ONE ADVERTISER SEES SENSE – BUT WILL OTHERS FOLLOW SUIT?
An outrageous advertisement for an unpaid internship – which sparked a Twitter frenzy earlier this week – has been removed from a small job listings website, following an investigation by Graduate Fog.
However, it has emerged that the original ad was in fact placed on the much bigger, well-respected journalism and PR industry website Gorkana, where it is still live.
****NEWSFLASH – WEDNESDAY 4.45PM: NOW TESCO IS AT IT TOO! SEE FOOTNOTE BELOW****
Did you missed all the drama?
On Monday an ad for freelance journalist Tiffany Wright was spotted and widely re-tweeted.
It was deemed by many to be an extreme example of the shameless and sickening exploitation which has become commonplace within journalism.
It read:
“Real life/women’s magazines intern wanted
Freelance journalist Tiffany Wright is looking for an enthusiastic and motivated intern to assist with finding real life stories for magazines such as Now, More, Cosmo, Fabulous etc. The position in based in central London and you must be able to commit for at least 6 weeks, ideally starting as soon as possible.
Tasks:
Coming up with features ideas for women’s magazines
scouring newspapers and onlinefor great potential real life features and then chasing these stories
Liaising with case studies and interviewing
Contacting Prs/charities/television contacts in order to secure exclusive real life stories
Writing teasers to send out to magazines
Networking (this includes going to functions, parties etc)
General admin duties
Experience required:
The confidence to find and chase new real life stories.
An ability to come up with unique, topical feature ideas for the top women’s magazines
– Preferably a background academically in journalism or experience in editorial roles elsewhere.
You need to have a hunger for writing for women’s magazines, particularly in the Real Life sector. We also need you to be highly organised, motivated and determined — for you, no real life story will be too hard to find.
This position will give you valuable experience and contacts for working within women’s magazine. You will leave this role having learnt how to chase and secure the most exclusive story, as well as understanding how to sell features to magazines. This is a great position for anyone wanting to have a career as a freelance journalist or make their first move into top women’s magazines
Previous experience within the Real life sector is preferred but not essential.
Please send us an updated CV and a covering letter explaining why you’d be perfect for this role to Tiffany Wright at tiffanylwright@hotmail.com
This is initially an unpaid position although for the right candidate there is the definite potential for a permanent role.”
The reaction on Twitter was one of unanimous disgust.
A message by @MissCay read: ‘Call yourself a Journalist? Not if you wish to hire an unpaid intern to DO YOUR JOB FOR YOU’.
The blogger Sianyland angrily warned Tiffany ‘That’s not an internship. It’s you being lazy’ and TheGreatWen was inspired to pen the spoof ‘Do you have what it takes to be my slave?’
Graduate Fog shares the view that it is outrageous to shamelessly ‘recruit’ for a young, unpaid worker in this way.
(I should also mention at this point that I have actually come across Tiffany before, when we worked together at Eve magazine for three months, in 2006/7. I dropped her a line on Monday asking her to comment – but I have not yet had a response.)
However, I’m also interested in the mechanics – and legalities – of advertising this sort of post.
When I wrote Dude? the National Council for Work Experience told me that advertising unpaid work was legally dubious – as it could be seen to be assisting employers to undermine the national minimum wage laws. (Does anybody know if this is still the case?)
And, setting the law to one side for a second, presumably advertisers read the text before they put it live? Do they feel any ethical responsibility for publishing ads like these?
Should we be pushing for a ban on advertising ‘opportunities’ which are blatantly exploitative?
I contacted EditorialJobs.co.uk – the small jobs board that the re-tweeted link led to.
Sean, the chap who runs the site as a one-man-band, said he had spotted a spike in visits to his site on Monday, but didn’t know why this had happened. He thanked me for getting in touch to fill him in. He insisted he had not earned a penny from running Tiffany’s ad as he doesn’t charge for ads for internships.
He also explained that he only copies ads from bigger sites.
That’s right.
