DEAR JOYCE: My daughter will be a senior in college this year and has been told by her school’s career center professionals and also by her professors that she needs to get at least one internship under her belt to gain experience before starting in her adult career.
The problem, as I see it, is that all the internships she’s found so far are unpaid, and I consider that exploitation. To add insult to injury, now she tells me that some of her friends’ families are paying middlemen to get them unpaid internships in this sorry economy.
Ridiculous! Your thoughts? — M.A.T.
The internship has become a rite of passage from student to employee within the past dozen or so years. Strategic-thinking parents — recognizing the fact that their kid has to have something that convincingly suggests work values to put on a resume — may agree to shell out thousands of dollars to make an internship happen. (Browse for “Unpaid Work, but They Pay for Privilege by Gerry Shih”.) Employers go along with internship recruiters because “screened” workers are delivered on their doorsteps without muss or fuss — and it doesn’t cost them a dime in recruiting fees.
It isn’t surprising that some people are paying thousands of dollars for an internship, especially in this era of economic uncertainty where almost any kind of workplace connection is at a premium.
Along with graduating from a prestigious college or having family connections, the pay-for-play scramble for a superior career start further tilts the career-advancement landscape against financially unendowed students.
No, I do not advise paying for unpaid internships, and I have a practical problem with doing so: Students and new graduates who have their workplace entry cards punched for them miss out on the chance to learn one of life’s great lessons: developing the resilience and job search skills to spring back from rejection in the job market. And sooner or later, that is likely to occur in a world that changes from day to day.
Remember that internships are primarily learning experiences. When they’re unpaid, the reward should be academic credit. Although reality doesn’t always match intent, interns are not supposed to be replacements for paid employees. The federal Department of Labor has explicit rules about what is a legit internship and what is not.
Browse for an easy-to-read primer floating around the Internet: “10 Rules for Hiring Unpaid Interns” by lawyer Jay Zweig. And if you still have questions, check out the British site Unfair Internships (unfairinternships.com).
Over the years I’ve had at least 50 interns. All were paid.
DEAR JOYCE: I am on family leave (Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA) and plan on returning to work next week. A friend in the company HR office called confidentially to tell me that a decision has been made to fire me on the day I get back. According to FMLA law, I had a right to take this leave. Should I see lawyer? — J.M.
If you are, in fact, terminated, ask for the reason. But other than to calmly express your shock and dismay, don’t react on the spot. Go home and call a lawyer. The timing is suspicious, but don’t make the mistake of assuming that FMLA is at the root of your dismissal. It may or may not be the cause.
An article in Employment Law Today, an employer-focused newsletter published by the Alexander Hamilton Institute (legalworkplace.com; click on “Yes, You Can Fire an FMLA-Protected Employee Without Violating the Law”), describes the case of a service center manager who was shown the door on his first day back from FMLA leave. Despite the timing, the court decided the termination wasn’t FMLA-based.
Instead, the verdict was based on job-performance issues. It turned out that the replacement employees who filled in for the absent manager uncovered multiple deficiencies that the manger had swept under the rug, including employees not following procedures, damaged freight hidden in trailers, customer complaints and overtime not being handled property.
If you’re not cut loose, you’ll want to know more about why your “friend” punked you.
