Student job bans workers from doing homework during downtime after employee missed a work order, students protest: 'I’m struggling to understand'

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Oct 1, 2026 4:30 PM EDT

Should you be allowed to do homework while you work?

Any job that allows this is above most in terms of leeway. Most jobs frown upon any use of company time for personal needs, outside of the very basic ones. It follows that if you have free time in your workday, there is probably more work you should be doing. If you have time to lean, you have time to clean, goes the old adage. But some jobs are truly simple and require a lot of downtime. If you're in one of those special kinds of jobs, you know that once leisure gets in the way of work, things are bound to be on thin ice. The second a work task is overlooked because your eye was off the ball, that might be the end of leisure time. This job, though, took a different approach to that, and one that didn't make a lot of sense to the employees involved. 

The way they saw it, if their boss was continuing to allow them to read or listen to music, why shouldn't they be allowed to do some homework? There is nothing worse than sitting, knowing you could be doing something pressing, but not being able to. Homework hanging over your head is not a great thing, and if you have some time and space to complete it, you should probably use it. But if you're at work and being paid to do something, it's probably not the time to do so. 

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A student does homework at a desk with a laptop
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A student does homework at a desk with a laptop

My student job banned homework during downtime.

I'm a full-time nursing student, and this week has been brutal. I've had three exams plus other assignments on top of everything else.
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I work as a receptionist for my school's maintenance department through the work- study program. The program is designed to allow us time for schoolwork while we are working. My job is mainly to answer calls and direct work orders to the appropriate departments. It's usually very quiet, and once everything is done, there genuinely isn't much else to do, so we've always been allowed to study or work on homework during downtime.
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Yesterday, another coworker and I missed one work order that came in shortly before we closed at 4:30. Neither of us saw it because we were focused on our homework. I completely understand that this was a problem on my part, and I know I need to be checking the system regularly.
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Today, after my exams, my boss told me we are no longer allowed to do homework while at work because we were too focused on it. I apologized and told her it wouldn't happen again. She said it was okay, but the no-homework rule still stands. This is the first time something like this has happened in the two years I've worked there.
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I asked what we were supposed to do when all of our work was finished, and she said we could listen to music, read a book, or find another activity to do. That's what I'm struggling to understand. I could get just as absorbed in a book or music as I could in homework, so I don't really see how banning homework specifically solves the problem.
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I'm also frustrated because I don't have much free time outside of work to get schoolwork done. I have a six- hour shift coming up, and I'm honestly dreading sitting there for hours knowing I have a pile of nursing school work waiting for me that directly affects my future.
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I know missing the work order was our mistake, and I'm not trying to avoid responsibility for that. I feel like a better solution would be requiring us to check the system every few minutes or setting a timer, rather than banning homework completely. Would talking to her help, or should I just leave it?`
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The student workers in this story were frustrated that they lost their privilege to do homework on the clock. They wanted to use the time to their advantage and had enough downtime to do so. But after an incident where work was missed, the chance to do this went away. They were left wondering what they could do in this situation, and what, if any, upper hand they had in the situation. Keep reading to see what happened here and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Commenters agreed that this was a privilege, not a right.

nebetya I work at a university and hire student workers. Just because we all call it 'Work-Study, that is the name of the federal program, there isn't any guarantee (and it is not designed) to allow time or ability to do homework (unless your school has a separate program from Federal Work Study). The 'work' is that you have a job on campus and the 'study' just means you're taking classes.
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If I had to speculate, someone got in trouble for the missed maintenance request. There are a lot of big personalities in universities and sometimes staff (as opposed to faculty or administrators) are easy targets. So there has to be some kind of consequences and it sounds like they landed on 'no homework, but you can read or listen to music' because they don't want to give you a bunch of busywork.
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In the meantime, grab a cheap Kindle or ereader, send pdfs of articles and ebooks. Check your library- many textbooks and such are probably available as ebooks, or you may be able to request scans of specific chapters if not. A lot of copiers can scan to a flash drive or send
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A student writes down something at a notebook at a desk
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A student writes down something at a notebook at a desk

to email, so you can make some copies yourself then email to your ereader. You can manage readings that way. Start looking for another job. I would definitely suggest reaching out to your favorite nursing faculty member to see if they have any department office openings. Those are often lower stakes jobs where you might have more uninterrupted time to study after completing whatever assigned tasks.
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Overall-Fig3079 You feel like a better system would be requiring you to look every few minutes? Honey, that was your job. You were supposed to do that and didn't. C
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Professional_Sir_818 Unless things have changed a lot since I was in college, work-study just means the job gets subsidized by the federal government so they have an incentive to hire work-study students and work around your class schedule. It has never meant that you have the option to actually study while you're at work.
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Therinne Moonglow "Work study" doesn't mean do your homework at work. It's just the name of the federal program that funds your pay. My work study job was in the cafeteria, and I certainly didn't get time for homework there. You dropped the ball, and now there are consequences. Life happens. This is how jobs work.
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moonhippie Believe it or not, you have exactly zero right to do homework at work - it's not what you get paid for. It was a privilege. You quite nicely f ed that up for everyone. Best leave it alone and pray minds get changed.
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Lost-Appearance6304 Even with the ban on homework, the job is still giving you much more leeway than workplaces would. I would just be grateful that they're still fine with allowing you to read books and hang out, rather than finding tedious, monotonous tasks just to keep you busy.
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Queasy_Sky7320 Stop whining. You messed up and that has consequences. It's still a workplace with a job to do, it's not just there for you. I hope you don't neglect a future patient because of your selfish needs.
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Starbuck522 My guess is this rule will blow over and people will go back to studying/doing homework during downtime. I agree that you making the argument "I could get wrapped up in a book" may well lead to you just have to
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sit there doing nothing. Which is excruciating. So I don't reccomend that. Maybe the supervisor saying you can read a book IS them being understanding, but they are stuck with someone above them who decided "no home work while on the clock".
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I suggest setting alarms and looking like "reading a book", and hopefully things. will go back to how they were soon. It's very lucky you can earn money while not being given work to do. Are you sure it's meant to be that way rather than just a lucky side effect? Are other people with different assignments all getting the same amounts of downtime where they can study?
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Impossible_Link8199 Just hope this blows over. Don't resist or try to talk to her about it for a good long while. At some point, maybe you can bring it up with the understanding that while you're on shift- the job will come first. But you're going to have to prove you're responsible enough to prioritize at work first.
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And lastly, find ways to read a book or study that are less conspicuous than a laptop and notebook, or whatever and I'm sure they're not going to notice much as long as you're actually doing the thing you're paid to do while you're there.
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