So many Americans in here defending this, get a clue you idiots.
A literal child taking orders in a fast food restaurant in the US
Submitted 10 months ago by STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world to aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5ab20d10-feda-4c37-87d6-651282347c6e.jpeg
Comments
Deceptichum@kbin.social 10 months ago
saltesc@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’m Australian and this reminds me of working at the local fish and.chip store when I was 12. I asked the local general store, but they’d only pay me to do odd jobs, the local bakery said no,.and the local fish and.chip shop said I could help take orders and.package meals during their busy hours each evening.
My Lego collection grew, I got real good at Time Crisis 3, and I went to see a movie each Saturday. It was awesome. I didn’t see it any different to scoring cash for mowing lawns or washing cars, just stable and they appreciated my help so I felt good too.
If you’d told me I wasn’t allowed, I’d have done it behind your back and said I was going to friend’s houses.
Deceptichum@kbin.social 10 months ago
Cool story mate!
Lots of people are fine with bad things they grew up with because it didn’t personally affect them.
Nath@aussie.zone 10 months ago
I don’t know why, but paper boys (yes we were all boys) were some sort of exception to child labour laws. I was selling newspapers when I was 12-13 for 5c ea.
The 80s was a wild place.
RecallMadness@lemmy.nz 10 months ago
Amen.
Got money, bought a PC my parents couldn’t afford, learned to code, got a desk job.
Taught me life skills too, like dealing with dickhead managers and customers, time keeping, and just general responsibility.
Confused_Emus@lemmy.world 10 months ago
That’s all well and good, but the necessity of child labor laws are not for the few who are doing it voluntarily.
heyoni@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Honestly it’s the uniform for me. It implies so much like maybe that kids gotta punch in with a time card of has their pay docked.
Diplomjodler@feddit.de 10 months ago
Yeah this is just going to make them soft. Send the little shits to the miners, like in the good old days!
SVcross@lemmy.world 10 months ago
No, only people from the USA.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
I’m American and I totally agree. It feels like there are two different countries here, with the red one generally mooching off of the blue one while simultaneously claiming they’re the “real America”. I’m so tired.
IamRoot@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
No way to downvote your stupid ass enough.
Deceptichum@kbin.social 10 months ago
Haha okay dumbarse.
Go love child labour some more, maybe enough kids b working low wage jobs and you’ll be a successful nation instead of the failure you are now.
jimbo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
There’s hardly anything to defend because you twats have nothing other than a photo with zero confirmed information about what appears in the photo.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 10 months ago
You’d be aghast at the ages of kids I had pull pints for me when I lived in Europe, bro.
Nommer@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Name and shame which Culver’s it is.
cryptosporidium140@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
[deleted]Still@programming.dev 10 months ago
you can work for your parents in many places regardless of age
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I think many states allow children as young as 12 to work in specific non-dangerous jobs with permission from the parents. A company recently got in trouble when they had like 20 12-15 year olds working in a meat processing plant which definitely did not qualify for the “not dangerous” qualifier.
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yeah, I agree it’s fucked up but there’s almost no way that kid’s under 14, which is the youngest age Culver’s will hire at, he’s just a late bloomer probably. I think a lot of people would disagree with calling that age group a “literal child.”
jimbo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Shame them for what? You don’t know what’s going on in that picture.
CPMSP@midwest.social 10 months ago
They do this often at the Culver’s near me. It’s a fundraiser for school / extracurricular activities. The group works for a few hours and Culver’s donates the receipts for that time.
It’s better than having them go door to door selling wreaths and shit.
Sheeple@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Somehow that made it even more dystopian. The school system is in on it
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They are working to fund the school.
Nuf said?
NatakuNox@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Most School systems are financially gutted to the bone. It’s dark but most red counties school districts are near bankruptcy and blue areas are slightly better off. So expect more of this as public schools try to keep the doors open.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 10 months ago
I remember having school assemblies in middle school with some third party fundraising company trying to get us to sell…I don’t even remember what as a fundraiser for the entire school. At the time it felt weird and as an adult looking back I find it far more concerning that that’s how they made up the budget shortfalls instead of raising property taxes by fraction of a percent
Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This made it worse for me
CubbyTustard@reddthat.com 10 months ago
I had to help out behind the register at a mcdonald’s for a scout thing, I was supposed to upsell coupon books. I spent about 2 hours standing next to a teenage girl who calmly stood there and took a near non stop stream of abuse from entitled idiots. People got mad at her when the kitchen messed up their order. They got upset at her over price changes since their last visit. They got mad at her when an item was missing out of a 4-bag $80 order (they unbagged and checked everything there on the counter). One particular piece of shit actually got mad because the girl didn’t recognize him and know his usual order as he was in there a lot, according to him. That one really blew my top. The casual way in which people were awful to the cashier just blew my mind.
memfree@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
They got mad at her when an item was missing out of a 4-bag $80 order (they unbagged and checked everything there on the counter).
