High school is a time of juggling life between stress, homework, a social life, and maintaining your sanity. So, logically, many teenagers decide to add a job into the mix. Jobs are a great way for high schoolers to make some extra money after school and procrastinate things such as projects and getting their lives together. There are tons of places to work, and pretty much every place around the area hires teens.

If you’ve ever went shopping at the mall or a different store, or went to eat at a restaurant around New Berlin, you’ve most likely seen teenagers working there. As you walk around the store or eat your food at the restaurant, you might wonder what it’s like to be an employee there. As a customer, one doesn’t get to see all of the behind the scene work or drama that goes on, and of course the horror stories the workers have about customers. Many people may think that certain jobs could be easy, but most are harder than you’d think.

For example, one job that is tougher than most people think is working at Buffalo Wild Wings. Scott Ziolecki, who works there as a greeter and a guest experience captain, described it as being challenging, specifically on busy nights such as Thursday and Friday. As a greeter, it gets stressful when tons of people come in at one time and they have to start a wait list. Speaking from experience, since I also work there, it definitely is challenging to seat people when servers start complaining to you because they have too many tables, all while you have to figure out which tables are clean and what people you can seat so they don’t complain to you about a long wait time. When Scott works as a guest experience captain, he has to go up to tables and talk to them and try to promote bdubs related things. He says that this job is very hard when he isn’t in the mood to talk to people. Overall, though, he and I both enjoy working there because of the environment and our coworkers.

Another popular place for teenagers to work is Panera. Many students from West work at the one located on Greenfield. Katey Devine, Rachel Danber, and Alexis Dohm both recently started working there, and like it so far. One thing they love about the job is the managers.

Devine stated, “They don’t act as if they are superior to you. One manager, Brett, even came over and started singing Arabella by the Arctic Monkeys with me while I was washing dishes.”

While the work atmosphere is relaxed, the workers still usually have to deal with a rush hour around lunch time. Alexis, who usually works close, states that it’s a lot quieter around dinner time. Another perk of working there is that their food gets discounted 60% off. The work experience at Panera is a good one in all and there are some great benefits.

One more restaurant that students work at that is more of a fast food restaurant than a sit down restaurant is Kopps. The most popular job there is a cashier, and Corine, a junior at New Berlin West, works exactly that. She states that the job is easy for the most part, the only major setback being that some of the staff aren’t hard-working, because a majority of the employees are high schoolers.

At one point in their lives, most people have found themselves shopping at Walmart. The workers there actually get great benefits, such as a $9 starting pay and opportunities for scholarships. Sabrina, a junior at New Berlin West, works there and recently had to work during Black Friday. She described the day at stressful, especially since she has been working there for less than a month and they scheduled her to cashier on the busiest day of the year. She described the lines as “long and ridiculous” and even had to help certain customers for 20 or more minutes. Sabrina does enjoy the job when it’s not as busy, though. During an average workday, she cashiers and does zoning, which is mostly just walking around the store and putting items back in their right places. Her coworkers are all friendly, and the store overall is very progressive on its policies; they are very open when it comes to gender identities and giving people equal opportunities. It’s pretty easy to get a job there in all and it’s an extremely friendly workplace.

Although there are many other stores and restaurants that students work at, these ones are all well-known and have great employee benefits and good workplace environments. If you’re looking to get a job in the area, there are tons of places that not only will hire you, but also provide a solid and even fun work setting.