Summary Of Working At Mcdonald's By Amitai

Many high school students have part time jobs for various reasons, such as supporting their families, covering their tuition fees, and earning pocket money. Without having a college degree or a professional skill, many working students in high school choose to work in fast-food chains as busboys, waiters, or waitresses. However, these “highly structured” jobs, according to Amitai Etzioni, the author of “Working at McDonald’s,” are “far from providing opportunities for entrepreneurship or self-discipline, self-supervision, and self-scheduling” (250). A sociology professor, Etzioni believes that these jobs bring negative impacts on teens’ education and growth, including undermining their academic performance, providing unnecessary skills for the future career, and distorting their value of money (249). …show more content…
On the other hand, many people claim that working in a fast-food chain restaurant offers students skills that are applicable in other areas of their lives. For example, my work experience has trained us to be person who has the ability to manage time in an efficient way. Therefore, Etzioni makes an inaccurate and stereotypical assumption about the merits of part time jobs such as McDonald’s because he fails to evaluate other advantages, including financial management, interpersonal skills, and time management, that a fast food job brings to the working teens.
To begin with, having a part-time job that offers a paycheck teaches high school students financial responsibility rather than extravagant spending. Etzioni claims that most of the working students