That one seems valid. That person got burned before with the staff not bothering to do their job and were NOT going to short their friend whatever item(s) the staff kept for themselves. Sure, you can say the counter girl didn’t do the bagging, but she’s the one that the customer is supposed to tell, and it is hard not to be angry when you’ve paid for stuff and you’re getting shorted – AND there’s almost surely another person relying on you to get it right this time. It shouldn’t take so much effort to just get the stuff you paid for.
marshadow@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This kid is way too young to be taking verbal abuse from customers. I remember being 19-but-looked-15 and grown-ass adult customers calling me stupid and useless, and generally speaking to and looking at me like I was a piece of dung stuck to the bottom of their shoe. People who thought I was a literal child behaved this way. Not to mention all the perverts. Kids shouldn’t be working customer service, not in a world where adults have such disgusting behavior.
inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’m sorry that this all happened to you. I know this happened in the past, but you deserve a little hug. I hope things are better for you on a day to day basis. ♥
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Fuckin same. Honestly no age is old enough to take shit working at fuckin Office Depot.
lamabop@lemmings.world 10 months ago
Nah, you got the wrong end of the stick, this is an uplifting story - it’s a kid working hard to provide for his mum’s cancer treatment that in any other developed nation would be covered by taxes. Uplifting. Right? So Uplifting. He doesn’t need to be with his mum in her time of need, he should be suckin that capitalist dick.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The orphan crushing machine is at it again!
Deceptichum@kbin.social 10 months ago
“We made this shitty thing legal, so you can’t disagree with it. Checkmate athieists”
_Sprite@lemmy.world 10 months ago
ps5 wont buy itself keep hustlin
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Rise and grind and watch spongebob
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 10 months ago
gotta work hard to play hard fr fr
bhmnscmm@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In pretty much every state you can legally work limited hours at 14. Considering this is a Culver’s, I highly doubt they illegally hired this kid.
There’s nothing wrong with a part time job at a place like this at 14. I’d argue it’s better than having no work experience at all as a minor.
Vampiric_Luma@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
When I was 13 I was ‘encouraged’ by my family to get a job. I had no interest. They pulled some strings and I began illegally working (14 was the legal age) for a small family diner. At this time I just wanted to fiddle on my tech as I was very nerdy, but my family didn’t want me to “stay in my room all the time,” so pointless labour it was.
I did appreciate the liberation I gained from my family, even if I didn’t have the knowledge of what to do with it; How to expand upon it. Probably for the best imo. I spent my whole first paycheck on some games that me and my homies would play in the garage and made great memories. If there was a life lesson to be learned during this whole experience, I never understood it at the time. Eventually I was let go from work since no-one taught me how to perform my job duties well enough. That’s life, though!
By luck, one of my caring high-school teachers managed to slip-in his own curriculum. He taught a class of ~15 students some important financial skills… how mortgages work… how to create and manage savings… credit building… Bunch of important life stuff that I would consider essential knowledge in our society was an optional course I learned through word-of-mouth/happenstance.
???
why
Meanwhile and my ultimate gripe with this thread and tying this back into a dystopian - I see some people mention they learned valuable life lessons and a bunch of other copium. Witness me and your kin around you. Is the knowledge you gained - the wisdom acquired through action and experience - is it gained through labour? No. I didn’t and others didn’t either. Can it be taught safely without forcing children with a young developing brain into dangerous work environments? Yes. I gained such wisdom later from the safety and comfort of my school. And we rest on the final point with a question:
How many opportunities in the common layman eye are there for children to receive education on the matter?
If your experience had 1 or more, I’d love for you to share such experiences here as it’s eye-opening to those who received and did not receive such privilege. I’m certainly interested! :)
Ohi@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I worked at an Arcade/Restaurant when I was 13 for 25-30 hours a week. It was absolutely a positive experience for me and it’s a shame to see so many people here crucify the idea of any child working at that age. Y’all haven’t the slightest idea whats the motivation and just assume they are being forced into it or something. Having a job so young built character and showed me that I was able to get the things I wanted in life if I put in the ‘hard’ work. Nobody forced me to work those hours, I wanted to! Props to Culver’s for providing the opportunity to kids.
DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Legal working age of 15 1/2 (in my state) plus a kid who looks young for their age - may not be the most appealing situation, bit this probably completely above board.
thorbot@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I was stoked to have a job when I was 14 making smoothies. I could only do 7 hours a week. It helped me learn about scheduling and being on time, and I saved up enough money to buy my own Xbox. People in this thread are idiots.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
She pressed the little pictogram squares on her till. (Literacy was no longer a requirement for employment in these restaurants. Smiling was.)
