becoming a bit much and it is negatively impacting my social and school life.

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I plan on discussing with my manager at my new place of employment to see if I can possibly alter my availability and altogether reduce the amount of shifts that I am provided with on a weekly basis. If we are unable to make some sort of compromise, I will give my two weeks notice and will announce my formal resignation. My mom was been urging me to quit and she has continually reminded me that school trumps working and that my education should be my number one priority, above all else. My grades are excellent right now but I want to maintain them and ensure that I will be able to get into university.

Is there any advice that anyone can offer me? What would you do if you were in my situation? Also, has anyone felt overworked before?
 
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noa

noa

sleeping cutie
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When I read the title, I was initially going to give you advice assuming you weren't a student. After reading your post, I'm with your mom here. You are in a position where you don't /need/ to work, and I suggest you take advantage of that. Focus on your studies, and once you've graduated you can think about working again. Honestly, if you're a student (ESPECIALLY a high school student) you should be working AT MOST two days a week. That's just my motherly advice though, take it as you want.
 
Meganium

Meganium

[i]memento mori[/i]
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I shall echo Noa. You are basically putting your senior year in jeopardy. I understand you are earning extra money for yourself (especially for college/university), but you can't spend your whole senior year working your butt off. You'll get exhausted, and your grades WILL slip. Think very hard on what your priorities are.

I don't know how labor laws work over where you live, but you can only work up to a certain number of hours/days a week (iirc Texas is 15 hours). That's outrageous that they made you work 5 days a week. I know it was Black Friday and all but...still!!

I would give them two weeks, and use this time to get your studies together and graduate on time. You don't want to fail/go to summer school, do you?

Plus, once you get into college, you'll be able to make your own schedule, and employers can work around your schedule. They are open and negotiable.
 
baire

baire

many such cases
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disclaimer: I didn't have a job in highschool and haven't been terribly concerned with finances so far, take my opinion with a large grain of salt. also I know hardly anything about anything so...

that said, I agree with your mom and everyone else here, if you are looking to be financially stable in the long run I think you'd be better off focusing on your studies. largely because a lot of what you learn in highschool is still pretty relevant in uni, especially in first year, and having a solid background means less time studying and more spare time that you can use to network, hunt for internships, build your resume, work on side projects (if do something CS related) etc.

generally a degree on its own isn't enough to get a decent job right out of school and IMO jeopordizing the chances of landing one by really screwing over your mental health and possibly academics just to get a couple more hours into a job like retail that doesn't provide any relevant/valuable experience and that doesn't pay too well isn't worth it. that said I have no idea what courses you're taking, what universities you are looking into and what your career plans are so literally everything I've said might be completely wrong

in the absolute worse case scenario, if your grades plummet, you can always abuse the broken application/POSt system at UofT by applying out of stream to get in with mediocre/awful grades then try to work your way back up from there, there are a surprisingly good number of opportunities available in Toronto. I wouldn't recommend this though
 
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Ninetales

Ninetales

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  • Seen Apr 15, 2024
I decided to formally quit my second job. Honestly, I'm already feeling so relieved to have time back to focus on my schoolwork and friends. I want to sincerely thank everyone who offered me advice, because you were all right. Trust me, I took everything into consideration and it was nice to have unbiased opinions.

My last shift will be Friday and it is quite bittersweet but I know in the long-term that this decision is absolutely worth it. I have my whole life to work and having two separate jobs at this point in my life is just unnecessary.
 
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noa

noa

sleeping cutie
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MysticalNinetales said:
I decided to formally quit my second job. Honestly, I'm already feeling so relieved to have time back to focus on my schoolwork and friends. I want to sincerely thank everyone who offered me advice, because you were all right. Trust me, I took everything into consideration and it was nice to have unbiased opinions.

My last shift will be Friday and it is quite bittersweet but I know in the long-term that this decision is absolutely worth it. I have my whole life to work and having two separate jobs at this point in my life is just unnecessary.
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Oh, i'm very happy for you! I can feel your relief just reading this post. I wish you luck in your future endeavors. ^_^
 
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