MEET THE ‘STOCKHOLM SYNDROME’ INTERNS: HAPPY TO WORK FULL-TIME FOR FREE
Seven former interns from the recruitment company Reed have told Graduate Fog they were definitely NOT exploited during their months working there full-time, earning around £90 a week. This was despite describing roles which would seem to fit the criteria which would make them a worker — and therefore entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage (around £237 a week). One intern even admitted that “my working hours as an intern were 9-5,” which appears to conflict with Reed’s statement that their interns “do no have set working hours.”
We assume that the interns’ bombardment of this website (which happened within half an hour on Friday afternoon) is linked to the bad publicity that Reed had last Sunday, when the Observer ran a two-page Special Report about our Pay Your Interns campaign, including mention of our investigation into Reed back in June. At the time, we objected to advertisements for 46 internships within the company, paying well below the NMW. Their job titles of these 12-week placements included “intern receptionist,” “intern executive assistant” and “secretarial admin internship.”
Of course, the Reed interns are entitled to their opinion — but so is Graduate Fog. And it is our opinion that their behaviour is typical of a small but growing group of what we call “Stockholm syndrome” interns. These are the young workers who appear to have developed a distorted view of what constitutes fair, decent or reasonable behaviour by their employer. Their logic has become so twisted that they furiously defend their right to work for free, insisting they are happy to accept experience in place of monetary payment.
The problem, of course, is that they do not see the big picture. They do not see that for every intern who agrees to work unpaid for months, many others who can’t afford to are blocked from competing for those opportunities. They do not see that as unpaid internships become the norm, companies have even less reason to offer young workers paid jobs (why would they, when they can get people to do them for free?). They are convinced that unpaid internships offer a solution to youth unemployment — when we believe they are a huge part of the problem.
Here are some of the Reed interns’ thoughts:
“The internship was the best thing to happen to me and I have come so far since. I could not recommend it more. I find it very sad that people are so mislead by internships. I was given food and travel allowance which was more than enough to live off, and given the experience and training I received, the lack of payment was nothing to complain about.” Becky
“Did you know that internship aren’t meant to be paid! It is only expenses that are required to be paid in an internship as they are especially laid out to give people work experience when they have none.” Emily
“We were all told that this would be unpaid, we weren’t kidnapped and forced into it… The tasks we are given depend on the kind of experience the intern chooses. I chose to do sales calls (with incentives and prizes, also earning some commission doing this) as well as finding CV’s, interviewing candidates and going out on client visits. Other interns have chosen to learn admin skills such as processing timesheets, writing references, writing job descriptions and making posters for the walls.” Daisy
“I recently completed a 12 week internship with the Hospitality & Leisure division at Reed, and had the best experience I could have possibly had. I admit had I found a part-time job in a retail shop I would have earned more in monetary terms, however money isn’t everything to me, it was more important that I was in a full time working environment, learning completely new and challenging skills to enhance my employability once graduated. Reed gives this opportunity to many students or graduates that may not able to find work, possibly due to lack of experience and obviously because of the state of the economy too with a record high of young people out of work.” Sarah
Brr – is it cold in here suddenly? Because we find reading this really chilling. It is disturbing that these interns seem to have accepted months of unpaid (or low-paid) work as something that young people must do, without questioning why – or where this is leading us all. They also appear to disregard the value of of their labour – believing that because they lack experience their employer is doing them a favour by allowing them to work there and “gain skills”.
We saw similar evidence when exposed luxury concierge firm Quintessentially for running unpaid internships. We felt as though we were talking to zombies. To us, these interns’ comments are proof that unpaid internships are distorting young people’s idea of the ancient contract between employer and employee: “I work for you, you pay me.” This is troubling – because the link between work and pay underpins our society.
Why are these young workers unaware of their legal rights as interns? And when they are told about their rights to pay, why are they so eager to disregard them? Why aren’t the authorities enforcing the National Minimum Wage law, so these interns know that working unpaid is not the norm – and it’s not okay? And why are our politicians still ignoring this vital issue?
