job ideas for young teens (merged)

highguyuk

In doing a paper round your son is not going to be build up a good track record - shops wont go off a paper round when employing him.

IMHO, unless your son is 16+ he also wont stand a chance of a proper shop job. Far too many regulations and insurances to go through. Also the fact of age related products etc.

Have a look in the local papers for your weekly free paper distribution instead of a daily. When I took on my daily round many years ago I lasted two weeks ... my weekly round 3/4 years.

sundin13

Hey Highguy....I see where you're coming from...but I've heard of a couple of instances of employers chasing references all the way back to paper rounds. Mind you, it was the Foreign Office and the M.O.D. - so maybe a little extreme.

As a former hiring manager myself, I have taken on about 15 university students over time, and for jobs like mine (big company, good name, good pay compared to McDonalds!) we always had hundreds of applicants. One of the best ways of filtering was to look at previous employment history - anything that could show the person had been reliable.


I think the weekly round idea is a good one...I'll see if he's interested in getting one of those (he'll probably want to do it as well as, rather than instead of....you can see £££ signs in his eyes these days!)

S

highguyuk

My first job was in ASDA as a Christmas Temp. I got this because apparently I had a nice smile and I smartly dressed in my Orange shirt. lol. I know this because I got my 2nd interview because I was friends with one of the department bosses daughters and got to read my notes. In fact, the interview started with her sorting out my shifts on the rota - and then asking all the questions she had to. Anyway...

In my local area there are always rounds becoming available. I was approached for mine as I had submitted an application a few months earlier saying I was interested. Some children will do it for a couple of weeks/few months and get bored or cant be bothered and they have to find someone else etc. You need to find out the amount of papers and the basic wage each week. Then there are leaflets usually on top of that, but he will have to spend the time at home putting the leaflets into the papers before he delivers. In my case, the papers were left outside the house at 4am in the morning, big stack of them, so you need to have some storage or be understanding. You never know how much your going to get for the leaflets until your paid ... it always varies.

It usually took me 2 hours to deliver 150 local papers each week not including the time to deal with the leaflets. Top this with school commitment and social activities, he will shattered if he tries to do a morning and an evening job.

If you need any further help etc, give me a PM!

Suewre

My 13 year old son delivers the free newspaper. At the moment he is busy shoving the leaflets (that he put together in piles yesterday) into the paper, ready for delivery shortly. He has 272 papers to deliver, and he got £17.70 for last week. He gets £7.50 basic, plus an amount per 100 leaflets. The least he got was £9 odd, and the most was £24 odd.

TurnaroundSue

My son is VERY fortunate. He has 11 papers in the evening (which are delivered to our house) 6 days per week and earns £12. I know he is really lucky to have this round, but as it is on our estate and not close to any other they found it really hard for anybody to do this round as it meant they needed a car to get here (or a very long walk!!) - so because of this they pay him a premium to keep him!! Otherwise it would be 5p per paper!!

When he decides to give up, I am next in line to take over as for £12 pw for about 10 minutes work per day is great!!

Savvy_Sue

Philippa36 wrote:

I was just leaving the house when my son shouted that she was upstairs ~ still in bed not having made it through the door :doh: nevermind delivered any papers ....... :rotfl:

:rotfl: That is SO funny (although I bet you were really worried at the time!)

TurnaroundSue wrote:

My son is VERY fortunate. He has 11 papers in the evening (which are delivered to our house) 6 days per week and earns £12. I know he is really lucky to have this round, but as it is on our estate and not close to any other they found it really hard for anybody to do this round as it meant they needed a car to get here (or a very long walk!!) - so because of this they pay him a premium to keep him!! Otherwise it would be 5p per paper!!

When he decides to give up, I am next in line to take over as for £12 pw for about 10 minutes work per day is great!!

Yup, that sometimes happens. My eldest used to do one of those rounds, I don't know why it wasn't popular but apparently he was getting a premium for it, nothing like as well paid as your son though!

Middle son now does free papers once a week, takes a long time to stuff 'em all but he usually does it in front of the tv. Then there is the round itself, which takes a couple of hours. I think the rate of pay is pants, but it does depend on how many leaflets there are to add. He also does a Sunday round, but gets himself up for it. I used to check up on him but don't any more.

One suggestion for the OP: ask the paper shop if he could split the round with a friend? Or go to weekdays or weekends only.

sundin13

Thanks Savvy_Sue.....I've suggested that he talk to all the other kids with rounds to see if one of them will swap either Saturday or Sunday with him - so that he does two rounds one day, and none the next. That way no drop in money.

Thanks to everyone for their help

rubix_76

sheenamc wrote:

But I'm not. £10 - for seven days a week. Surely that's plain wrong - I know it only takes him fifteen minutes or so (weekdays at least - weekend papers are much more work), but are they even allowed to ask him to work seven days? It seems so wrong - especially as it means I have to get up seven days a week to drag him out of bed!!! :doh:

Can anyone else tell me what their kids are getting?

I don't know if this helps, but I will give you an idea what I used to get (ahem) 16 years ago.

I did a morning round (took me about 45 mins) and the paper bag was full and I needed to do it on a bike as it was so spread out and I got £8 for that.

Evening rounds used to be about £5. the papers were alot lighter, most kids did them on the way home from school and they were awake (my morning round I started at 7am at the latest)

Sunday rounds were about £3.50 but the papers were ALOT heavier.

Now if these prices were being charged by british gas the kids would get paid about £50 by now !! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Thought this might help just for comaprison (during the war - Uncle Albert)

Rubix

Suewre

sheenamc wrote:

Hi,

DS is a big (expensive) teenager now, and I suggested to him that he put his name down at the local shop for a paper round.

But I'm not. £10 - for seven days a week. Surely that's plain wrong - I know it only takes him fifteen minutes or so (weekdays at least - weekend papers are much more work), but are they even allowed to ask him to work seven days?

How old is he?

I am looking at my son's employment card (everyone of compulsory school age who works has to be registered with the council)

Aged 13, 14 or 15

Any day - earliest start time, 7 am, latest finish time 7pm

On Sundays 2 hours maximum

During term time
Total weekly hours limit 12
Weekday hours limit 2
Max hours before school 1

During school holiday is different for the ages

Aged 13 or 14
Total weekly hours limit 25
Daily hours limit 5
Max number of hours before a break of at least 1 hour given 3

Aged 15
Total weekly hours limit 35
Daily hours limit 8
Max number of hours before a break of at least 1 hour given 4

It doesn't mention how many days a week, so I assume 7 days a week is ok.

Busybody

sheenamc wrote:

Thanks for the sanity checks.

You're right that the money itself when worked out isn't too bad....but its the seven days a week that gets me worked up really. It means that he never really gets a chance to catch up on his sleep, so he's frequently grumpy, and he's not at the age yet where he appreciates the joys of the afternoon nap :rolleyes:

It also means sleeping over at friends becomes a nightmare, and weekends away impossible, and, well, lets just say DH and I quite enjoy ourselves when we have the house to ourselves!!!

Ah well - if he can stick it out for a year, then maybe he'll have a good track record and be able to get another job - Saturdays in a shop or something.

My 2 lads have been doing rounds for nearly 3 years I had the same worries as you at first. But they soon start to relly on the money and it stands them in good stead for a working life later, in fact my older one likes the money so much that he volunteers for extra rounds.
Very occasionaly they will ask for the morning off to catch up on a lie-in. The sleepovers usually start to drop off in early teens I found.