UN ‘TENT INTERN’ QUITS HAVING ASSURED BOSSES HE COULD SUPPORT HIMSELF
*LOOK! OUR STORY NOW PICKED UP BY THE GUARDIAN*
A graduate who was forced to live in a tent during his unpaid internship at the United Nations has sensationally resigned from his six-month post – blaming HIMSELF for assuring his employer he could cover his living costs without a salary when in fact he could not.
At lunchtime today, international relations graduate David Hyde, 22, told reporters gathered in front of the European UN headquarters in Geneva:
“When I applied to the UN I didn’t fully disclose my own financial situation. I said I had enough to support myself when really I didn’t and I got the job.
“The UN was clear about their internship policy from the start: no wage or stipend, no transport help, no food allowance, no health assistance. I understood this and have to accept responsibility for accepting the internship in the first place.
“Call me young and idealistic but I don’t feel this is a fair system…interns all over the world need to come together and push for the recognition of our value and our equal rights that we deserve. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, everyone, without discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. I hope to see the UN become a role model for all on the issue of internships in the future.”
Graduate Fog was following this story closely – and we are gobsmacked by this development. David Hyde should NOT have had to resign – none of this is his fault. Instead, the UN should be made to pay their interns a salary they can live on.
That David should have to sacrifice this opportunity because he cannot survive without a wage for six months (er, who can?) is an outrageous turn of events – and a clear admission of the UN’s failure to understand their basic responsibilities as an employer.
Swiss newspapers have reported that David has insisted that the UN had not asked him to leave or pressured him in any way – but Graduate Fog still believes they have behaved abominably.
A candidate should never have to discuss their personal finances when applying for a job. As well as being completely irrelevant and none of the employer’s business, in this case the UN is effectively using it as a screening tool, brazenly removing the opportunity from the reach of those without significant financial support. Just because the UN was ‘clear from the start’ that the internship paid no wage, that doesn’t make it okay.
* SHOULD DAVID HYDE HAVE RESIGNED – OR SHOULD THE UNITED NATIONS PAY THEIR INTERNS?
Was it right for the ‘tent intern’ to quit, for fibbing when the UN asked if he could support himself? Or do you think it’s shocking that they even ask the question?
This is why NGOs, the UN, EU etc are increasingly off limits to those who aren’t rich and can’t work as slaves. (I’m an International Relations graduate myself).
I don’t have proof unfortunately, but I’ve heard rumours of the International Labour Organisation having unpaid interns too, which is really ridiculous.
it might sound horrifying (and it is) but NGOS and the UN aren’t beholden to any national laws that govern work and so they can skirt all these rules.. which isn’t to say that is ethically correct.
I think the ILO pays their interns a BARE BARE BARE minimum so they can get the press off their backs, but it is hardly enough to survive.
How do people feel about having to PAY to ‘intern’, e.g. $200 USD a day in a poor country to work for an organization (not a not-for-profit) to do human rights/forensic type work. Seems to be a market for this kind of thing now, and some ‘organisations’ are cashing in. Unpaid intern is one thing, but having to pay to work? I would like to know if it is legal, or ethical, but people are literally buying into it regardless.
“Tanya de Grunwald said it was the first time she had heard of applicants being asked to assure an employer they could support themselves during an internship, as a condition of being offered a role.”
Then she doesn’t know what she is talking about, this is common practice.
@Abo – Really? In which industries / sectors? I honestly haven’t heard this before. More commonly employers don’t tend to ask, it’s just expected that an intern will somehow support themselves. Interns are also meant to feel grateful for the opportunity, so pay isn’t mentioned (although they may explain (proudly?) that expenses are paid, how much these are, and how to claim those). But to actually ask whether the applicant can afford to work for nothing is almost more shocking, I think. Are they trying to clear their conscience, do you think? Or worried about bad PR if it turns out an intern is sleeping in a tent, say? Either way, it is a clear discrimination against those who say ‘No, I can’t support myself without a salary.’
Has anyone else had experience of being asked if they can afford to work for free? If you said No, did they refuse to give you the internship? And if you said Yes, were you telling the truth or fibbing?
@Kelvin – Really intersting thought – I must say I’m not 100% clear on the law at somewhere like the UN. Does anyone else know any more?
@Jenna Shafer – Yes, I am aware of ‘pay-to-intern’ schemes and I think they’re awful. Effectively you’re paying for experience. I think these organisations exploit those desperate for experience who can somehow find the money – and exclude those who can’t afford to do it. The idea that someone WITH this kind of thing on their CV could then land a paid job over someone who had to earn money from work (Hello! That’s MOST PEOPLE!) makes my blood boil! Have you seen a big increase in these organisations really? I think some get around the law because the work that happens is in a country where there isn’t a minimum wage law… I think they should be illegal though. In an advanced society no-one should ever find themselves paying for the opportunity to work.
