INTERNSHIPS ARE OPPORTUNITIES, NOT JOBS – SO DON’T EXPECT WAGES
A Spectator columnist has called graduates who complain about doing unpaid internships “ridiculous”, “sad-eyed” and “preposterous” – and accused them of having a “nauseating sense of entitlement.”
In the article, journalist Brendan O’Neill’s article Why interns don’t deserve pay proves himself to be spectacularly out of touch with the majority of young people, their parents and the recruitment industry, embarrassing himself and the Spectator (seriously, who commissioned this guff?). Here are our favourite quotes:
“Interning is always harder work for the people overseeing the interns than it is for the interns themselves.”
“The whole point of an internship is that it isn’t a job – it’s an opportunity. So it makes perfect sense that there’s no pay packet at the end of the week.”
“The demand that internships become paid positions is an extension of modern youth’s corrosive belief that everything they do should be instantly rewarded. This is a generation which thinks its every endeavour deserves a pat on the back.”
“Easily the most grating argument made by agitating interns is that unpaid internships hit working-class youth the hardest… [but] resilient working-class kids have for years topped up their internships with Saturday jobs or evening work, while kipping on a friend’s couch to cut outgoings.”
“It speaks volumes about the parlous state of modern history teaching that these interns so liberally refer to themselves as ‘slaves’. Anyone who had been taught properly about the Roman era, or about black slavery in early America, or about the Holocaust, would know that there’s rather more to being a slave than being asked by a gruff boss to buy him a hazelnut latte.”
*What do you think of the Spectator article?
What is your favourite part? Do you agree with any of it? And is Brendan O’Neill mad, bad – or just plain sad?
I would wonder whether the Spectator journalist would let his own kids struggle like that ‘kipping on mates’s sofas’ and going without a lunch because you’re not even paid expenses…
It indicates that he has no personal understanding of social justice or what it means to face barriers to achievement. Sure, you have have the whole awful ‘strivers and shirkers’ debate til you’re blue in the face, but it seems to me that those purporting views like this journalist have not experienced the difficulties they comment on so freely.
Does Brendan O’Neill ever say anything which actually makes sense? The man lives on another planet.
Please tell me he is trolling.
I am getting sick of people like Brendan O’Neill. He should think himself lucky he’s not living in the 18th century… the French used to have an answer to such attitudes, it was called the guillotine.
The fightback begins! Intern Aware’s Ben Lyons responds to Brendan O’Neill in a new piece on the Spectator blog:
Why Brendan O’Neill is wrong on unpaid internships
“The whole point of an internship is that it isn’t a job – it’s an opportunity. So it makes perfect sense that there’s no pay packet at the end of the week.”
There is a thing that people do to help their career which doesn’t pay. It’s called work shadowing/work experience. Once you give someone responsibilities and ask them to do certain hours that is a job and should be treated as such.
I’m a graduate with a 13 month old baby…..should I take an unpaid internship when it means that I have £1,000 to pay in childcare a month…….? didn’t think so…….I’m soooooo entitled for trying to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table #dickhead
Mr O’Niell is a product of his generation and a little bit bitter because there are a lot more opportunities for young people these days ! I suspect that before getting into journalism he used to live in a rolled up newspaper in the middle of a lake, get up at 3 o’clock in the morning – 4 hours before he went to bed – eat a handful of cold poison for breakfast before working 27 hours a day at the mill with no pay – then coming home to a father that would ritually murder him and dance on his grave!!
I graduated with a 2:1 in interior architecture but have failed to gain experience since leaving. I was offered 2 internships with a salary of £10.00 a day travel expenses because I could not afford to live in central London working 9 – 5. As i am totally financially independent I ended up work in a hotel for the last 6 months on and illegal salary because it was all I could get. I think it is important for this country push ahead with paid internships as it is terrible studying 3 years and taking £30,000 in loans for someone to want you to work for free.
Funny he mentions the world ‘slave.’ I have interned for a year now and I actually feel that I have the necessary skills to deserve to be paid. Looking back, my first placement was pretty much borderline slavery and the company definitely took advantage of interns. Many people say that interning should help lead to a job however is this actually true? I pity Brendan O’Neill for his lack to recognise new talent and his narrow minded pathetic view.
Oh interesting: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/08/brendan-oneill-is-wrong-on-unpaid-internships/
If he doesn’t have the budget to pay interns maybe he should hire somebody to join his team instead of allowing interns to run his publication. He probably tells himself all these unjust statements so he can sleep at night.