Although the link in the many retweets had led to EditorialJobs.co.uk, Sean said he had seen the original ad on the well-known and much-respected journalism and PR industry website Gorkana.
Sure enough, when I visited the site, searched ‘Tiffany’ under ‘Journo jobs’, the ad appeared.
I contacted Gorkana to clarify their policy on advertising unpaid internships.
Their emailed statement – from a spokesperson – read:
“Gorkana is very sensitive to the debate about internships in the media.
“We have sympathy with concerns that bad practice in this field can be exploitative, but are anxious that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater as many journalists have benefited from the experience it can offer and the opportunities for career progression that can emerge.
“As such we encourage all our advertisers to be explicit in the terms they offer, open minded to the candidates they seek and will question the appropriateness of any roles longer than three months.
“We have also been monitoring the number of intern positions we post on this site. Overall, the number of intern roles we have advertised is down 30% this year, whilst the number of full-time editorial vacancies has increased dramatically, a positive step for the media sector.”
Will they be removing Tiffany’s ad? I’m not sure.
When we talked on the phone, the ‘spokesperson’ (who has since asked not to be named) mentioned that Gorkana would be in touch with Tiffany and might make revisions to her advertisement but would be unlikely to remove it. When I suggested he consult with Internocracy over Gorkana’s existing policy on advertising unpaid positions, he said he would consider it.
However, the written statement he later emailed (above) made no mention of any of this. When I asked again about Tiffany’s ad and Gorkana’s plans to review their policy, he declined to comment further.
He said he could provide “no official comment on any specific ad” and that “Overall our policy on internships is under constant review, but we think the current policy is appropriate.”
Graduate Fog is pleased to see that EditorialJobs.co.uk has now removed Tiffany’s ad.
But has Gorkana done enough to prove that it takes the plight of unpaid interns seriously?
I still have serious questions about the role of Gorkana – and companies like theirs – in providing a service that allows the corrosive unpaid internships culture to flourish.
TESCO FOOTNOTE:
Since this post went live at lunchtime (on Wednesday 7th July), Graduate Fog has learned that the latest example of this shameless recruiting of unpaid labour comes from supermarket giant Tesco.
The ad – placed by Cedar – the ‘contract publisher’ that puts together their magazine – appears on another established industry website, Journalism.co.uk.
Apparently, “The role will include providing administrative and organisational support for the editorial desk, along with the chance to learn and develop basic journalism skills including researching, fact checking and writing news and feature content.”
However – yes, you guessed it – “The role is not salaried, but we will pay basic expenses and provide a genuine opportunity to learn key skills.”
Has the world gone mad??
*Should Gorkana do more to show it cares about interns?
Or do you hold journalists and editors solely responsible for the spread of unpaid internships? Is confronting the advertisers simply shooting the messenger?
*Are you shocked that Tesco have advertised an unpaid internship so brazenly?
Please share your thoughts below!
The example you give is great. Why do they do it? The answer is because they can and if no-one complains then they carry on.
It is still seen by some sectors (media, journalism, advertising) as being part of the rite of passage to a job. There is a ‘I had to so you have to’ attitude.
If it is a job you have to comply with the national minimum wage to advertise with us.
The grey area comes with ‘voluntary’ opportunities and the use of the word internship to apply to everything these days. When I started in the HE sector in 2002 the word internship was hardly used in the UK.
Whilst voluntary work can be a great way of improving your employment chances, graduates should not have this wish exploited by organisations and individuals to provide unpaid labour.
Voluntary should mean just that. You decide when and where to turn up and for how long. Obviously there will be the organisation’s wishes to take account of but the volunteer is giving their time and effort to help free of charge.
There shouldn’t be such a thing as an ‘unpaid internship’
When I graduated I was hit by a intern wall in nearly every sector I was qualified for. Want to work in charity, media or the arts? Then you need to be prepared for at least 6 months hard slog working for free. I worked for the top charity in the country for 3 months as part of their award-winning intern scheme and it was hardly a voluntary position. I was expected to work 5 days a week from 9-5 and any time off for paid work was frowned upon.
