ARTICLE AD
Jason Purvis, 49, who owns the Sidewalk Coffee & Bagel cafe in Queen Creek, Arizona, has been hiring teenagers for years.
Purvis spent 17 years working at Chick-fil-A, both on the corporate side and at restaurants. At the restaurants, 16 and 17-year-olds were "a good 40% of our team," he says.
Before the pandemic, while managing his own Chick-fil-A in Queen Creek, Purvis noticed some chatter on the Chick-fil-A franchise Facebook group. At other chains, parents were coming in "demanding to know certain things about their kids' schedules" and what they were being taught, he says.
It's a pattern Jennifer Wallace, New York Times-bestselling author of "Never Enough" and "Mattering," has seen in her reporting: Parental involvement is following young people into first jobs.
Instead of kids taking full ownership of their work lives, some employers are seeing parents emailing management to get kids' schedules and notifying higher-ups if they can't work a certain day, for example.
The phenomenon might fall under a category often dubbed "snowplow parenting" or "helicopter parenting." Not only does the practice undermine the teen's abilities in front of their employer, it can hurt them long term, as they miss out on foundational skill development, say employers like Purvis.
Here's why that approach can backfire.
An employer may wonder if 'the teenager can communicate independently'
"Snowplowing" is defined as parents constantly removing obstacles in their kids' way so they don't have to deal with those challenges, educator and bestselling author of "How to Raise Successful People" Esther Wojcicki previously told CNBC Make It.
Many parents have absorbed the message that "every grade, activity, recommendation, and early work experience could impact their child's future," says Wallace.
So when parents try to solve their kids' problems for them, they're doing it out of both love and anxiety, she says. But there are risks to this approach.
"An employer may reasonably wonder whether the teenager can communicate independently, accept feedback, exercise judgment, and take responsibility," says Wallace. They wonder if that teen can do the job at all.
But "the deeper cost is developmental," she says.
When a parent sends an email to a child's employer on their behalf, "the young adults don't learn to do it for themselves," says Denise Beckson, vice president and chief administrative officer at Morey's Piers, which owns and operates water parks, rides and eateries along the Wildwood, New Jersey, boardwalk. She regularly hires teenagers and has needed to navigate the influence of employees' parents.
By fighting battles for their kids, parents also rob kids of the opportunity to build self-confidence. "[They] remove the evidence their children need in order to believe, 'I can handle hard things,'" says Wallace.
'The goal is not to guarantee that your child never struggles at work'
Given this pattern, Wallace has some advice.
For teens, ask your parents for help navigating your work relationships by weighing in on an email you write yourself, for example, not by having them do it. And when you make a mistake at work, acknowledge it to your employer and apologize for what happened, if appropriate.
"That kind of ownership may actually leave an employer with a stronger impression of your maturity," she says.
For parents, she says, before intervening, ask yourself, "Am I helping my child build a skill, or am I demonstrating that I don't believe they can use it?" Never do for a teen what you know they can do for themselves.
"The goal is not to guarantee that your child never struggles at work," she says. "It is to help raise a young person who knows that when struggle comes, they can meet it."
Take control of your money with CNBC Select
