To think retail and fast food jobs teach you more life skills than school ever did?

[FrontTillPHD]

People love to look down on retail, hospitality or fast food work, like it’s something you “grow out of” or leave behind once you get a “real job.” But honestly I think those jobs teach you resilience.

You learn how to stay calm under pressure, how to handle difficult people, how to read the room, how to speak clearly and how to meet people’s needs, fast. You don’t get that from sitting in a classroom or even from some fancy office job where you don’t deal with the public.

If you’ve done any customer-facing job, you know. There’s a toughness, a people-sense and a work ethic that gets built in, and it stays with you.

AIBU to think we don’t give enough credit to how much you grow in those kinds of jobs?

Well your friend’s employers are indeed still teenagers in their first jobs @HelloCharming - these jobs are now rarely an option for younger teens.

Colleagues are not customers, by definition.

I agree they teach you loads. But I also aimed to “grow out” of them and would want my dc to too. They are poorly paid and physically gruelling. I loved waitressing in my 20s but would hate to be doing it now in my 50s.