Summer really is the best time of the year. School's out, the most productive thing you've done in the last month is work on your tan, and the heat definitely beats out the snow. That is, unless you're a seasonal employee.
Seasonal employees are those that only work or are only busy at work during the spring and summer months. We're talking about servers at bars and restaurants in tourist towns, some police officers, ice cream, snow cones, seafood, beach sales—the list could go on forever. The truth of the matter is, if you live in a tourist or beach town and are working for minimum wage, you probably hold a seasonal job.
Sounds easy, right? Only work hard for a few months out of the year and get the other nine off? Wrong. There are some things that only seasonal employees truly understand.
1. The "season" is not just the summer months.
When you think summer, you think June, July, and August. Those are the three months that we are out of school, so it only makes sense for those to be the busiest months. True, these are the three busiest months of the season, but they don't make up the entire season. Business starts picking up on that first 70-degree day in March and doesn't slow down until mid-October or even November. Which means yes, our off season is actually only three months and we work hard for the other nine. Crazy, right?
2. Making ends meet during the off season is rough.
During the winter months, a lot of seasonal employees find other jobs. But for the few of us that happen to work at seasonal businesses that stay open even in the snow, you know what it's like to serve an ice cream cone with a few inches of snow on the ground. Oh yeah, and that's the only cone you've served all night. You work abbreviated shifts and tips are scarce, so you've learned to save your crazy summer income to help you out in the winter. Even then, it's not easy.
3. That first busy night.
We're talking about the night where everybody in town wants you to serve them. People are mad because they've been waiting in line for 20 minutes, you're understaffed because there's no way to tell when that busy night will come, you're not stocked enough, and at the end of the night, everybody is dirty, sweaty, and just wants to sit down. But you can't because now you'll spend an hour cleaning and closing.
4. Tourists have no chill.
You know your customers. You know locals come in the off season and early spring. Older groups come for the events weekend. College students come for spring break. High schoolers come for senior week—which is actually senior month—in June. Families in July and August, and back to the older people in the fall. Not only do you know when they come, but you know which ones are the nice ones. In case you were wondering, it's most likely only locals. Tourists want to make the most out of their vacation and if it means screaming at you because their order isn't what they expected it, coming in five minutes before close, or complaining about the prices for 20 minutes, they will, and they will show no mercy.
5. July Fourth.
This is normally a fun weekend. Everybody dresses up, you decorate the workplace, you sit in traffic for hours—couldn't be better. You understand why you have to leave your house more than an hour before your shift starts and you know every back road and alley to beat the crowd and still get to work at the last minute. The crowd is normally pretty patriotic and also pretty disgruntled, and you get that super slow 10 minutes to relax during the fireworks. But when that 10 minutes is over, prepare yourself to work like crazy until close.
6. You make the best memories here.
My best friends came from my seasonal job. When you work with the same people into the early hours of the morning six nights a week, you build bonds. My time at my seasonal job is coming to an end as I look toward graduation in December, but my fondest moments are the ones that involved staying after close and ordering pizza, dressing up and taking pictures, going out after work, and having friendships that will last forever. No matter how many years you work at your seasonal job, you know the people you work with that summer will become your best friends. The nights are long and the tourists are angry, but the good times always make up for that.
