In light of the recent conversations about unpaid internships, I thought
some list members might be interested in this event taking place tomorrow
(Wed) at 'Pages of Hackney', my local bookshop in East London:
Intern Nation By Ross Perlin
Wednesday June 1st, 7pm
£3
http://www.pagesofhackney.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id
=48&Itemid=53
"The first no-holds-barred exposé of the exploitative and divisive world of
internships."
Every year, between 1 and 2 million Americans work as interns. They famously
shuttle coffee in a thousand newsrooms, congressional offices, and Hollywood
studios, but they also deliver aid in Afghanistan, build the human genome,
and pick up garbage. They are increasingly of all ages, and their numbers
are growing fast‹from 17 percent of college graduates in 1992 to 50 percent
in 2008. Almost half of all internships are illegal under the Fair Labor
Standards Act, and this mass exploitation saves firms more than $600 million
each year. Interns enjoy no workplace protections and no standing in courts
of law‹let alone benefits like healthcare.
Ross Perlin, an ex-intern himself, has written the first exposé of this
world of drudgery and aspiration. In this witty, astonishing, and serious
investigative work, Perlin takes the reader inside both boutique nonprofits
and megacorporations such as Disney (which employs 8,000 interns at Disney
World alone). He profiles fellow interns, talks to historians about what
unleashed this phenomenon, and explains why governments in the US and Europe
may finally be moving to rein in the internship boom.
Insightful and humorous, Intern Nation will transform the way we think about
the culture of work.
On 30/5/11 22:09, "Michael Kenward" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Any university that indulges in unpaid internships needs to be outed.
>
> I smell a good story. Is there anyone around from Times Higher?
>
> MK
>
> PS Is the address ".OX.AC.UK" a giveaway? I have never heard anyone
> describing Oxford as "poor". Maybe it could ask some of its illustrious
> millionaire alumni in the government to chip in with a few quid.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of adam mussett
> Sent: 30 May 2011 12:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Unpaid Intern Court Victory
>
> If you can justify having a person to do a job then they should be paid.
> Failure to take this into consideration when either reflecting upon or
> creating a business plan is poor management.
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michele Erat <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 10:36:49
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Unpaid Intern Court Victory
>
> Hi everyone
> I can only speak for a small academic research lab in Biochemistry here in
> the UK: We would love to employ paid interns, but we don't have the means to
> do so - plainly speaking: no surplus funding to pay salaries. Thus we have
> to tell people that unless they find their own stipend (of which they are a
> few, but one has to be very early in applying), we can't offer them
> anything. It follows that the ones that come in often "finance themselves",
> which means, they were either very organised and got a stipend OR they have
> someone in the background who pays for their expenses... This is very sad,
> because a lot of good people who just can't afford to work for free, will
> not get the chance of gaining additional work experience.
> On the contrary, when I was an undergraduate myself, I did a paid intern
> with a pharma company in Switzerland. I didn't get rich, but I could sustain
> myself and gained a lot of experience which is still useful to me to this
> day. I could not have done this without being paid and I wouldn't be where I
> am now.
> michele
>
>
>
> On 29 May 2011, at 14:48, Michael Kenward wrote:
>
>> There's the issue summed up in one brief and eloquent message.
>>
>> If unpaid internships were illegal, employers would not be able to talk
>> about "absolutely
>> no relevant work experience".
>>
>> Who comes out of a university with work experience? Only those with
> parents
>> who can pull strings. I graduated with holiday-job experience in putting
> up
>> office furniture.
>>
>> Get rid of unpaid internships and we can get back to the bad old days when
>> employers expected to train new recruits.
>>
>> How many research scientists face the same challenge? Are they expected to
>> put in many months of slave labour for nothing? (I know that PhD students
>> don't live in the lap of luxury, but they do get something.) Does CERN
> take
>> in unpaid interns?
>>
>> Is this egregious phenomenon limited to the media and its associated
> domains
>> (like advertising, publishing and Public Engagement in Science and
>> Technology), law firms (firms being the operative word here, which may
>> explain why they do not behave in the same way as companies) and politics?
>>
>> Do GPs have to do unpaid internships?
>>
>> The notion that "most employers don't see people who have not made this
>> sacrifice as worthy of employment" is probably being too kind to the
>> employers. That isn't their reasoning at all. They just don't want to pay
>> the people who work for them.
>>
>> I'm sorry if this upsets people who don't like the idea of social mobility
> -
>> is diddums worried that working class proles will outshine them?
>>
>> It might be nice for some people to work for MPs because they were in the
>> fortunate position of being able to sustain themselves, but this again
>> ensures that parliament is stuffed with rich kids who haven't got a clue.
>> Look no further than the current mob, few of whom have done a proper job,
>> thanks to the fact that family wealth bankrolled them while brighter
>> individuals had to earn a living.
>>
>> At least if you set up a pop group you know that you are starving on your
>> own. There aren't any well paid executive rushing off to have expensive
>> lunches while you work for nothing.
>>
>> MK
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Emma Welsh
>> Sent: 28 May 2011 20:19
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Unpaid Intern Court Victory
>>
>> Out of interest, are any of you in the position of being able to offer
>> jobs willing to offer them to people (grads/postdocs) with absolutely
>> no relevant work experience at all? I was rejected from many, many
>> jobs on the basis of not having relevant experience and even told on
>> one occasion to 'carry on doing internships and I'm sure you'll get a
>> job eventually'. The organisations offering internships are not the
>> only ones to blame here. The motivated can fund themselves for three
>> months, using savings, crashing on friend's floors and a bit of
>> freelance work or bar work without being born with a silver spoon in
>> their mouths or resorting to JSA. Apparently most employers don't see
>> people who have not made this sacrifice as worthy of employment in
>> this (and many other) industry. Maybe we could have a pop at this
>> group instead??!
>>
>> Cheers
>> Emma.
>>
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> Michele Erat PhD
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> University of Oxford
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