Work for free? Sure, because there's much more to a job than just a salary
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about working for free.
Earlier this week, Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz made headlines when he suggested that young people unable to find work should consider getting experience through unpaid internships or volunteering.
"Get some real-life experience even though you're discouraged, even if it's for free," Poloz said in a speech Monday. "If your parents are letting you live in the basement, you might as well go out and do something for free to put the experience on your CV."
And oh dear, did the floodgates open up after that.
“You know what really scars the young?” wrote Toronto Star columnist Rick Salutin. “Being betrayed by an older generation with the power and position to affect the forces that affect them, who say instead to work for free and maybe, eventually, it might work out.”
And National Post columnist Kelly McParland piled on, with a different complaint.
“What would stop employers from simply rotating interns through a job, creating a permanent unpaid position dangled regularly before a new crop of desperate applicants?” he asked.
It’s true, I get it. A full-time job would be the optimal solution. A paying job would suffice. Working for free doesn’t pay the bills and would be quickly exploited by companies always on the lookout for cost-cutting measures. And working for free doesn’t do anything to cut into those massive student loans.
But at the same time, there is something to be said about working for something other than money when the prospects are lean.
Working for free gave me the experience I needed to get my first paying job, which was $325 a week. That wasn’t a lot of money, even back in the day. But I used the experience from that job to get my next job, which paid more. And so on. That’s called climbing the corporate ladder. The best CEOs started in the mailroom, and yes, possibly for free.
That first unpaid job also gave me access to contacts I never could have gotten sitting on my couch and watching TV. I built a solid rapport with these people, and when opportunities opened up, I had someone who could vouch for me within their companies or even with other companies. There is something to be said about it not being about what you know but who you know.
Yes, the job market is brutal right now. I don’t envy young people, let alone anyone who is out of work. It is my greatest nightmare, being unable to support my family or pay my bills.
But it wasn’t much easier when I was in school, either. I asked a professor what I should do to find work, and he advised: “Figure out what you want to do and where you want to do it. Then go there and refuse to leave. Do anything you can and anything they want to prove you deserve to be there.”
That’s pretty extreme, but I got the message. He meant that I needed to work like a dog and do whatever it took to hook on somewhere – even if it meant working without pay.
Yes, I can see corporate Canada sharpening its nails with the prospect of a hoard of unemployed people willing to work for free. But that’s where the different levels of government can help out, by setting guidelines and quotas for internships or volunteers. An imperfect science, to be sure – not unlike the Temporary Foreign Worker program, don’t get me started – but we’ve got to start somewhere, right?
Yes, money makes the world go ‘round. But sometimes you’ve got to spend a nickel to make a dime, and sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice salary to build the skills and contacts you need to get that paying job in your field of choice.
(Photo courtesy Getty Images)
The Surly Old Man is a real old man who is particularly surly. He will contribute only when angry.
