After my daughter’s unpaid cafe shift, I turned warrior mum

Now, some may accuse me of being soft and that back in our day we had to deal with worse, and it didn’t harm us, blah-blah-blah. I think we can all admit that “back in our day” has proven – through many different movements of injustice – not to be the gold standard. I will also note that my kids have had some great experiences with casual jobs, which gives me clarity when writing about the bad ones.

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I get it, boss person. Juggling young casual workers who have competing studies and lifestyle choices make your shifts hard to fill and manage, right? You think kids are flaky, unreliable, so apathy has set in, and you’ve allowed yourself to become cynical and wary. This in turn has turned off your young employee, and they’ve become despondent, flaky, unreliable – see the hamster-wheel here?

If you are employing young staff, you are part of the village who is raising them so mentor them well and sleep soundly at night knowing you are a positive part of their development.

And, if empathy and understanding as to how you felt when you were young doesn’t resonate with you, maybe this sobering possibility will. One day, that young student/casual worker is going to be auditing your tax or performing one of your more intimate health screenings.

Jo Pybus is a freelance writer.

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