Johnny’s Café and the dining halls experience significant turnover rates among student workers for reasons such as academic stress and moving on to other jobs. Johnny’s Café and Commons Dining Hall had retention rates of about 50 percent, while Knollcrest Dining Hall had a retention rate of 66 percent, according to Melissa Smith, food service manager at Calvin Dining Services.

Melissa Smith, food service manager at Calvin, highlighted the flexibility of schedules in jobs with Calvin Dining Services. “We offer so many different shifts [at the dining halls]. We have anywhere from breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night, night crew; an abundance of shifts.”

Students can also choose how many hours they plan to work per week. In addition, students have the opportunity to move up the ladder and become student managers at the dining halls and in Johnny’s Cafe. Another benefit, according to Smith, is the friendly working environment. Students get to meet new people and build friendships.

In spite of this, not everyone who has worked in food service jobs on campus has had a positive experience, particularly when it comes to Johnny’s Café. Students (who wished not to be named) cited stress as one of the primary reasons why they left Johnny’s Café. They explained that they were required to work a night shift at least twice a week. These night shifts (supposedly from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.) would often go past midnight, which left less time for students to get their coursework done and consequently lose sleep. One student said the experience was “mentally draining.”

Dining services supervisor Mark Becker cited academic load as the main reason why students leave their jobs at Johnny’s, saying, “As some [students] rise into their sophomore, junior or senior years, their classes become more difficult.”

Another student pointed out that while Johnny’s was a good work experience with friends, some shifts were unenjoyable because of unfriendly student managers. Other reasons students cited for quitting the food services on campus included finding jobs with better pay, “laziness,” and finding jobs that are related to the students’ majors or personal interests.

“The dining hall is great for incoming freshmen… and then eventually they find things that are specific to their major, so they move on,” said Smith.

Students who are interested in working at Johnny’s or the dining halls can find more information on Handshake and pick up application forms where they would like to work.