Ethan T. Maldonado Student workers juggle jobs, finals and holiday stress
Jose Rodriguez/THE RIDER
As the holiday season begins, some UTRGV students are trading study breaks for longer shifts and crowded workplaces. Between retail, restaurants and coffee shops, the rush to serve customers often overlaps with the race to finish final exams.
The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas are some of the busiest of the year for employees in the Rio Grande Valley. Allison Murray, an early childhood studies junior, said her team at Warbler Coffee in Brownsville starts preparing as early as October.
Murray said the extra hours help cover travel and expenses, but they also add to the stress of balancing schoolwork and holiday costs.
“We always anticipate the rushes when it comes into the holiday seasons,” she said. “We know people from out of town come back home to Brownsville. … It gets really busy, and we just kind of mentally prepare ourselves.”
Murray said she usually works more than 30 hours a week at the café on top of her job with UTRGV’s College of Education and relies on time management and open communication with her supervisors to keep everything balanced.
“I’m just a person that loves to be busy,” Murray added. “But I also am a person that prioritizes time management—communication with both of my bosses and just having a good support system.”
For Michelle Zapata, a mass communication junior who works at a Chick-fil-A in Donna, the holiday rush means longer shifts and heavier workloads as customers crowd in for seasonal events and high school football games.
“There’s much more of a stress level in the workspace because everyone’s trying to get all the orders out,” Zapata said. “Even with more people on staff, there’s way more customers, so it gets difficult to keep up.”
Zapata said she tries to use her limited free time for rest, even though coursework often falls behind.
“I try my best, but it’s hard,” she said. “I have video assignments to edit and, when my shifts are longer than usual, I come home tired and just want to relax.”
Both students said they look forward to the calm that follows once the semester ends and the rush fades.
“Things get clouded during the holidays but, once the calmness comes after the storm, you realize, ‘Wow, we made it through another one,’” Murray said. “There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.”
–Mykel Del Angel contributed to the story.
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