By Ashley Voong | Staff Writer

   ‘Tis the season of giving back.

   This holiday season, Gabrielino High School student workers are contributing to make dining and retail shopping experiences less stressful for the community. Seniors William Sjafri and Tony Attallah are among the group of student workers who are making sacrifices to provide quality customer service and ensure people can get their holiday shopping done safely amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

   Sjafri works at a local dessert chain, Meet Fresh, as a storefront associate. His job consists of taking orders, making desserts and drinks, and cleaning the store. This is nothing out of the ordinary for Sjafri seeing that he previously had two years of experience working in the food industry. He describes his job as simple and has not experienced any stressful encounters, considering he only works night shifts.

   “At first, since [I was unfamiliar] with the menu, I didn’t know anything and struggled at the time, but right now, not really,” stated Sjafri.

   Regardless of the holiday season, as COVID-19 cases rise, the business has been slow and his job has not been as busy as restaurants usually are during this time of year. 

   This differed from Attallah’s experiences as he has worked in the retail industry for over a month now. Attallah works at Foot Locker and his duties include assisting customers in finding shoes, bringing them out from the stock room for customers to try on, and keeping the place clean. 

   “I work ten hours a week, maybe more sometimes depending on how busy [the manager] predicts the week is going to be,” he explained.

   Attallah’s workday begins after school but he has recently taken on more hours to meet the demands of customers. With more customers trying to complete their Christmas shopping, he must work efficiently to provide people with what they need while still taking safety precautions, like contactless exchanging of shoes, extensive sanitizing, and limiting store capacity.

   “It does get pretty stressful when four people are asking you to pick out a shoe size at the same time,” said Attallah, “but overall, I really like my job and I just like helping people in general.”

   Both Sjafri and Attallah approach their work with an optimistic attitude and put the needs of customers first. Their positivity and readiness to help others is just what the world needs this holiday season.