BYLINES, CONTACTS, FREE TICKETS AND MEALS WERE FAIR REWARD FOR INTERNS’ WORK, HE CLAIMS
A company founder has angered graduates by insisting that young people would shoot themselves in the foot if unpaid internships were banned. He also suggested that interns should be happy to benefit from the “perks” of their long, travel expenses-only placements at his company, including bylines, contacts, free gig tickets and meals.
Roifield Brown founded MyVillage, the company successfully sued by intern hero Keri Hudson, in a landmark case for interns’ rights. He appeared to be reacting to the two-page special report about internships in Sunday’s Observer, which named his company in relation to Hudson’s case. In Monday’s piece for the Guardian, entitled “Complaining interns will shut the door for those who need experience,” he wrote:
“As the founder and ex-director of www.myvillage.com I took on many graduates and budding writers. Some worked from home building up their portfolios on a casual basis, others came into the office (when we had one, more recently it’s been my kitchen table) and got more hands-on experience.”
Astonishingly, Brown appears to think that running a small, failing company gave him some moral right to take on unpaid staff:
“Like other companies, Myvillage has struggled during the downturn with massively reduced revenue. I went through 2010 with no income from the site. While lacking the means to employ experienced writers, I was able to offer and share experience, contacts and knowledge in exchange for some help in keeping the site up and running, which is why we ran an intern programme last year.
“Even prior to this we regularly took people on unpaid placements and on a daily basis received emails from budding writers asking for opportunities to write for us voluntarily.”
He also appears to claim that his internships were taken up by young people from all backgrounds, although how this was possible when he only paid travel expenses is unclear:
“I always strived to offer opportunities to individuals who might not traditionally access them, and tried to offer a supportive and mutually beneficial role. Interns benefited from perks such as getting free entry to gigs and not having to pay for meals at restaurants they reviewed. They also got their work published on the site and built up a body of bylined work. If the intern embraced the role then such experience certainly offered long-term career advantages.”
But all this is nothing compared to his conclusion, which demonstrates logic so twisted we have had to read it several times – and still don’t follow. According to Brown, unpaid internships don’t block poorer candidates from opportunities – they actually widen access to them:
“If employers are penalised for offering work experience opportunities, it is surely a recipe for nepotism and will in no way help youth and graduate unemployment. I can only envisage a situation where employers play safe and offer opportunities solely to a select group of young people. In other words, placements for the kids of your mates.”
(No, we don’t follow either)
Graduate Fog has written before about the bizarre belief that some self-styled entrepreneurs seem to have about the value of the experience they offer their interns – and their right to use unpaid workers: Why do start-ups think they have the right to use unpaid interns?
But this unshakeable shocks us every time. And, disturbingly, people like Brown are distorting the charter between employer and employee – which is “I work for you; you pay me”. Mr Brown: If your business doesn’t make enough money to pay the staff you need to run it, then sorry but you don’t have a proper business. Stop pretending you’re an entrepreneur – when we all know what you really are.
*What do you think of Roifield Brown’s comments?
Is there a case for allowing the spread of unpaid internships to continue as they are? Or are you sick and tired of hearing employers justify the exploitation of young workers?
I agree — if you can’t afford to pay your staff, then your business isn’t viable.
The guardian comments section is well worth a read, if you have a spare hour and like to see people’s reputations and businesses destroyed on an online forum…
@Rex_Cymru
Did Mr Brown get involved in the debate himself? What did he say? I got two pages into the comments and assumed he hadn’t taken part in the debate – did I give up too soon?!
He did. And some of his lackeys popped up to say what a wonderfully enriching experience working for nowt at MyVillage was. If you can be arsed, go to the bottom of the comments, click ‘view all’ and then ctrl + F search for ‘Roifield.’ Click through and then presto – you’ll find his comment in which he digs himself deeper.
Thanks @Rex_Cymru
If anyone gets a chance to do scour our friend Mr Brown’s comments beneath the Guardian piece, could you paste them below? I’m snowed under today cos of youth unemployment stats – thanks!
RoifieldBrown
11 October 2011 7:31AM
‘So that we can try to address the real issues of the article, let me try and put the record straight regarding some of the comments that have been made against Myvillage. Firstly that its “shite”. I can completely see where this comes from. Though it’s not an expression I would use, I would agree that right now it is not for purpose! It was not always like this of course, it didn’t get to 1 million users a month in 2007 — 2008 without being a site that had good data and relevant articles and a “what’s on section” for example that had events. In truth the site has not really been properly maintained for months now. Though I am no longer involved, the new team running the site will presumably have a plan to acquire new data, get writing new relevant features and to market the site again asap.
Now we have dealt with that, the real point I was trying to make was that workplace experience can be valid and useful. I’m not saying that all placements are good and I am by no means saying that workers’ rights need no examination, plus I agree that some placements can be exploitative and pointless. What we really need is a clear legal line between what is a volunteer, what is an intern and what if any is the place for apprenticeships in the modern workplace, so that on the one hand people do not feel exploited and employers do not get sued.
First off most businesses want to offer a service or product and to generate an income. Having volunteers or interns is not necessarily a zero sum gain, as the business will need to invest some time in training and mentoring that person even if the temporary help given by the volunteer or intern is free. On top of that, if every one to or two months you have to teach the same task but to someone new the cost can be high. For many small operations that will be a cost that is unsustainable if their margins are tight. Don’t get me wrong some business can and will get a lot out of this arrangement and there can be financial benefits. But to say that all businesses offering short term placements are seeking to ruthlessly exploit is unfair. This attitude overlooks volunteering for example which can be a worthwhile thing to do for some people. A friends mother, helped out a small manufacturing firm in Birmingham after being outside the workplace for a 20 years. For a month, she went in two days a week, doing simple admin tasks and reception work to ease herself back into the workplace. She sees that experience as being very worthwhile.
My preferred method for dealing with internships is to replace them with the good old fashioned apprenticeships. These could offer young people a clear path into an industry other than through university and give businesses a clear framework to train a new generation of workers at the coal face to a set and agreed standard. The government could offer a tax incentives to small firms of say less than 20 employees (the types of businesses that will classically not have HR departments and formal company training schemes) to take on 18-24 year olds for a year and to give them a recognised industry qualification at the end. The Department of Education and or the Department for Work and Pensions could fund 50% (the DWP would be paying their Job seekers allowance any way for them to sit on the dole) of the salary with the employer meeting the other 50%. This simple idea could greatly help youth unemployment and also prevent the positions from only going to middle class kids whose parents can afford to supplement their off spring while doing a long term placements.’
Brilliant – thanks!
A business model that relies on unpaid labour is not a business model. End.