'Snowplowing' Kids' Problems at Work Can Backfire, Says 'Mattering' Author

Jason Purvis , 49, who owns the Sidewalk Coffee & Bagel cafe in Queen Creek, Arizona, has been hiring teenagers for years.

Purvis spent 17 years working at Chick-fil-A, both on the corporate side and at restaurants. At the restaurants, 16 and 17-year-olds were "a good 40% of our team," he says.

Before the pandemic, while managing his own Chick-fil-A in Queen Creek, Purvis noticed some chatter on the Chick-fil-A franchise Facebook group. At other chains, parents were coming in "demanding to know certain things about their kids' schedules" and what they were being taught, he says.

It's a pattern Jennifer Wallace , New York Times-bestselling author of "Never Enough" and "Mattering," has seen in her reporting: Parental involvement is following young people into first jobs.