Two Income Household Part II

The Princess has been working at her new job for about a month now. For the most part, she really likes it. She has great bosses, the money is good (for a teenager) and while it can sometimes be super busy and hectic, the job itself is not overwhelming.

What WAS overwhelming was the number of hours she was working combined with school. We are on the countdown to graduation and the teachers are loading the students up on major projects, homework, tests AND finals are right around the corner. The job was working the Princess 30 hours a week and combined with school, it was just too much. A typical day was looking like this:

5:40 - Wake up, get ready for school
7:00 - Leave for School
7:15 - Report to either Spanish class or Math for extra help
7:50 - School Start
3:00 - School Dismissal
3:20 - Arrive home, change clothes for work, eat leftovers
3:45 - Leave for work
4:00 - Begin work
10:00 - Come home, eat whatever I fixed for dinner, finish up remaining homework, get ready for bed
11:00 - (if we're lucky) go to bed

The Princess was stressed and overwhelmed. She had expected to have to adjust time management issues, but close to 70/hours a week of work/school, PLUS homework was taking its toll.

So, she talked to me about it, and then she went yesterday (arriving at work well before her shift started) to talk to her Boss. She started out by telling him how appreciative she was of the job opportunity and how grateful she is for the faith they have shown in her by working her so many hours,(not to mention the very nice paycheck that had just been deposited) but it was coming down to serious crunch time with school and she was overwhelmed by juggling the number of hours with her school work. She asked if there was a way they could reduce some of her hours until after graduation (to be fair, when she had filled out the application she had put she could work 20 hours/week). She told him that graduation absolutely has to be her top priority at this time. Her boss was completely open to the conversation and said they could definitely work with her. He gave her the night off so that she could get her ducks in a row on her upcoming projects and adjusted her hours for the rest of the week so that she'd get home earlier.

All in all, it was a very productive talk and she handled herself in a forthright and professional manner. I was pretty darn proud. She didn't go into it with a demanding attitude, but nevertheless let him know what she needed to continue to be a good and productive employee. So, we are still a two income household --- with just a bit better balance.