Teach Your Teen to Be a Good Employee

As a parent, it is your job to help your teen learn how to be a good future employee. You can begin teaching these skills by assigning chores around the house, providing clear instruction, and encouraging good work ethic in everyday life. You can also talk to your teen about how to make a good impression with future employers – by making eye contact, dressing appropriately, and completing jobs cheerfully.

Steps

Teaching Your Teen a Good Work Ethic

1. Emphasize punctuality. One of the most important qualities your teen needs to learn in order to become a good employee is punctuality. Showing up late all the time never reflects well on an employee’s record. Encourage your teen to be on time to events and meetings, even if they are just more casual gatherings.
   • Make an effort to be on time yourself so that your teen can learn from your behavior.
   • If your teen is already employed, be supportive of them getting to work on time each day. Encourage them to prioritize being punctual to their job, and don’t give them instructions that would make them late to their job.
2. Teach accountability with weekly chores. Help your teen learn about showing people they are dependable by assigning them weekly chores as part of their household responsibility. Learning how to handle tasks and complete them on time is an important skill for a good employee to possess.
   • Tell your teen that they need to clear the table and wash the dishes every night after dinner. Or you could make them be in charge of cleaning their room and washing their own clothes.
   • Encourage your teen to get all of their work done on time – whether it is homework, household chores, or tasks related to their job.
3. Practice following directions. Assign your teen tasks and give them specific instructions. Follow up once the task is complete to ensure that they followed your directions. This is an important lesson for your child to master if they want to become a good employee.
   • If your child struggles with following directions, walk them through the task step by step and supervise the process so that they can learn how to do the task on their own.

Helping Your Teen Practice

1. Give them jobs to do around the house. In order to practice the skills your child needs to become a good employee, you should give them jobs to do around the house. In addition to their weekly chores, you can use money as an incentive to complete these additional tasks.
   • You can make the jobs optional if you want, so that your teen learns that you must complete jobs assigned to you in order to earn your paycheck.
2. Encourage your child to volunteer. A great way for your teen to practice the skills needed to become a good employee is by volunteering their time somewhere useful. This helps your child practice feeling responsible in a semi-professional way, especially to someone who is not you (their parents).
   • Your teen could volunteer at a local nursing home, at a nearby hospital, or even at church functions.
3. Allow your teen to babysit. If you have close friends or family who are in need of a babysitter, let your child volunteer for the job. This is a low-pressure way for them to practice being responsible, especially if they are already familiar with the family they would be babysitting for.
   • You could even start by letting your teen babysit at your home, where you can supervise, before they begin doing it at the family’s home.

Helping Your Teen Make a Good Impression

1. Explain the importance of eye contact. Eye contact is a very important element of interacting with other people, especially in professional settings. Maintaining eye contact shows that you are focused and actively engaged in listening to the person. This helps to inform your boss that you are paying attention and will be able to retain whatever information they are passing to you.
   • If your teen struggles with maintaining eye contact during conversations, try practicing holding eye contact together, just the two of you. They can also practice with other friends and family members.
2. Encourage your teen to complete tasks cheerfully. Employers do not want to feel like you hate your job or aren’t happy to be there. Therefore, your teen should try to maintain a positive attitude at work, even when completing menial or unenjoyable tasks.
   • You could try having a deduction system for their chores around the house. Every time your child complains, they earn less money for completing the job.
   • Encourage your child to complete jobs that you (or their boss) didn’t ask them to do. If they see something that needs doing, they should motivate themselves to do it.
3. Advise your teen to discuss their performance with their employer. If your teen is worried about making a good impression at work, encourage them to discuss their performance with their boss. Tell your teen to say that they want to do a good job, and possibly even take on additional responsibility (if they feel ready).
   • Discuss the importance of accepting constructive feedback with your teen. If their boss tells them to change how they are doing the job, it is important that they heed this advice. Instead of taking it a personal affront, they should use it to improve their performance.
4. Help your child pick out some work-appropriate outfits. In order to make a good impression on prospective employers, your teen will need to dress the part. Talk to your child about what is and is not appropriate to wear to various kinds of jobs. Bring up the job they want and discuss together what kinds of outfits would be appropriate for that job.
   • If you or your teen think they don’t have the right kind of clothes for the job, consider purchasing your child some work clothes if you can afford it.
   • Your child also needs to be well-groomed. In addition to dressing appropriately, encourage your child to bathe regularly and groom themselves.

Related Articles

• Be a Good Employee
• Be a Good Teenage Daughter
• Have a Good Teen Life
• Be a Hard Worker

Sources and Citations

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