(FINAL) Podcast #3–Building Solutions for Workers and Leaners

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss practical solutions to improve the working conditions and overall experience of student workers. They are joined by two guests, Sean and Hina, who share their experiences and insights. One of the main areas of focus is career readiness, with a need for better support in finding career-related opportunities within departments. They also highlight the importance of resources and skill workshops to prepare students for the job market. Another area of concern is workers' rights for student workers, with recommendations including the establishment of a help center for legal aid and more dialogue between professors and labor organizations. The hosts mention ongoing efforts to address issues like financial aid reform, mental health support, and increased scheduling flexibility. They believe these solutions can make a real difference in students' day-to-day lives by easing their workload and allowing them to focus on learning and earning their degrees Hello, and welcome back to our podcast series on Workers and Learners. I'm Jimmy, one of your hosts. And I'm Rithika. Over the past two episodes, we've explored the reality student workers face and shared some of our research findings. Today, we're focusing on solutions, practical steps that institutions, employers, and students themselves can take to improve working conditions and the overall experience of student workers everywhere. We have two awesome guests with us today, Sean and Hina, both student workers at the UCLA Labor Center who've been deeply involved in this research effort. Sean and Hina, welcome. Sean, let's start with you. Could you share a bit about your background, how you got involved in student worker advocacy and your experience struggling work in classes? Yes, of course. So I feel like being a labor studies student, you're kind of automatically involved with so many student advocacy work and stuff like protests, sit-ins or demonstrations are kind of just more known to you because your professors are always talking about them in class. And I guess when it comes to my experience struggling work in classes, I'm very much like a Google Calendar person. I really needed to function because if I don't use it, I could really just end up missing a class or some responsibility that I was supposed to get done for my job. And I think it can kind of be a little overbearing for my day-to-day life, like seeing my Google Calendar filled up from like 8am to like 10pm and not finding a place to eat. But other than that, I feel like I've been able to juggle it through like outside resources. That's great to hear. Hina, how about you? What led you to the Labor Center? And how does being a student worker shape your day-to-day life? Yeah, of course. So I first started as a political science major at UCLA. And I really loved learning about the way society works and whatnot, our governmental institutions, but I really wanted all I learned to work towards something greater. And I truly believe that class consciousness and starting from the grassroots up is how we bring our country together once more. And so I got involved in the Labor Center, I am now double majoring in Labor Studies and Political Science. And it's honestly been one of the best decisions I could have made. And I am a student worker, I work at the UCLA Labor Center, and I'm also an intern at NBCLA. So juggling those two jobs of school, you know, kind of hard, but I think all the work I do is really fulfilling. And like Sean said, you know, you really have to space things out and make time for yourself and not just make time to get the homework done and the work done, but also for self care, and to take care of your essential needs and make time to eat as well. Thank you. Now that we know more about your experiences, let's talk about recommendations. One area you both focused on is career readiness. Could you walk us through some of the ideas you've developed? Yeah, sure thing. So beginning this quarter, one of the key issues our research highlighted is that many students keep ending up in jobs that don't align with their major. And this is kind of due to the fact that they don't feel supported in finding career related opportunities within the department, such as internships, or workshops, or kind of assistant positions under professors. So to address that, we kind of are doing this informal assessment of each department and identify what they do offer career readiness wise. And we're trying to compile that data to understand like the best practices for the most success for students, and sharing it to some departments that really need to strengthen their support to students. I think we had some student from the World Arts and Culture Department talk about how their very first class at UCLA, the professor just straight up said, you will not be getting a job that has to do with your major after you graduate. And while that might be the harsh truth that some students could hear, it can be really discouraging to like first gen students or new people new to higher education. And we're trying to give the word out to what these departments could do better. Yeah, and I think that's a big problem in higher education, especially when you enter a job market, you're applying with what's on your resume. And the lack of resources and skill workshops that we have our school, you know, they're oftentimes difficult to find it does come out when you're applying for jobs. And so it's so, so important that our school offers adequate resources. And so we hope that our work will help students figure out exactly where they can find these resources, you know, internships, mentoring sessions, skill based workshops on one place. We also think it'll highlight resources that are lacking, so we can share with departments that may need to step up their