Something has to Change in the Workplace

When you are unemployed its almost a given that you will need to work for free (a little bit!) to sort the situation out. It kinda works alongside the principle of ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours back’. I’ve had to do and its always been a bit of a pain – but in the long term its helped me secure employment. I’d almost like to say its because “I’m brilliant”, but more likely is because I’ve ‘put myself out’.

When you finish University in the UK – its almost a given that an internship will do you wonders when it comes to jazzing up the fact that probably you are an uncultured berk, who has never really done anything other then study.

The idea of an internship is generally met with happiness by those who can afford to ‘do the right thing’ and work for free in a big city such as London, New York or even Paris. For those who don’t have a penny getting an internship might be easy, but will financially cost them a great deal.

Lifetracks has some invaluable information. Thanks to Nellsberry for the excellent heads up.

Its fair to say that actually interns are probably taken advantage of by companies looking to drop their tax rates at the expense of a young person who is entering into a very tough world.

Below are some aggregated points I have found regarding essentially the unfairness of an internship and how perhaps in many ways it is a form of 1st World Slavery, plus how the diminishing job market is meaning the competition for essentially a training role is getting tougher as employers look for ‘interns’ with professional skills.

It is wrong to expect free work from anyone. Unpaid internships give the advantage to a small number of elite students who are rich to begin with and can afford on top of their living costs and tuition to work for free, mainly because of mommy and daddy. This automatically screws over all the rest of young students who are struggling with finances and have to work for money.

It most certainly displaces regular employees, especially I’m seeing in design fields. Even if the unpaid interns are not as skilled as potential employees it doesn’t matter because free lousy work is still more advantageous to companies than actually having to pay employees. Slavery is really great for the slave owners.

It is a vicious cycle in a tough economic climate where people and students are so desperate for anything that resembles a job that they will take it and students want internships. However, when they graduate they will find that most of the entry level jobs they would be applying to are now being filled by the unpaid interns, effectively reducing the number of paying opportunities that are available to them.

If you look at the requirement lists for many of these unpaid internships they are becoming increasingly involved where the interns need to have more and more professional skills to begin with and not to learn them there, this makes it obvious that they are competing with regular employees and professionals looking for work.

If you look at the situation and players rationally, which are a) companies tight for money in a bad economy and b) desperate young students and graduates fighting tooth and nail over a diminishing job market, its hard to say that no kind of wrongful exploitation is going to happen. The stage is set for it and the ignorance and apathy towards the law fuels it.

Unpaid internships are severely hurting our country and exploiting our youth and taking jobs away from those who desperately need it. I don’t understand how people can support systems where people are not paid for their time and efforts. In the past it wasn’t unpaid internships, it was indentured servants or slavery. It would be OK if we could trust all companies to respect the unpaid internship and truly set up the positions to educate and enrich the participants but this is putting way too much responsibility and optimism in the hands of companies.

Just so there is no confusion here are the criteria that must be followed in order to merit an unpaid position in the Fair Labor Standards Act:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the
   employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic
   educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close
   observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the
   activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually
   be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training
   period; and

The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to
wages for the time spent in training.

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• Creating Internships Out of Thin Air (online.wsj.com)
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• Labor Officials Examines Practice of Unpaid Internships (ybpguide.com)