@Alex W – Why do you think these organisations do it? Do they believe they are ‘above’ such things? I’m interested to understand more about the mindset of the people who work there (paid). How can they justify having unpaid interns, if they really are committed to causes like equality and justice? I just don’t get it – but I know humans have a handy habit of being able to convince ourselves of all sorts of things, if it’s more convenient for us at the time..!
Hi Tanya,
It surprises me that it’s the first time you’ve heard about employers asking if interns can support themselves in the interview.
I graduated University in 2010 and of course, at that time the recession was in full swing and for young people the competition was fierce (my current employer tells me that for our entry level positions, whilst we get a lot of applications per role, it was a whole different kettle then).
At the time I remember applying for a number of internships which, basically I couldn’t afford but I was also desperate and being asked about my financial situation was pretty common.
@Jacob – Seriously, in all the time I’ve been running GF, nobody has ever mentioned it! Perhaps interns think it’s not worth mentioning? It’s really, really shocking. As a recruitment practice, it’s pretty much filed under ‘Horrendous’.
Why do you think they ask? Why do they care? Surely it’s up to the intern to make their own arrangements? I wonder whether it’s some kind of attempt to cover themselves legally?
Does anyone know?
Tanya.
Honestly I think it’s about compliance. At the end of the day, they don’t want to have to deal with someone who’s doing something weird (like the above) because they might be disruptive in the office or bring negative media attention.
I remember at the time there was less awareness about this, until people like yourself made the story more mainstream.
Also honestly, a lot of the people I met to ask for internships were personally quite nice in the way that people who are comfortable often are. I genuinely think they just didn’t want to see the person they were potentially bringing in struggling. Now obviously that basically just means only already well off people got the job (the amount of people I remember saying rubbish like “I did bar work to support myself, as if a few shifts in a bar covers anything close to London rent”), but I think people would rather just not think about it – and being judgemental here – especially in that yappy (and yuppie as well), lattes, ipads, aesthetics obsessed media type world.
Meanwhile in the UK:
http://www.w4mpjobs.org/JobDetails.aspx?jobid=52255
Haha weirdly the second half of one of my paragraphs missed the copy and paste:
I remember at the time there was less awareness about this, until people like yourself made the story more mainstream. Internships seemed to be a grey economy where people just didn’t really talk about it much. There’d be some young enthusiastic chap on work experience in the office, and they’d just be around for months. No-one seemed to ask important things like how they were supporting themselves.
By definition, interns are NOT staff, therefore the UN is not legally or otherwise their employer. This goes for consultants and UNVs also not being staff. All contracts have different conditions. They have different recruitment and experience requirements which is why internships are easier to get than a staff job. If you truly think an intern does the same work as a staff member, at age 22 when it’s your first internship experience after two weeks… most complaints sound naive. It’s work experience, not a staff position. this is how it works right now, work with the system if you want a staff job – it takes a while. Go somewhere cheaper than Geneva. Go home, work in a job outside of your field for a bit till you save money, take a loan, the UN won’t reward this guy with an easy time for drawing bad publicity to it, he was probably smart to quit – he is always going to be known as the “tent guy” – I see a lot in the complaints about this case that show a lack of awareness about how the UN human resources system operates.
Back when I had ambitions to get into political work I wrote to two dozen MPs armed with the experience from an internship in Parliament and a bit of involvement in Labour student politics. I got absolutely nowhere.
I now realise that such paths are not for people from my sort of background. Unless you are able to work for free for extended periods you can’t amass the experience you need to get taken seriously. That may be unfair but that is how it is.
I am now free from unrealistic expectations and happier for it. I would suggest this guy doing this UN internship reaches the same conclusion. There is nothing “prestigious” about a line of work where you don’t have a wage packet at the end of the month to spend as you wish.
How can an organization with supposedly high ideals of working towards a more just and equitable world perpetuate an internship system whereby only youngsters with wealthy parents can afford to take up? Just because they made that clear from the start doesn’t make it morally right. The system needs to change or be abolished as something elitist and divisive.
So, to be able to intern for the UN in one of the world’s most expensive cities, your parents need to be in the top 0.5% of wealth globally or something ridiculous like that? How do you get the brightest, the most idealistic and motivated individuals this way, the ones who might see a future in helping to eradicate poverty, discrimination and injustices the world over? Or is this some kind of a moon trip that only billionaires need apply? The UN should be ashamed of itself.