XTornado@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
The children yearn for the fast food jobs, Overcooked and Roblox games have proven that.
Dlayknee@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I saw this on Reddit a while back. This isn’t an actual employee, it’s the kid of a manager who brought them to work for the day (school was closed or something). The dumbass manager thought it would be cute to dress her kid up and put them on the register, but patrons were rightly weirded out. Culver’s corp found out and were pissed - I’m not sure if the manager got fired or not, but this definitely wasn’t something Culver’s was cool with.
Pandawhiskers@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I was at a tim Hortons in Canada. Had this experience seeing a youngin’ working, except it literally seemed like the whole staff was this age. It was enough kids to prompt us to ask what the working age was in Canada. The young lady informed us it was 13 or so
Jaccident@lemm.ee 10 months ago
This photo was taken years and years ago, look how young Neil Gaiman is in it.
Vytle@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is a culvers and they hire at 15y/o. They also start at $15 so i dont see what OP is crying about.
Mellanderthist@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Could this just be a 14/15yr old who looks young for their age?
Stoneykins@mander.xyz 10 months ago
“This is a systemic problem. Children should have their needs met without the need for work, and this child working is an obvious symptom of the problem at hand.”
“Have you ever considered that I, an individual, worked at a mcdonalds at the age of 15? I used the money to buy a video game. Therefore your argument is invalid.”
This comment section is fuckin weird.
_number8_@lemmy.world 10 months ago
no reason to ever make someone labor at such a shitty customer facing job when you could simply set up a kiosk system like everywhere else is, finally
Neon@lemmy.world 10 months ago
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Blur the Faces
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When was this taken? If it’s a Holiday/weekend/afterschool Job, i don’t see any problem with that. Also did a lot of them to scrounge up the Money for my Gaming-PC
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onoira@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
This is contextless ragebait. A lot of the outrage in this thread seems to boil down to:
- Children are too young to be working because factories. This child isn’t working in a factory. The reason children were maimed and killed in factories isn’t because they were too young to handle the machines; the machines were dangerous. Adults were and are also killed in mines and factories.
- Poor children shouldn’t have to work to get nice things because people shouldn’t be poor. Amazing idea. How soon do you think that can happen? It’s not just the poor who need work to afford things.
- Children shouldn’t have to work to survive because parents. Not always available, and, no, ‘put bad parents in jail’ isn’t a solution. State custody is almost always worse.
- Children shouldn’t be working in service roles because abuse. I’ll touch on this soon.
- Children shouldn’t be working for strangers because stranger danger. This isn’t a problem that disappears just because you hit an arbitrary age, especially if you’re a woman.
I’ll preface by saying I am antiwork and anticapitalist, and I support youth liberation.
I grew up in a poor household where I was emotionally and physically abused by my parents and siblings. This numbed me to the abuse I would experience in service roles, but also just as frequently in office jobs. When I was 14, both of my parents were permanently disabled and I was ready to get on with the rest of my life when I realised I was never going to have time to be a child. I dropped out of school and started working multiple jobs, on and off the books. My situation was not unique where I grew up. The income allowed me to survive, to escape my ‘family’, finish and continue my education, and eventually flee the country to get functioning healthcare and a basic standard of living by the age of 18.
This was only possible because I begged, pleaded and humiliated myself to garner enough sympathy from the paternalistic Morality Police who thought I couldn’t possibly know what I wanted for myself, and who thought my place was memorising bullshit in school and being confined to the house with my parents. who thought my parents weren’t abusing me but that I made that up because I was ‘spoiled’(?). It took six years for the ageist remarks to slow down; six years of constantly reäffirming my personhood and defending my intelligence and trying to ‘pass’ as an adult. Even then, in my twenties, it was ‘are you here with your parents?’ ‘why aren’t you studying, partying, travelling or doing drugs?’ ‘what do you know about [insert line of work]?’ Maybe because I’d already been in the industry for ten years and I have bills to pay? Unthinkable, apparently.
I should not have had to go thru any of that, but I wasn’t going to wait for the revolution. If I had lived the ‘ideal’ sheltered life that my lower middle class peers received: my life would have begun suddenly and abruptly — dropped in the deep end — in my mid-to-late twenties with all the skills and worldliness of an infant. Please stop presuming to know everything that is ‘good’ for young people. Please stop acting like the authority on when and how someone should be allowed to live their life. Under the current system: no one could be said to be an ‘adult’, but instead permanent adolescents. One could find several things wrong with this image, but the presence of that child doesn’t even rank in the top ten on that list. Attack the system, not the people trying to live under it.
