Photo: Matt Boggs | The Sentinel
Kaitlyn Lewis, News Editor
For many college students who work in retail stores and restaurants, the holiday season is one of the most stressful times of the year. While preparing for finals, these students take a stressful work load at their jobs, and some have to work longer hours.
The challenge for working students is finding the balance between their school and work lives.
“I usually ask for time off from work or I just deal with it,” said senior Political Science major, Joel James. “[I] stay up later, drink lots of drinks—red bull, stay up late [and] study.”
James currently works at a liquor store. He said the holiday rush began around Halloween this year and he will expects another major rush around Christmas and Thanksgiving.
“But those are never bad. They’re more spread out,” James added.
“It’s just kind of annoying to work on holidays,” said sophomore international business major, Madeline Forman, who has worked at a Kroger in Dallas for almost two years, “but it’s something you have to do as a student who has a part-time job on the side. Just trying to balance it all—that gets kind of stressful.”
Forman is a cashier at Kroger. She said her job is stressful because she doesn’t know what her schedule is until the week of.
“I set my availability, you know,” Forman said. “So they’re pretty good at not scheduling me on days I have school. But during the holidays, they know you’re off school, so they don’t really care.”
Kroger closes on Christmas but stays open during the rest of the holiday season.
“Since Kroger’s only closed Christmas Day, I may have to work Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, so that’s kind of a bummer,” Forman said.
According to stastista.com, retailers in the United States have hired 800,000 more employees for the holiday season in 2014 than in 2010. In 2013, the retail industry made about $3.08 trillion in the U.S.
Freshman communication major Daniel Riggs works at the front counter and drive thru at Chick-fil-A in Canton, Georgia. He said his Chick-fil-A gets a lot of business around the holidays because it is located in a shopping center. Chick-fil-A is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but stays open on Black Friday for holiday shoppers.
“Other than that, we’re pretty much closed on the holidays, but the holiday season is still full-force,” Riggs said. “Even though it’s busy, I do like it because, especially at night time it gives you something to do and instead of just standing around.”
Junior Biotechnology major Ana Corrilo also will also be working at a fast food restaurant during this holiday season. Also an international student from Mexico, Corrilo said she would not be able to spend the holidays with her family anyways.
Corrilo works at the Wendy’s on Chastain Road, which she said is the busiest and most successful Wendy’s in Georgia. She said when people call out it gets bad.
Somehow, Corrilo is able to manage her schoolwork and job life at the same time.
“Sometimes I go to Wendy’s to use their wifi, so I have to be there early,” Corrilo said. “It’s doable; you just have to be willing to do it.”
“I’m a little more patient when it comes to drive thru and customer service on the receiving end,” said junior art education major, Sheba Lee.
Lee currently works at Starbucks and has also worked at WalMart in the past. She said she started working at Walmart one October and only had a few months to be trained before the holiday rush.
“I was just kinda just thrown into that situation,” Lee said. “And it was pretty horrific.”
It was also Lee’s first time working on layaway at Walmart. She said customers were impatient and often got upset easily.
“I mean, when the system isn’t as accident-proof as it should be, then stuff happens or stuff gets lost,” Lee said. Now she has more patient when she is a customer herself.
Starbucks will be open on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day this year. Employees have to choose to work during three out the five holidays previously listed. Lee chose Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Many students like Lee will have to plan their family visits around their work schedule this holiday.
“My home is four hours away in Valdosta,” Lee said. “I’m working so I don’t really get to go [home]. [My family is] supposed to come here for Thanksgiving, and the plan is to go home for Christmas. But we’ll see how it works.”
“It’s just different at Starbuck’s,” Lee said. “Everyone wants their coffee and they want to go to work…People want their coffee, right?”
