After graduation, most would have had to do an internship to put their foot into a certain industry or to gain enough work experience to be employed. But when does an internship become exploitation? Should interns be working past office hours and expected to reply messages on off days? How much work is too much work? What is a realistic expectation of work load and performance?
In these uncertain times, competition in the job market is at its peak. For fresh graduates, this is probably especially trying as job markets are already competitive pre-covid. Now, they are also competing with experienced individuals who might have been retrenched during this recession.
Ethics and expectations
In an internship, the intern seeks work experience to learn, grow and understand the trade. This will ideally increase the intern’s chances of gaining full time employment after completion of the internship. The intern accepts a lower pay in exchange for mentorship and learning experience. The following are a few points on ethics and expectations to be considered.
- Intern pay should cover living expenses. Everyone who works should be able to feed themselves, pay rent, afford transport in exchange for their time and work. If the company does not have the budget to pay a minimum living wage, working hours and workload should be adjusted accordingly so that the intern can find other work opportunities to supplement their income. Not everyone has the fortune of being sponsored by family to do an internship. Moreover, this should not be an expectation from employers. People need to eat and sleep somewhere. Paying less than a minimum living wage and expecting full time and overtime work is unreasonable.
- Realistic expectations. The reason an intern’s pay is less is justified in that the company offers some form of learning experience and mentorship so that the intern can gain professional experience. Expectations of a full-time staff and an intern are different. Interns are still learning the trade and there should be space for them to make mistakes or be guided through their work. Expecting an intern to deliver KPIs like a full-time staff would is unrealistic. Time, space and guidance should be given. Just like how expecting someone inexperienced to kayak 1km in 10 minutes without a paddle will likely cause severe distress, employers need to take into consideration the bandwidth and mental health of interns.
- Human centred approach vs productivity. From a company’s point of view, productivity and deliverables are important. Profit brings the money in to pay salaries. Being a director is tough. Nobody ever said it’s an easy journey. It’s not just about ensuring the survival of the company or the check and balance; it’s also about being responsible for the livelihoods of your staff. I get it. It’s stressful and tough. Many founded their company or organisation because they want to do some good in the world or create an impact. But the companies and NGOs that want to do good in the world often struggle financially as this is sadly how the world works. The market doesn’t reward social services more than consumer products. (This can change with a shift in value and consumers’ willingness to pay for social care services. Read more) It is ironic that the companies or NGOs that want to do good in society often end up being the ones that exploit the most and create toxic work environments. This goes back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Basic needs of the company has to be met first before it can contribute to the wider society. What this means is that employees have to be taken care of first. In such stressful environments with limited funding or income, the stakes are high, the workload is huge, the stress is immense. Interns and staff will feel the crunch and this will take a toll on their mental health if productivity is prioritised over the employees’ wellbeing. I know that this is extremely difficult for directors in this field of work, especially when funding is scarce. However, one cannot expect their staff to work extra for free like one would on their own passion project. The director at least owns the shares to the company or benefit from certain prestige from the position. There are ways around this to ensure fair treatment like distributing the company’s shares to staff. If there isn’t enough money to pay for extra work that needs to be done, giving out shares and allowing employees an equity to the business is perhaps a more ethical way of dealing with limited resources. As for interns in such a situation, if the expectation is to have an intern do all the menial tasks that need done while paying much less than minimum wage and expecting full time commitment, check back on your values. The intern needs tasks that will help them grow too, not just administration work (unless it’s an administration role). Think about the humans in your work place first because in the long run, over stressing productivity without considering wellbeing will create greater inefficiencies.
- Honesty and choice. It is okay to not have enough resources. It is okay to need more work done on certain days. But it is not okay to demand staff to give more outside of their working hours without their free will. The work that needs to be done has to be done. But there are different ways of going around it. Being honest helps tremendously. Explain the situation. Be honest and clear if there isn’t more money to pay for their extra work. Explain the importance of the work, the purpose and the impact on the company. Ask if the employee is willing to take on the extra work in exchange for extra days that they can take off on a later date or certain trainings that you can offer to the staff for free. Any exchange has to feel fair on both sides and the staff should be able to feel safe enough to make a truthful choice.
Systemic change and social care
Systemic change and social care start from the self — personal transformation and self care. Be kind to yourself, engage in self care activities, have enough for yourself (emotionally, materially). Only when our needs are met, can we then have extra energy and care to give to others. In workplaces, be more aware, be open, be ethical, take criticisms, learn and care for the humans in your workplace. The company grows in the long term when wellbeing of workers are taken care of. We create healthier societies when we care for each other.