Waitressing

[mkm2119]

Hey everyone!

So I was recently accepted into a PhD program with a TAship that I will start in the fall, and while my financial aid is great a little extra money never hurts as all of you know. Anyway, I was hired to waitress over the summer at a popular steakhouse and I was wondering what y'all think about waitressing as a TA? I would love to continue working some shifts in the fall for some pocket money, but I suppose I'm worried about running into my students. 

 

Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this?

 

Thank you

[dr. t]

If you have a funded PhD, working a side job may be against the terms of your contract. Tolle, lege.

[SuaveSosa]

 

If you have a funded PhD, working a side job may be against the terms of your contract. Tolle, lege.

 

She clearly says her program starts in the fall, so she hasn't started her funded PhD yet.

[geographyrocks]

She clearly says her program starts in the fall, so she hasn't started her funded PhD yet.

She clearly says that she wants to continue waitressing in the fall for extra pocket money.

Your first step should be what telkanuru said. Some programs don't allow outside jobs. If there is no problem, I don't see any issue with continuing the job in the fall. It might be awkward to wait on your students, but no one should think less of you for supplementing your income.

Edited April 21, 2015 by geographyrocks

[scarvesandcardigans]

^ Exactly what I was going to say. I'd check with my program advisor or consult the graduate assistantship handbook (if there is one available) to see if there are any restrictions. Socially, I don't think it's really detrimental. I believe that a lot of people will understand that having money in the bank is a priority and if your students see you, it shouldn't be a problem. If anything, you'd get a chance to talk with them in a non-academic setting, and maybe they might feel more comfortable approaching you in the academic.

[mkm2119]

I didn't even think about a contractual issue! I looked it up in the handbook and it said just no outside work that would be a conflict of interest or interfere with my duties. I don't think picking up a couple of shifts here and there would detract from my performance or constitute a conflict of interest, but I guess I'll have to double check with my program director later on.

[MidwesternAloha]

What they don't know won't hurt them. If you can handle it, make that extra $! Just don't expect your professors to accommodate your outside schedule.

[Sigaba]

What they don't know won't hurt them. If you can handle it, make that extra $! Just don't expect your professors to accommodate your outside schedule.

This is bad advice. Not the least because graduate students need the good will of the Powers That Be and not the other way around. Misleading professors is not a good way to gain favor or access.

Even if policy allows for a graduate student to have outside employment, I recommend that one get the blessings of one's professors and the DGS. If one gets a whiff of push back, think long and hard before taking a job.

[MidwesternAloha]

This is bad advice. Not the least because graduate students need the good will of the Powers That Be and not the other way around. Misleading professors is not a good way to gain favor or access.

Even if policy allows for a graduate student to have outside employment, I recommend that one get the blessings of one's professors and the DGS. If one gets a whiff of push back, think long and hard before taking a job.

It's bad advice to get a job to make ends meet? You must have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth. An adult can get a job if they want one. There is no legal consequence to getting a job on grad school, especially if you need one.

[Sigaba]

It's bad advice to get a job to make ends meet? You must have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth. An adult can get a job if they want one. There is no legal consequence to getting a job on grad school, especially if you need one.

It is bad form to go against the explicit and implicit preferences of those who have a say over one's continued funding and participation in a graduate program.

[ERR_Alpha]

We had someone in my program get kicked out for being a waiter on the side. I would really recommend getting the go-ahead from someone, just to be safe.

[TakeruK]

I didn't even think about a contractual issue! I looked it up in the handbook and it said just no outside work that would be a conflict of interest or interfere with my duties. I don't think picking up a couple of shifts here and there would detract from my performance or constitute a conflict of interest, but I guess I'll have to double check with my program director later on.

 

Be careful with the school policies. At my school, there are two main policies that cover this, and they are "conflict of interest" and "conflict of commitment". Conflict of interest refers to vested interest in your research/graduate studies--for example, if you are doing research on drug X but are also employed by company that makes drug X on the side, then this might be a conflict of interest! Conflict of commitment is probably what this case would be and that refers to conflicting obligations you might have with a side job that detracts from your ability to be a graduate student. 

 

So, if you are reading handbooks, don't just stop at "conflict of interest". And make sure you read all the regulations regarding your funding as well, sometimes the school regulations are not as strict as your funding source. For example, my fellowship requires me to work no more than an average of 10 hours per week (including TAing) while holding said fellowship.

 

As to the "what they don't know won't hurt them", I agree with the spirit that graduate students need to take care of themselves and that we should be able to work evenings and weekends if we want to. But if there are regulations that govern our funding or our status as students, we have the responsibility to follow them too. I think if we feel these regulations are unfair and wish to protest them, we should do so properly--for example, go through the conflict of commitment process and/or appeal the existing regulations. It's up to you whether it's worth the fight though. But overall, I think it is a pretty bad idea to knowingly and sneakily circumvent the rules governing our status and our funding.

 

At my program though, I know people have gone through the conflict of commitment process and got approval to do side jobs when they wanted to. For many cases, it wasn't even a necessity, just something they wanted to do. 

[maelia8]

In my department we are allowed to do side jobs as long as they are no more than "quarter time," i.e. 10-12 hours per week, because a TA-ship is regarded as "half-time" employment based on the number of hours it is supposed to consume. Many if not most grad students that I know have some sort of side job to earn a little money, but most of us do not do things like waitressing - we try to take jobs that are related to academics and will look good on a resume later on. For example, a friend of mine does translation and paper formatting for his advisor's research project a few hours per week, and i work in the research IT department helping with website construction related to digital humanities work. Another person that I know works as an SAT/GRE/college prep tutor. If you find out that you're allowed to take a side job, I recommend asking around in the department or working groups to see if there are any academic-related positions open. Sometimes you can get paid to help with organization and setup of conferences on campus, to name another example.