How to Work Part Time at Uni (and When to Stop)

I've worked part time alongside my degree since October of my first year. To me there was never a question as to whether I would have the time. I worked part time alongside my dance course which was 40 hours a week, so working alongside my degree's 8 contact hours seemed like it would be easy. Update: it has not been easy. I work mostly at the weekends, mostly evenings, and usually around 20 hours a week. My workplace is around a 20 minute drive away, but this increases to an hour during rush hour, which is normally when I'm heading there. A lot of the problems I've had with working part time have been specific to my particular job and my particular workplace, so I am still a proponent of working part-time at university if you can, want or need to. I just wanted to give a little bit of advice about how to do it without sacrificing your sanity, and how to know when you shouldn't any more.

How to do it

Accept that you have to/want to work alongside your degree and that is just the way the cookie crumbles my friend. Try not to fall into bitter thought patterns about hating it and try not to compare yourself to others whose financial situations mean they don't need to work. You will be a lot less frustrated with work if you adopt this mentality.

Try your best at your job. This sounds so obvious but I let myself forget it so many times. It is part time and it does come second to your degree, but once your shift begins you are being paid to do a job. If you do it well the likelihood is that you'll leave with a sense of accomplishment, you'll feel less like you're wasting time you could be spending on something more worthwhile, and you'll enjoy your time at work more. Once I made an effort to do a good job, I found I was feeling better about having to be there mentally, and I was getting a boost from customers and colleagues appreciating my work. 

Try and create friendships and get on with the people you work with. Yes it is annoying that you miss out on events with friends because of work, but if you make friends at work then you've actually gained friendships out of it. Try not to ooze an aura of 'ugh I just do this to pay for my real life at uni'. You'll feel happier at work and you might make some good pals out of it too.

Manage your time better bitch. Got a deadline on the Friday morning? Is it likely you'll be working the Thursday night? Your new deadline is Thursday afternoon! Wanna go to your friends birthday night out but have work? Ask for cover from one of your new found work pals, or run to the club after your shift in your apron. Don't let it stop you.

Rant about it. Get all your negativity out in a snap chat rant, then use the journey home to chill out about it. Don't let it fester inside you. 

Try and see the money you earn as real tangible things. If you work a long shift, are tired and miserable walking home, think of the joy you'll be able to turn that £xx into. For me that's how one of the worst shifts of my life felt the most worthwhile, as it directly paid for my ticket to our uni's Summer Ball which I know will be more than worth the stress of that particularly awful day.

Try to work with your managers and colleagues to create a work schedule that works for you. This was a mistake I made in the first restaurant I worked in. I went in eager to please and didn't really give them any restrictions on when and how often I could work, so when they started to take advantage a month or so later I found it really difficult to speak up. If you start off by saying 'these are the days I can work, this is the maximum I can do', they won't try to get more out of you, and you'll last a lot longer before your blood pressure spikes and your eyeballs pop out of their sockets. Don't let anyone at work tell you that you should be working more than you want to. I've lost count of the amount of times a manager has sneered at me for saying no to an extra shift because they think that I don't do anything else with my time. If they don't understand that your degree and your life comes first then that is their problem and they can - quite frankly - piss off.

How to know when to stop

If you hate the people who pay your wage. When you hate people for doing what they're supposed to do ie. coming into your restaurant to eat - you really need to take a step back. They are the reason you have the job and get paid. Either be okay with that and appreciate their custom or take yourself out of the situation where you seethe at having to serve them.

If you're not getting anything out of it skills wise. I've probably outdone my job now. I've done it for nearly 3 years, I've done management and supervisor shifts, I know my waitress job inside out. There are not many new skills I learn on shift. To continue doing it alongside university would be a big sacrifice of my time in third year, and it just isn't worth it skills-wise.

If the money doesn't seem worth it. Not getting any pleasure out of doing the job and not getting any new skills out of it, earning £38.27 for a manic Friday night actually doesn't seem worth it for the unhappiness I gain and the time I lose. Working takes such a lot out of me that I also got into the habit of giving myself the day off if I had a shift in the evening. Then the £38 seemed even less worth it - because each shift was costing me a whole day that should have been spent doing other things.

If you can get more out of your time if you put it elsewhere. Realising what a tight financial position I would be putting myself in if I did stop working during term time, I only allowed myself to quit if I promised myself that every week I would be able to point at 15+ hours worth of extra curricular things I had done. I wanted to be able to match the time I had spent working with time spent working on things for me. I'm on track to be able to do this with the extra curricular activities and projects I've committed to for my third year. I wouldn't have let myself quit if I wasn't sure I was going to use that new time productively.

If you exist in a state of frustration constantly. I was getting more and more unhappy at work, feeling like I was screwing up my chances of doing my best at my degree, and feeling miserable at the friend times I was missing out on. I could see that in the not-so-distant future it would all build up and result in a meltdown consisting of me screaming at a well meaning customer with an invalid voucher and throwing a plate at a chef who wouldn't give me a ramekin of mayo. Foreseeing this problematic episode, I handed in my notice a month before I thought this was most likely to happen. This meant I could leave on good terms with my colleagues and also gave the managers enough time to figure out how to cover the 20 hour shaped hole I would leave in the rota. Knowing that my days were numbered really helped me stay calm in work during the stressful exam period, and my last few shifts have actually been my most enjoyable. Choosing to leave before I reached a point of complete hatred made me appreciate the job I've been lucky enough to have, and made me realise that for all it's flaws and for all the eye rolls it causes, I will miss it when I'm gone.

I worked 20+ hours a week for most of my first and all of my second year. It's massively impacted the time I've been able to spend on my degree, on extra curricular uni stuff, and most importantly, with my friends. I love this university and the people I'm here with so much, and I just know that losing out on the money of 20 hours misery a week is nothing compared to the time I could enjoy with those pals for one last year.  It's just time for me to make the most of where I am and who I'm with (academically and socially),  and I'm so excited to get even poorer enjoying every second of it.

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