support. That sounds like a fantastic way to address the lack of support many students feel about career preparation. Have you two personally struggled to find relevant career information? Oh, absolutely. You know, I started off UCLA wanting to go to law school. And you know, once I made a career shift to go into journalism, I had to dig through random flyers, I had to scroll hours through job searches and handshake. It's just so hard to track down an internship in my field. And it really shouldn't be that hard to get into. And then how about you, Sean? Have you personally struggled to find relevant career information? Yeah, absolutely. I think for me personally, my strategy was signing up for so many newsletters for so many clubs that I never really attended to, I was just signing up for everyone's newsletters to see what internships or positions they were offering. And kind of with that, I created like this big Google spreadsheet of like, what opportunities I did find. But even with that, it was kind of hard because I didn't know that you need like, letters of recommendation and stuff like that. And there's nothing really there to like guide me because just like you know, I also wanted to go to law school. I still do, but I'm finding it very difficult to navigate that journey at the moment. In addition to career readiness, you've both been working on recommendations to advance workers' rights for student workers. What do these look like? Yeah, so I mean, this comes in many forms. But starting now, we want to see stronger institutional support for students facing workplace issues like wage theft, unfair scheduling, harassment. And one idea we've come up with is to create a help center where students can go to advice or referrals to get legal aid, especially if they run into any labor violations, which are way more widespread than we think. We also think more dialogue between professors, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and the Labor Center could spark better policy and conversation between them all. Yeah, and just adding on to that, we really want to make it more proactive. So right now we're suggesting kind of like an office hours situation where these professors or labor organizers, or even law students with specializations in labor issues, kind of like have this open office that students can bring in their specific situations. That way, students are equipped with like more practical knowledge of their workers' rights. So they're not just left in the dark whenever they get sniffed on a paycheck, or they're getting cut hours at the job. They know what illegal actions they could be taking in order to combat any mistreatment they're facing in the workplace. Yeah, we definitely agree like how important that is. Having an accessible help center and established partnerships can really reduce like the isolation that student workers feel when problems pop up. So that's really, really cool to hear. These two ideas, career readiness and workers' rights, are already game changers. But I know we're also gathering more recommendations to address issues like financial aid reform, mental health support, and increased scheduling flexibility. While we keep refining those ideas, I'd love to hear how each of you sees these solutions making a real difference in students' day-to-day lives. Yeah, of course, I think something like the help center is really, really crucial and beneficial to a student's day-to-day life. I think because we're young workers, there's a lot of people who this might be their first job or their first internship, they don't really read through the terms and conditions, I guess you could say. And so when they're doing their job, and then tone that they're being set with is like being like yelled at at work constantly or not being given any grace or like being paid really inconsistently, they might learn and live to expect that in their day-to-day jobs. And that's something that we shouldn't be expecting. They should be able to like stand up for themselves and self-advocate. And honestly, if these changes have been in place when I started working, I would have saved hours each week not even stressing or not scrambling to find internships or figure out was I in the wrong or was my employer doing what's right. And it's kind of just about easing the load on these students so that the main focus they could have is on learning and earning their degree, but also earning money that could use to cover their daily expenses. Exactly. And you know, I work two jobs. And you know, I'm part of the bigger narrative of being a student worker. We're collecting real stories from real students. And we really can't ignore how exhausting it is to work 20 to 30 hours a week, while also juggling a full course load and giving the students the resources to enforce their rights and have clear paths to career development, respect their time and their future. Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself, honestly. And I think that the people that we studied and even Jimmy and I definitely agree with everything you had to say. So for everyone listening, we'll be posting a full list of recommendations on our website soon. So keep an eye out for financial aid reform suggestions, flexible scheduling policy templates, and more ways to stay engaged. And that's it for this episode, but we're not done sharing solutions. As always, check out our website for the latest research updates, in-depth interviews and upcoming events. And if this conversation resonated with you, please share the episode with friends and fellow student workers. We want as many voices as possible involved in shaping the next steps. Thank you so much, guys, for having us. It's been awesome to talk about how we can turn the struggles we faced into more tangible improvements. For sure. And thank you all for listening. And always remember student workers issues are everyone's issues.