*What do you think of the Reed interns’ comments?
Do you find it chilling that they seem unaware of their rights – or happy to disregard them? Are unpaid internships distorting young people’s ideas about the value of their labour? What can be done to help interns understand why the fight for fair wages is so important?
you are right, you are right. This campaign is so important. UK youth is brainwashed. I felt moved reading Sarah’s comment especially. She wouldn’t have worked for nothing if she could’ve got a paid job somewhere. When young people have faced a lot of rejection they are just happy to be given the chance to work. The sad thing is they are only given the chance to be exploited, and in doing so, remove real jobs from the economy.
Emily seems to be confused about the law/supporting employers’ flouting of it. I do see their point that an employer is far more likely to refuse all internships than pay its interns, but someone has to start the fire…
I’m absolutely certain they will need someone to do the work that these interns do though. I doubt they would leave reception entirely unmanned if they had to pay their workers!
Even if it is true that ‘internship aren’t meant to be paid!’ (which it isn’t) the other problem is, as you say, that as long as internships are unpaid, they aren’t very accessible for a lot of people. In a lot of situations, including this one, it’s easy to be completely blind to your own privilege. These interns don’t realise that while they had a great time as an intern, the practice of not paying young people is really exploitative.
Are young people even aware that they have rights? Do they understand what a trade union is for?
“I was given food and travel allowance which was more than enough to live off”
Erm, that only covers lunch and travel to and from work, presumably you don’t eat or have any meaningful existence or sentience outside work?
Do they have any empathy for other interns who can’t afford to work for nothing? Who don’t have the Bank of Mum and Dad to support them?
One of the Reed interns also made the point, with regards to the internsips potentuially breaking the law, that this was
“something that can be dealt with by the relevant authority if this is the case. I feel that this would have been picked up already if it was the case.”
Now this isn’t an unreasonable point of view. You would think that the authorities would be interested in enforcing the NMW law in relation to internships. Sadly, this is not the case and it can be no wonder that young workers (and indeed, workers of all ages) have little idea of their rights or the law when these rights are so rarely enforced.
As a Careers Adviser I find that when I do inform students that unpaid work is usually against the law they are very surprised. I also acknowledge that more needs to be done by University Careers Services in this regard, to ensure students and grads are aware of their rights. Some of the Reed interns were not graduates and there also needs to be better information for those who don’t go to University.
Hi all. I don’t know whether to believe that those comments were written by Reed interns. If they were, then they sound exactly like the kind of person who would fit in working for Reed. I’ve answered hundreds of job postings on that website but the number of responses remains fixed at one. I have followed the unpaid internship cause for several months, but isn’t it time to expand the spotlight onto job agencies (I shall never call them consultancies) as well? Why is it that the lion’s share of graduate jobs being advertised constitutes trainee recruitment “consultants” when unemployment is so high (and, therefore, there should be no need for these consultant persons to match job-seekers to jobs)? Why are the same jobs advertised on a continuous basis? Should there not be a legal definition of internship? Why don’t politicians become concerned (as little as several weeks ago, MPs were still advertising unpaid internships on the w4mp.org website)? What about the abolition of the compulsory retirement age? All of these questions are interrelated and part of a much broader pattern: a generation of people aged between 30-60 (my opinion) are shafting a large number of those aged 0-30 (again, my opinion – it remains to be seen) because the latter generation are not well aware of their rights and they are not legislating. Unpaid internships is just one form of inter-generational theft.
It’s people like these who are making it difficult for the rest of us. Like someone above said, there is a no way a company would unman their phones… an “intern receptionist” is the most ridiculous and exploitative title I’ve ever heard. When I got a job (in Canada so maybe rules are a bit different) as a receptionist in a beauty salon, it was through an apprenticeship program. This meant that the beauty salon paid part of my salary while the government paid the other. Bottom line, I was getting paid minimum wage. They weren’t attaching “apprentice secretary” on my title and paying my food and travel.
