April 20, 2013
As any parents would be, we were absolutely thrilled when our oldest daughter reported that she had landed her first official job. She would be 17 years old in a couple of weeks and she is reliable and hard working. Along with food handler’s license in tow, she is a valuable asset!
Her astounding accomplishments and assets stopped short on her second day on the job when the local Middleton restaurant owner called thirty minutes before her third shift and quote, “I am going to have to let you go, because of a conflict between you and the girl that is training you.” She was upset and sobbed over the news, as she had sacrificed some other commitments in her life to put all of her focus and energy in working hard at her new job. Although we were truly sympathetic to her sadness, we were also very disturbed to discover the details around her so-called “training”.
It’s unfair that a 10 year old was in charge of training our 17 year old daughter. Had she or my husband and I been disclosed this information before, she never would have accepted the job. It is unethical to pass blame for a mistake onto others as the 10 year old had when she “tattled” to her father, especially since that is how she trained her. It was disgusting to drive through for a milkshake with my husband and watch her 10 year old trainer being condescending and rolling her eyes when our daughter had a simple question regarding procedures involving the drive- through. Most importantly, laws are most likely being broken often in this particular establishment as Federal and Idaho child labor laws are in place to protect a 10 year old from having what is obviously way too much responsibility in a job, regardless if their parents own the establishment.
Despite all of the legal and moral issues involving our daughter’s unethical termination, and other’s same accounts as to why they would never even fill out an application there due to similar experiences, it is just simply heartbreaking that she was fired from her first job. She will always keep that memory in her heart. It’s shameful and unwarranted, and could have been avoided. As parents, we would like other parents to be mindful when allowing your teens to take a job at an establishment in Middleton that does not give any care or mind when creating bad experiences for all our teens’ first jobs. Stop giving them all opportunities if every single one of them is set up for failure to begin with! That is NOT how we are raising our kids and it’s a shame that a 10 year old girl has the power to do so!
