Prioritising and Compromising

[Tom]

Some may be aware that I currently juggle three part-time jobs as a Radio Broadcaster, Journalist for an F1 website and a McDonald's Crew Member. The first two are not paid meaning that the third is purely for bringing some money in, due to various outgoings such as Driving Lessons, Motorcycle insurance and so on.

Aside from this, I am also studying for three A Levels; Business, Law and English, which I believe will aid me into my desire to become a Motorsport Journalist.

Now, as you can imagine, I do not have a lot of free time on my hands. I currently work 15 hours at the Radio per week (3 hours per weekday), between 4 and 20 at McDonald's over the weekend and around 8 hours per week on the F1 website. Exam season is fast approaching (just over 60 days) and my teachers have become concerned that I am not performing to the best of my ability and am likely to fail them or get below expected results if I don't adjust my schedule.

Everyone believes that I am overcommitting myself, and in all honesty I am getting sick to death with people saying that I am working far too much. The only reason that I am juggling three jobs is because I don't get paid for two of them, and I have to bring some money in so I can support myself. I've made it clear to my parents that I want to be able to support myself financially as much as possible, and not to have to rely on them.

I have had a meeting with the Head of Sixth Form, as well as my Boss at the Radio and they have explained that of course my Education is the priority and have pretty much left it up to me to decide what the best course of action to give myself more time to study would be.

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Now, I have quite a few options available. Here are the ones that I have thought would be logical.

1 - drop a couple of days at the Radio, perhaps Thursday and Friday which would free up my weekend at McDonald's as I often have a shift from 6pm on the latter day, meaning I have to pre-record the last 30 minutes of the show.

2 - I could also stop the Radio altogether, something which I don't wish to do as it is fantastic experience and looks good for potential employers. I thoroughly enjoy it as well, and have work very hard to get the slot.

3 - I move to a weekend position at the Radio and request a change of hours at McDonald's so that I am working there during two weekday evenings and one day at the weekend.

So, what do you think I should I do? I need to make this decision rather imminently, and I would very much appreciate some other opinions on this.

 

[Danoff]

So across your two volunteer positions and one job, you're working between 27 and 43 hours per week. How many hours of coursework are you taking? I worked between 15 and 20 hours per week with a full time engineering courseload and it seem to be about my limit.

 

[Tom]

So across your two volunteer positions and one job, you're working between 27 and 43 hours per week. How many hours of coursework are you taking? I worked between 15 and 20 hours per week with a full time engineering courseload and it seem to be about my limit.

It's around 5-8 hours per subject in lessons, as well as let's say 2-4 hours in revision and homework. So, it's between 30 and 35 hours per week of coursework.

 

[Danoff]

It's around 5-8 hours per subject in lessons, as well as let's say 2-4 hours in revision and homework. So, it's between 30 and 35 hours per week of coursework.

In the US we have credits or "hours" of coursework. Typically 16 hours or credits of coursework is considered full time by a university. That usually works out to about 5 courses in a semester.

 

[Tom]

In the US we have credits or "hours" of coursework. Typically 16 hours or credits of coursework is considered full time by a university. That usually works out to about 5 courses in a semester.

My mistake, when I wrote 30 hours, I should have specified that it includes the Radio. I put them as one entity as I attend them in the same building. In all honesty, it's probably around 15 hours like you said of pure lessons and revision. Coupling that of course with my other workloads, and it's rather busy.

 

[Danoff]

My mistake, when I wrote 30 hours, I should have specified that it includes the Radio. I put them as one entity as I attend them in the same building. In all honesty, it's probably around 15 hours like you said of pure lessons and revision. Coupling that of course with my other workloads, and it's rather busy.

Ok, so if I'm understanding you correctly this is what you're doing:

- ~5 university courses
- 4-20 hours of part time work
- 23 hours of volunteer work

If that's true, I think one of those, or some combination that adds up to one of those, probably needs to be cut from your schedule. Honestly it's probably McDonalds. I know that's not at all what you want to hear, but it's doing the least for you (assuming you can pay bills some other way, like leaning on parents or taking out loans). That's not what I did, I kept the McDonald's-style job and cut the volunteer work. And you could certainly do that and always be able to look back and say you did it on your own steam. But consider this:

- Scale back on coursework = lost wages because of postponed graduation (generally higher wages)
- Scale back on works hours = lost near term wages (but generally low wages)
- Scale back on volunteer work = lost wages because of worse job out of college, or worse negotiating position on your starting salary (generally higher wages).

 

[Tom]

Just to clarify, it's Sixth Form not University, and I am studying 3 subjects as opposed to 5.

The thing is that, although the F1 site I write for have looked into paying me, with McDonald's it's a stable and guaranteed source of income. I mean who's to say that the site won't go under in a year or so? It's a possibility. In the same way that losing my job is also, but it would be a far bigger risk even if it did decrease my workload.

Those are all good causality theories, and likely ones at that. I seem to have this desire to please everyone, and I don't want to 'let anyone down' in a way. I enjoy making people happy, and if it means working umpteen hours, then so be it is my attitude. It's not a bad work ethic to have, but I get the feeling it'll come back to bite me in the arse.

 

[phillgt2002]

Take some time off the radio and ask for a small part of the F1 website to work on for the time being. I don't think quitting the radio also. Seems like you've invested a decent amount of time into. Maybe it'll turn into a full job later on?

 

[neljack]

I reckon 1 Tom 👍. Don't give up the radio

 

[Akmuq]

Drop McDonalds for now until after the exams and sponge off your parents for money, you can live without it for the moment as long as you aren't regularly splurging out money. Afterwards you can get your paying job, be it in McDonalds or somewhere else. Just my thoughts.