If all the tax and National Insurance that’s being evaded by unpaid workers were to go back into our struggling economy wouldn’t it help?
If all the tax and National Insurance that’s being evaded by the use of unpaid workers were to go back into our struggling economy wouldn’t it help?
this is silly how u get so worked up bout it its just the same as an aprenticeship
which ent illegal
You seem to know very little about this issue Alex. (True) apprenticeships are an exception to the Minimum Wage regulations, unpaid interns being used as workers are not.
And the prize for missing the point entirely goes to…
If any “Intern” suggests that “We were not exploited”, shouldn’t they be referred to a psychiatrist given that they are suffering from “Stockholm Syndrome”?
Reed Interns are a cheaper alternative to hiring temporary workers to do the menial administrative tasks that the consultants think that they are too important to do. With so many people desperate to break into a career, there is a steady flow of this cheap labour for Reed to tap into, (as each branch has to stay within budget) with the only downfall that they have to get a new one every 12 weeks. These so called ‘Stockholm syndrome’ interns are entered into this ‘huge global company’ and are willing to do anything to prove themselves there which I believe that the managers have taken advantage of, unaware that they are completely disposable. If Reed really wanted to help people develop their careers then perhaps an apprenticeship scheme would be more ideal then at least the candidate would be getting some kind of qualification for their effort.
Have you interned unpaid for Reed? Or for any other well-known brand? Fancy some free money?
Check out Interns Fight for Justice – the new campaign from Graduate Fog and Intern Aware. We are looking for interns who are feeling brave / angry / skint enough to challenge their former employers and request the wages they are owed for the work they did unpaid.
Even if your internship was a while ago and you agreed to work unpaid at the time, that doesn’t matter. The minimum wage works out at around £1,000 a month, so depending on the length of your internship you could be in line to receive a tidy sum!
Just get in touch with us for more information:
https://graduatefog.co.uk/2012/2080/interns-fight-justice-campaign/
Thanks!
Graduate Fog x
PS. None of this will cost you a penny!
Vente aux enchère sibeys.com, achat et vente aux enchères d’ objet neuf ou d ‘occasion .
As a current Reed Intern, i don’t know how to feel about this, on the one hand it has been a reasonable working experience, the people in my office are friendly inviting and generous people. I’m not deluded enough to think that Internships aren’t in any way exploitive of the climate we’re in. They clearly are, by rights they should be hiring an Office Administrator to do the role i am basically doing. As much as i would love to be paid i think they’d employ someone much better than me experience-wise if this was proper position. I have grown a bit and i am helping the consultants streamline the way they do things which i have no doubt has some Value. But sure would be sweet if i was actually getting some wage (Not even minimum wage necessarily) on top of the actual expenses – Some mornings it’s hard to get out of bed knowing come the weekend i wont actually have the cash to properly enjoy myself. But that said, i’ve also been given oppurtunities to temp with Reed during my internship to earn money (only a few days) and have been allowed time off for good reasons and a certain amount of flexibility on my daily schedule. (For example i am never in at 9 o’clock on the dot because of travel which i explained to them when i got the role would be the case.)
If anybody has worked as an unpaid Reed intern at any point in the last few years and they wish to follow up the possibility of getting [aid for the work they did, I’d be grateful if they would get in contact with me as soon as possible.
I am currently helping a number of Reed interns through the process of making an official claim for their pay and it would be a good time for others to stake that claim to so this can be dealt with in a global way, rather than individually. It’s a very straightforward and easy process and I’m happy to help and give all necessary guidance.
If you would like to know more, feel free to contact me on derrywatson@gmail.com. All advice is free, with no obligation to act on it.
Hi guys,
Bit of a bolt from the blue but has anyone received a payment from Reed recently, for wages they should have been paid during their unpaid / expenses-only internship there?
If so, please email me ASAP, thanks! (All correspondence treated in strictest confidence of course.)
http://bit.ly/duLICY