Is It Worth It?

About a year ago, just before the world came to a halt, I was offered one of my first ever job promotions. I had been working at a cafe located on-campus for about a year and a half, when there became rumors of our boss giving another student the opportunity to become a shift lead. It really wasn’t much of a second thought that most people believed I would be the one to take on that role, and at the time so did I. But then reality hit when my boss gave me the opportunity to promote.

At first I was thrilled and grateful he even thought of me. “It can help build my resume and the intrinsic compensation that my work can help other employees around me,” I (obviously) thought to myself. However, the real thing a starving college student wants to know is what kind of extrinsic compensation I would be getting. That, it turned out, was only about 20 cents more an hour than what I was already making. I had to weigh out all of my options with my school work load and if I could really afford to take on the hours and work needed to be a successful shift lead. I unfortunately had to pass up the opportunity, because school was my number one priority and 20 cents more an hour was not enough extrinsic compensation for me. I think compensation motivated that behavior, because if I would have gotten a more substantial raise that would have been worth it then I most likely would have taken it.