Working a food service job on top of a class schedule that already commandeers a large portion of time is a lot for a college student to juggle all at once.
With the unpredictability and physically demanding nature of the food industry, SCAD student Tania Anderson has to pick her battles. Rising tuition costs, coupled with current instability in the U.S. Department of Education, make it an even more difficult tightrope to walk. When deadlines come up, Anderson and many other college students like her must decide if the paycheck is more important than the classroom.
According to recent data from the National Restaurant Association, 47.5% of employees in the restaurant and food-service industries are young adults ages 18 to 24. Out of those workers ages 19 to 24 who are enrolled in school, there are around 18.2% collectively.
For Atlanta college students, life is a balancing act between managing work and school. Students have to combat procrastination’s pull and make sacrifices to ensure everything gets done and nothing slips through the cracks.
“I often find myself not wanting to work on homework after,” Anderson, a server at Oz Pizza, said. She said that long shifts make it hard to pick up the textbook after work.
For SCAD student Jessica Goddard, her ability to complete her schoolwork to her standards has been the most difficult thing to manage with the demands of her job.
“It keeps me from putting more time into things that I want to… I’m not able to put as much time and effort into [schoolwork] as I’d like. I feel a bit more rushed,” Goddard, a server at a popular Buckhead restaurant, said. “I feel like I’m working two full-time jobs, because you kinda are.”
Some Atlanta college students use certain strategies to manage their time effectively. Finding what works best is different for each student. Goddard keeps rigorous schedules and prefers consistency, while Anderson prefers to space things out and do work in small portions. Georgia State student Ella Rollins tries to get things done as quickly as possible.
“I just try to get stuff done after class when I can,” Rollins, who works at the same Buckhead restaurant as Goddard, said.
With more tightly packed schedules, completing school work directly after class can ensure the work gets done. Methods of study aside, sometimes the assignments build up to an unmanageable point. In which case, temporary adjustments need to be made. “Don’t feel bad about taking a day off,” Rollins said.
“Even if you don’t want to do a full two hours of studying or like homework, try to do at least 15 minutes,” Anderson suggested.
Anderson has found that making herself do small increments of homework after getting off from work and seeing if they are still exhausted from their job helps. She describes that she does something to refresh herself, ranging from watching some TV, eating food, or doing something hygiene or self-care related before jumping back into assignments.
According to a 2024 7shifts report on Restaurant Employee Engagement, flexibility is incredibly important in keeping workers, alongside camaraderie and benefits. Food service jobs that don’t meet these needs can drive away otherwise willing workers out of necessity more than anything.
“I had homework to do, and I didn’t want my grades to suffer because my bosses weren’t being accommodating for me,” SCAD student Jasmine Gilson, who used to work at an Atlanta location for McDonald’s, said.
A college student’s choice between a paycheck and what that paycheck goes towards is one centered around urgency.
“I called out [once] so that I could finish an assignment for one of my classes,” Anderson said. In that instance, the grade was more urgent.
