Working While Being A Student-Athlete

Working+While+Being+A+Student-Athlete

I am currently a junior at Pasco High School and I’ve played volleyball since my freshman year. I recently got a job at McDonalds during the summer of 2022, and I wanted to share my experience of managing a job along with being a student-athlete.

I procrastinated getting a job for the longest time because I didn’t think I’d be able to manage everything because of how bad I tend to procrastinate with school and homework. McDonalds was also very flexible to work around my schedule with school and sports, and although I wasn’t getting the best hours when I first started, they still helped me get hours on the weekends and worked around my summer volleyball schedule.

They make sure to schedule me whenever I’m available and work with my availability paper that I turn in, and they also make sure to keep up with my school grades because school comes first. They make you turn in a paper to the school to get it signed to be able to work. If you don’t have passing grades, they suspend you until you get them up. Doing good in school is a top priority for McDonalds and because I procrastinate a lot, I knew I had to be on top of it.

When I had away games or after season games, McDonalds just asks that I put the request day off at least two weeks prior and we’ll most likely get the day off, they’re very understanding and work with me and my schedule. If it’s last minute and I couldn’t request a day off, they ask that I give them a call and communicate with them on what’s going on for them to look for somebody to cover me. Getting covered can be difficult but there will most likely have people available.

Some weeks are harder than others whether it’s getting sick, having tons of homework, or last-minute plans because as I stated before, it is difficult to have people be able to cover me. I work three shifts during the week, and I also work Saturday and Sunday. When I first started, McDonalds would schedule me on days that I had put in my availability I couldn’t work because of my games, so I would have to call them to let them know I wasn’t going to be able to make it, but overall they’re very considerate with your schedule and working around it.