Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nrinaudo 3648 days ago
Slave labour? I assume you're talking about internship in the US, how does that work?

In France, I personally pay my interns (no great credit to me though, it's a legal obligation), give them a bonus (usually one month's wages) at the end of the internship unless their performance / attitude has been abysmal, and make sure I devote some of my time to training them (although to be faire it probably averages under 1h a day). It's probably not the best deal in the world, but I certainly wouldn't call slave labour...
1 comments
Kristine1975 3648 days ago
> how does that work?

Unpaid internship. Aka exploitation.

link
extra88 3648 days ago
It depends on the value the intern provides vs. the value the intern receives. In general, I think it's better for interns to receive some pay but money is not the only thing of value an internship can (or should) provide.
link
simbalion 3647 days ago
The 'intangible' things of value that internships supposedly provide are the exact same things that "entry level jobs" used to provide.

I've only been alive a few decades and I've seen the corporations convert "entry level jobs" into "internships" in that timespan. So it is exploitative and it is a form of slave labor.

link
Kristine1975 3648 days ago
>but money is not the only thing of value an internship can (or should) provide.

Of course not. But unpaid internship is always exploitation.

link
aries1980 3647 days ago
…and illegal in many countries, including the US unless “the employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern” what I can hardly imagine it can realistically happen. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf
link
nrinaudo 3648 days ago
While I agree with you now, I recall being on the edge of tears when my very first internship concluded and my manager told me I'd already gotten paid in knowledge and should not expect cash on top of that. For the longest of times, I assumed the knowledge he was talking about was "managers are assholes".
link
extra88 3648 days ago
You started an internship without knowing whether is was paid or not?!

"Managers are assholes" is not very valuable information, you can pick that up from sitcoms and Dilbert. But you can learn a lot from bad jobs and the mistakes of others, including managers.

link
nrinaudo 3648 days ago
Yeah, it was an internship with some friend of my parents. I don't believe there was a formal contract or that I read it if there was (but I was 16 and very naive).

The "managers are assholes" bit was meant as a joke, and I learned loads from that internship. It's just that when you're that young and self centered, you tend to see what you didn't get rather than what you did.

link
aries1980 3647 days ago
If you were 16, it was an apprenticeship, not internship, right?
link