Job’s a good one for the young who like to work
IT is rare that I cheer on a pay out on the grounds of direct discrimination but in the case of Hazel Cassidy, I will make an exception. Hazel worked two shifts in a café in Ayrshire and was told by the house manager that he was pleased with her; another manager then interfered and told her she should not be working at the till. She was sent home and then received a call saying she was being sacked for “health and safety” reasons. The company said her role was “too demanding” but has now been forced to pay her £2,800. Good. The real reason for her dismissal, it later emerged, was that at the age of 14, she was deemed to be too young.
As a matter of fact Hazel had not lied about her age: they knew from the outset that she was in her early teens. But given how much we all grumble about the entitled snowflake generation, shouldn’t we all be delighted when a young girl gets on with it and starts earning some dosh of her own?
She wasn’t asking for money from the state, nor even the Bank of Mum and Dad: she was going out there, making her own way and it is very much to be hoped that this experience hasn’t put her off working for life. And it is a crying shame that Saturday jobs, delivering papers and the like are no longer the norm. When I was growing up, just about everyone had some sort of job to supplement their pocket money.
I started babysitting at about the age of 14 and went on to work in the coldest shop this side of Siberia, various offices in which my main role appeared to be stuffing envelopes, various pubs (that was when I was a bit older) and the grimmest of the lot, a butcher’s section in a department store. It was in the basement and the smell of meat was so strong it made me feel ill.
That particular one didn’t last long, but it wasn’t because I was too young and the unpleasant aspect of these jobs, such as getting up in the freezing cold dead of night to deliver papers, teaches you a certain stoicism. When I went to university, this continued, although not during term time, but during the summer, like everyone else, there were a few weeks of holiday and the rest of the time we worked.
It is the best possible start in life.As a teenager I began to develop a serious interest in clothes: my Saturday jobs taught me to save up and budget.
It can breed an entrepreneurial streak: my support bubble ran various businesses at school and university, which early experience paid off spectacularly in later years. (He also worked in factories in university holidays and became a trade union steward on a construction site, somewhat to the bemusement of people who know him now.)
It is character building to get out there and earn some money and teenagers like Hazel should be praised for it, not punished. And that manager should be feeling thoroughly ashamed.