I’ve been working at Five Guys for 10 months, half of that time during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the virus first became a threat in Minnesota, our dysfunctional and laid back form of online school was easy to manage, allowing me to pick up many shifts at work. I would have all my work done the same day it was assigned and then go in to work a 5 or 6-hour shift.

However, once the new school year began, I quickly saw how different things would be. With classes being run throughout the day, I have to attend Zoom calls until either 2:25 or 3:15 p.m. Because our location is understaffed, I’m being assigned closing shifts, going in at 4:30 p.m and staying until 11 p.m. This gives me a very small amount of time to do my work.

Furthermore, even with my little time to do work, I have other problems. I don’t always find myself maximizing my time in between classes during our work time. Video games, talking to friends and watching Youtube all affect how productive I am. This leaves me with about an hour and a half between my last call and work to cram in textbook reading, lecture watching and note-taking for classes.

Luckily, I only work two weeknights with one night often being a Tuesday. Wednesdays are the days I’m most flexible, allowing me to catch up on things directly in the middle of the week. If I don’t get things done before work Tuesday night, I have all of Wednesday to set up meetings with teachers or just sit down and work.

While it has been difficult to decide how I manage my time between work and school, I’m slowly learning how to do so. Sadly, I can’t work the same hours I was working last semester. Instead, I’m spending more time doing school work.