Seems that you can only get your foot in the door with these ‘competitive’ sectors is if Mummy and Daddy can the foot the living costs while you carry out the exploitive role of intern.
Not what you hoped for when getting into 20 grands’ worth of debt for a good degree.
I think unpaid full-time (or practically full-time) internships lasting over a month are completely disgraceful, and agree that ads for them should be banned. I’m not sure in this case that focusing on the woman herself who placed the ad is necessarily profitable… it risks making her a scapegoat when it is the whole culture surrounding certain industries (media, arts, etc) which is at fault. As Matt said, the “I did it so you have to” attitude.
At the end of the day, I don’t care how useful internships are to the interns (the excuse usually given from companies who don’t pay their interns)… many PAID jobs are equally useful. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work is an honourable principle. Either the company makes use of the intern, in which case they should be paid; or they do not, in which case why are they hiring interns? Because they genuinely want to help? Don’t make me laugh.
I’m not a bitter class warrior, either (another charge sometimes levied at those who think unpaid internships are unfair). My “daddy and mummy” live in a large house in London and are both able and willing to help me out should I ask them. I just don’t see why they should have to! I’m almost 22 for goodness’ sake. Sometimes I think the “powers that be” must have some kind of vested interest in keeping grown adults as infantilised as possible…
Elizabeth raises an important point here – if charity, campaign group and journalist jobs are only open to those where Mummy and Daddy can pay for them to live in London for 3, 6 or even 12 months with no contributions to their rent or living expenses from the ’employer’, how are any of these sectors – which play an important role in shaping public opinion and policy – going to be open to people who aren’t from wealthy (and probably white) backgrounds?
I do understand the underlying issue of having something be done for the company, without them willing to pay for the work and it is a shame that big companies, who could actually afford paying minimum wages, are exploiting the aspects of “unpaid work experiences”.
On the other hand, nobody seems to recognize the opportunities, these internships are offering: 95% of all jobs given away are via friends or colleagues! Nowadays companies and firms can choose from a wide pool of applicants, and what is there to set you apart from the crowd which does not involve further costs ?! What is there in these times, which does not cost a fortune ?! Seminars, workshops, etc. Everything costs money. If you are such a free minded person who stands for equality in every social layer try being a communist. Life is unfair, get used to it!
Moreover, I am an intern myself, without financial backup or a rich family and I can afford it as well!! I would like some extra cash, but it is not a demand, because the company I am working for is simply not making any profit so far and I am about to change that! Start-up businesses are benefiting from these “cheap” work assets called students, and sometimes it is simply the only way of establishing a commercial company.
Furthermore, what about charity & fundraising organizations which are entirely run by interns ?! Shall they all close down, because some money-mad and greedy youngsters want their piece of the cake ?! Try look a children in the third world in the eye, while saying that!!
Do not misunderstand me, I support the idea of paid interships, but they should not be generalized and banned in their entirety! They are partly crucial to a companies success, which then will pay taxes again!
Kind regards,
Jan, the poor (but satisfied) internship
P.S.: Try watching “The purstuit of happiness” and get your head out of your ****.
I worked with two NHS Trusts, within mental health, and its standard practice for people to work for zero income for anything up to three years, as: Interns/Volunteer posts. This is the largest employer in the country and it’s Government owned.
On accepting my post, I received a contract of employment informing me that I was completing a research post. Nobody said this at interview and it was set out like this to avoid employment, law going back all the way back the the 18th century and slavery.
If the NHS could just treat its interns with a moderate degree of respect in paying minimum wage, it would help. Instead it is really just a pi** take being adopted evermore by corporate organisations.
New legislation needs to be introduced and existing one’s amended to prevent what is fast becoming exploitation.
@David – I have heard lots of stories about interns working unpaid in the NHS but I have to admit that it still shocks me. As you say, there is a world of difference between interning and true volunteering. I have found the same sort of thing within the charity sector – you might be interested in this piece I wrote for the Guardian a while ago?
Are charities’ unpaid interns really ‘volunteers’?