Many adults exaggerate how mentally and physically tired they are due to work. Specifically, parents constantly tell their kids how exhausting it is to come home from work and still have things to do. However, kids tend to go through similar exhaustion with school. 

Schools and jobs both vary in attendance. “In school, no matter how bad the social environment gets, how grim the hurt feelings, however much suffering you face, you have to keep coming back day after day, year after year. The same people, the same problems,” Jeffrey A. Tucker, from Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), said.“You can even choose not to work at all. It means that everyone there is there by choice and has that job because someone wants to pay them to do it.” When things get hard, workers are free to quit whenever they want and find a new job.

The majority of people that work learn to separate personal conflicts from work conflicts. People who can’t learn this skill aren’t trusted, respected, or successful, and fall short in the company. However, those who have learned to separate personal conflicts from work conflicts earn trust and respect, and rise in the company, which is the succeeding path. “This cultivates a certain pettiness and leads students to believe that savvy social navigation, even at the expense of others, is their main task,” Tucker said. “And there are certain conventions: for instance, you never, under any circumstances, use your position or title to wage personal battles that have nothing to do with work.”

Adults exaggerate work as a tiring place that takes a toll on their mental and physical state. What most adults don’t put in mind is that school can be just as physically and mentally exhausting. Both places take a toll on everyone with stress being the major reason.

Julia Mesquita Gomes Carneiro, an 11th grader at Pompano Beach High School, works on weekends and limits her working time by not working more than 16 hours a week. However, she believes that work has negatively impacted her energy levels and free time which is needed for her mental health and managing her friendships. “I think school is significantly more difficult than work, having to balance personal relationships, homework, and tests as well as keeping good grades and doing extracurriculars, but regardless, I prefer going to school over working. School offers me more social opportunities than work,” Carneiro said.