Honourary mention to everything @Creddit@lemmy.world wrote: lemmy.world/comment/6630731
sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
They could have adrenal hypoplasia such that they never started puberty. Like that one guy who looks like a 6-year-old but is actually 30.
winterwulf@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Land of the free my ass
Numberone@startrek.website 10 months ago
That’s because it’s Culvers. Jokes on ya’ll, their recruiting literature make it clear that workers are family. As long as they’re not employees it’s all good!
TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 10 months ago
In the land of the “they were really better off as slaves!”.
Lightrider@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
Fuckingcapitalists
GUBERNACULUM@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is Culver’s. They’re a burger fast food joint located throughout the Midwest and have things called “Scoopy Night” where a percentage of the proceeds go toward a specific cause. Schools, dance groups, etc can partake and the kids who attend that school/dance group/etc help take orders and deliver food to tables. Not quite as dystopian as OP has made it seem.
ericbomb@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Honestly… the idea that they do this work, and the money goes to a school instead of them, makes it even worse to me?
stewsters@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It’s a fundraiser likely for an after school program. It typically pays out a lot better than a car wash or brat fry.
And yeah, we probably should put more funding into schools for stuff like this instead of asking kids to fundraise.
endhits@lemmy.world 10 months ago
"Child labor is ok if the money goes to a school!"
cazsiel@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yea it makes it worse tbh. We won’t fund fun things at the schools so instead we make them work fast food to earn that funding.
It is indeed even more dystopian when you put it like that. It’s got the same energy as people giving their coworker PTO so they can deliver a baby or whatever.
ClopClopMcFuckwad@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Whoa whoa whoa, how dare you provide context! I want to be rage baited into thinking America Bad!
kamen@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Don’t worry, America still Bad.
Prandom_returns@lemm.ee 10 months ago
If you think this context makes it OK, you’re fucking delusional lmao.
bhamlin@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Don’t worry, there’s plenty of legitimate outrage to be had without manufacturing it…
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Are the kids required to work in order to get the money? Because that sounds like a job with good PR.
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 10 months ago
My thoughts exactly. If it’s optional, cool, the kids get some experience and maybe takehome money. If it’s required, fuck that shit.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 10 months ago
That’s just child labor exploitation with extra steps.
EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 10 months ago
The one near me that does fundraisers doesn’t have any students working. Usually the teachers go to say hi to families that come.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
No, that’s still idiotic. It doesn’t matter what the context is of why a child is working at a fast food restaurant. There’s a child working at a fast food restaurant. This isn’t selling chocolates to raise money for a class hamster.
jimbo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Being intent on remaining outraged is idiotic. Spending a few hours doing a handful of minor tasks at a fast food restaurant for fun is worlds apart from being required to labor for day after day for a pay check.
WelcomeBear@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Selling chocolates is so much worse though. That always creeped me out because it’s either A) kids learning how to hawk wares on the street outside of stores, B) kids learning how to be door-to-door cold cal solicitors or C) run a MLM pyramid scheme by convincing their parents to push their product at work. Maybe even D) a combination of all of those for the ultimate street hustler training.
pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Honestly, I would err on the side of caution anyway. The worst that can happen is minor embarrassment that came from good intentions.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
when we needed to do fundraisers THE PARENTS IN THE PTA DID IT FOR THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.
We had plenty of ‘kids’ working at fast food and grocery stores but not until 15 minimum. this kid looks like he’s 9. that’s too young to be fucking around near fryers and hot grills.
Estiar@lemmy.world 10 months ago
He’s not. He’s waiting tables and taking orders.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In this thread, a bunch of people that have never heard of doing a fundraiser.
Literati@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Next up, they’re going to go scream at the girl scouts on the corner that they’re being exploited
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Children do work at McDonald’s though
Just they would keep them in the back so they can’t be seen
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
yup. 10 year olds running deep fryers.
Fades@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It’s indicative of a larger effort by republicans to force children back to work, this is part of that dystopia even if it’s on the “light dystopia” side of the spectrum.
Fuck off whiteknight, keep enabling corporate’s ability to normalize and capitalize off of child labor. This ain’t no goddamn bake sale or car wash.
Clbull@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Work experience at school is legitimately a thing though here in the UK.
feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 10 months ago
How does that boot taste?
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Indeed, florida’s plan to make up for the migrants they shit on and terrorized out of the state is child labor. dailykos.com/…/-Florida-has-a-solution-to-educati…
NotJustForMe@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Would you want your child working at a fast food restaurant? Doesn’t matter what kind of cutesy name gets attached to child labor.
wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 10 months ago
“no, no, its not bad! The child worker is working for charity!”
Oh nice, so its worse
justaveg@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I remember doing something similar in HS 20+ years ago.