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33 minutes ago
Saturday, December 15, 2012
The Unpaid Internship
It's bad enough that so many companies have unpaid internships. Recently I've learned that people are paying for the privilege of working for free.
We've gone backwards. In the Middle Ages, apprentices would work for free for their masters. Even so, the master had to provide room and board, along with actually teaching a skill. Slavery is bad, but at least the slaves have their basic needs attended to.
In principle, I have nothing against working for free. I do it all the time for family and friends. Heck, I'll even help out a stranger for free -brotherhood of man and all that.
Unpaid internships for a company are another animal entirely. It can be argued that skills are being taught. Maybe so. We used to call it on the job training. Wages were lower, because the worker had no skills, but they got paid. For me, the idea of paying someone to then be able to work for free goes beyond the pale.
If I work for free for family, friends or as a kindness to strangers, I'm part of the gift economy. The community is better for it. People's lives are just a bit better. If I refuse payment and tell the person to pay it forward, the good deed keeps on doing good. The world gets a bit better.
Work for free for a big corporation and their bottom line looks a bit better. Where has that brought us? To the point where they are even greedier and now require money for the joys of slavery.
Of course, I suppose some people really want to grow up to be corporate tools. In that case, paying for an internship is an excellent way to serve your new masters.
-Sixbears
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I can't remember if it was here on another day, or somewhere else that I read that there's documentation that people who start working for free never catch up in earnings with those who don't.
ReplyDeleteWasn't here, but it doesn't surprise me.
DeleteThere's not much about the world that's looking good these days is there...
ReplyDeleteThere's me. I'm looking good. :) *for a special definition of good.
DeleteOur only child worked for a famous politician she got paid her friends got a chicken pot pie luncheon where they never got to meet the famous politician..Our child got paid to the t and never did it again, they wanted her to work for President Obama this was the first election for free, she said no and they were none to pleased..Her professors all women at a women's teaching university said if you work for free you don't value your education & that what you strived for my child never has worked for free and one lady did not pay her correctly for babysitting, she has manners, I called and went to her home and her husband handed me a $10.00 bill it wasn't that much and apologized, they called for her to babysit again and again and my child politely took the phone and said she had other plans that night NOT..she always remembered how they treated her and they made 6 figures to boot..she is a november baby doll and always figures if you got the money for a movie, dinner at a fancy schmancy place you gotta really pay the sitter well cause kids now a days don't even babysit at all, she made plenty babysitting for the administrators of her high school and when she graduated from high school and junior college the saturday after her many friends she babysat for from high school administrators were there to cheer her on and leave cards with lots of cash for her university studies and yes they spelled her name correctly and the little wee ones she babysat made her lovely cards she has in albums here in her home with her momma and poppa..We live about 9 minutes from the shopping center where that nutcase took his arsenal and gunned down a hospice nurse and a fellow who was outstanding to all human beings, radio, tv fellow just opening a Kiosk in an electronic field...and that 15 year old with no health insurance (took about 2 hours to get her to a trauma hospital) oh, my God..My husband wonders if the news meadia shielded a lot of what really went on in the largest mall in two states Oregon and Washington..I hate that mall, too damn big, two tiers and one always gets the feelings of one cannot get outside for air or to escape and boom the unthinkable happened, my husband an army veteran with the highest rating for the shooting competition, wished he would have been near, he if armed would have taken out his gun and got rid of that piece of you know what, only 20and a killer, not mentally ill at all wanted to kill and be killed and he did kill himself!!!!!!!!!!! Or so they say, my husband thinks they did not tell what happened in that mall for fear no one would shop there, well hells bells we are never going into that place, it is full of the spirits of the murdered two wonderful human beings and that gal at 15 has many years of operations and health problems, all cause some you know what wanted to kill someone(s) oh, my living God....
ReplyDeleteYour child knows that if she doesn't value her time, no one else will either. Very wise, and from a young age too.
DeleteThese mass shooting stir up a lot of painful memories -as if things aren't tough enough.
Keep well. Thanks for stopping by.
Let's all chip in and buy some paragraph breaks for Anonymous this Xmas.
ReplyDeleteYou are so generous around the holidays.
DeleteWithout wishing to deride Anonymous, that's a very funny comment Paracynic...
Delete