A Phenomenological Study: Struggles of GJC Senior High School Student Part-Time Workers

Abstract

When the pandemic reached the Philippines, everyone had to adjust to new conditions, especially the most affected students (Van et al., 2010). According to Abenoja et al., in 2019, students with part-time jobs faced various challenges compared to other students. This study's purpose was to refine further the conclusions, present guidelines for helping student part-timers build coping mechanisms and tactics, and seek why the respondents have joined their part-time jobs. This study aims to provide detailed information regarding the respondents' experiences as student part-time workers during and after the pandemic. Additionally, it seeks to address the problems that student part-timers encounter by offering possible solutions. The researchers utilized a qualitative methodology, precisely a phenomenological approach to identify student part-time workers' struggles during and after the pandemic. The interview used ten (10) respondents from the Senior High School Department working part-time. The study effectively obtained carefully analyzed data to address the research objectives using a recorded face-to-face interview, a voice recording, and a semi-structured interview. The result shows that the respondents work on art commissions and in business. Most of the respondents claimed that they struggle with time management. And they developed more effective time management skills by creating and planning their schedules, which helped them handle the many tasks they had to complete because they had several responsibilities. In this study, student part-time workers battled with time management. Combining education, work, and other obligations is difficult for them. Most students adopted time management as a coping strategy to address their difficulties. Managing their time well allows them to deal with their difficulties.