By Catherine H. Knott, Ph.D.

Chris, 15, is spending her summer babysitting a couple of spoiled preschoolers. She hates it and wishes she could go to camp like her friends. But her single parent cannot afford it, and Chris likes to spend the money she earns on movies and extra clothes and things her mother does not know about.

Tom is 16, working at McDonald's, and is bored out of his mind. But he likes socializing with the other teens at work and their friends who hang out in front. They got him high on pot the first day of work - his first time trying the drug.

Donald is 17 and working in construction. He is learning a useful skill, but he is careful not to repeat at home the raunchy stories and bad language the older men share on the job.

Cecile is 17 and works two jobs, hoping to save money for college. She is working and living at a hotel, her first job besides babysitting. The boss makes all the students he employs work 60 to 80 hours a week, at minimum wage, but pays no overtime. The students know he should pay them more, but like Cecile, most of them won't work there long enough to put up a fight and risk losing their college savings. The two who do complain are fired the next day. Cecile uses her second job, working as a part-time maid for a retired couple, to cover her room and board so she doesn't have to pay the high room expense for the hotel owner's bunkhouse, which would otherwise be taken out of her wages. By the end of summer she is exhausted rather than rested, and is ready for her first semester at college. These are all true stories, although names have been changed.

Those first summer jobs are more important than many parents think. Too often, parents dismiss these efforts as just "something to do" for the summer, bringing in little money, and not using skills more advanced than flipping burgers. But for teenagers, first jobs are eye-opening experiences with the real adult world, often setting the tone for their developing work ethic and future job opportunities. Therefore, it behooves parents to pay close attention to these first experiences, both in helping their teenagers choose appropriate work and in assessing the work environment. It may turn out that the job takes place in a problematic environment or provides little support for addressing problems or conflicts with other employees or supervisors.

In these cases, young workers need support and counsel from home or perhaps help knowing when to quit and look for a different job. Since caring parents hope their teenagers will not have to leave a job prematurely, it is much easier to help on the front end with a proactive assessment of the job opportunity. This essay provides suggestions for helping teenagers choose jobs for the summer, as well as some suggestions for how to support teenagers in the jobs they have chosen once they have begun working.

Choosing Work Opportunities

The first question to discuss with your teen is whether working for wages is best. For your teenager, with dollar signs ringing in his mind, it may be hard to imagine anything more important. But as a parent, it is your responsibility to look ahead into the long-term future for your child. Maybe a summer camp experience would do more to help your son mature, get ready for life's challenges, and renew his energy before a tough year at high school. Perhaps your daughter would do better surviving high school and getting into college if she spent the summer at summer school, or at an academic camp. But if these options are less important, or if your family cannot afford a summer camp and your teenager needs to earn money, having a summer job can provide an excellent life experience, as well as an income.

When looking for a summer job, sit down with your child and search the employment ads, alert your personal networks, and visit promising places of employment together. If your teenager is older and wants to check out places of employment alone, make sure you visit them later yourself. You should look at a wide range of criteria for each job, and assess its suitability for your teenager. The following criteria are important for nearly every job:

1. Is the work environment safe? Watch out for hazardous chemicals (including lawn chemicals and cleaners), dangerous heights (such as in painting and construction), and unhealthy behaviors in adult and teen co-workers, such as drug or alcohol use, or a poor work ethic.
2. What type of job is it? Will it enhance skills that your teenager will need later in life, or is it just wasting his time? How does your teenager feel about that type of work? If he finds it extremely boring or sheer drudgery, the chances that he will acquire poor work habits is much higher.
3. What is the supervisor like? The co-workers? Is your teenager likely to learn good work habits from them? Will she be treated well? Does the supervisor have a sense of fairness and model good problem-solving behavior?
4. Will your teenager be paid appropriately and on time? Will he receive a regular paycheck, or will he have to wait on the supervisor's convenience? Some less scrupulous employers feel they can take advantage of teenagers' lack of experience in the working world to pay them less than they deserve, or make them wait extra weeks or months for their pay.
5. What lessons will your teenager walk away with at the end of the summer? Will she have observed good adult models for her own behavior? Will she have learned more responsibility and what it means to show up for work on time, do her job well, and treat others with kindness and fairness? If any of these are in doubt, you probably want to consider looking for other job opportunities.

Supporting Your Working Teenager

Once your teenager has found a good job and started working, parents must not slack off and assume their work is over. Every day on the job your teenager will encounter some new experience or task. How he handles it is part of his job; making sure he is ready to handle it the best he can is your job.

Beginning with being there at breakfast to make sure your teenager eats well before heading out the door to work, as a parent you must constantly remember that you are still responsible for your child's well-being. Although they are working, teenagers with jobs are still minors and are still under their parents' roofs. How they conduct themselves on the job is often a reflection of their home environment, and also how much support they get at home on a daily basis. The following tips will help with most job situations.

1. Make sure your teenager is eating well and getting lots of protein and slow-burning energy food at breakfast. At formal jobs, teenagers often have to wait until breaks to eat anything - those who manage from snack to snack may suffer, and their job performance will, too.
2. Make sure your teenager takes an adequate lunch or has other high-quality food available during the day. Trying to save money by buying junk food or skipping meals will backfire in the end. Also be sure they take water or juice to drink.
3. When your teenager comes home, make sure to ask how her day went. Discover ways to ask more in-depth questions that do not seem invasive. Watch for bad moods, frustration, and depression - these are clear signals that something is not right.
4. Find time to stop by the job site and meet the supervisor and co-workers, if you have not done so already. While your teenager might be embarrassed, over time she will appreciate that she can tell you stories about work and you have already met the people involved. If a problem arises, she is more likely to share it because you have made the extra effort to learn about her work environment.
5. If there are problems or challenging moments, make sure to listen well and non-judgmentally. Then ask your teenager what he thinks is the right thing to do. Remember, some of the most important learning on a job is figuring out how to problem-solve. Only if he seems really stumped should you offer advice, and then do not be disappointed or offended if your advice is not taken.
6. If deeper problems continue unresolved, you should follow up with a visit to the work site. While it is often inappropriate to interfere, it is never inappropriate to protect your child. You can informally observe the situation or even approach the supervisor to find out more. If it is necessary to change jobs or request different options at work, your child will know he has your support.
7. When a job is done well, make sure to let your teenager know how much you appreciate her ability to work hard and do her best in the challenging job world. Show your appreciation by taking her out to dinner, or buying her tickets to a movie or some other activity she would enjoy. Supervisors may offer few rewards, particularly in these times of near recession, but young workers get tired and discouraged at times and can use these messages of support and encouragement from you.
8. After the summer is over, make sure to help your teenager request a letter of recommendation and a promise to provide a reference for the next year's job or for college. Good references can be worth more than all the summer's earnings.

If you have done all these tasks, you will have done well at your "summer job," too - supporting your working teenager and helping to launch him into the adult world.