Would You Ever Work For Someone For Free?

[zanzibarjones 1]

I often see listings for jobs, such as intern or non-pay positions.Would you ever work at one of these jobs, just for the experience? Or would you feel that the employer was taking advantage of you. using you and your skills to further the company, and then at the end of your stay, they drop you like a hot turd.What do you say?

[linekill 1]

If it's volunteer (social) works, why not? But if it's for profit like most listings for such positions, then it's a different story. I currently work for an online company and we hire on-the-job trainees. The company pay them minimum wages (with the health, insurance and other benefits).

[mahesh2k 0]

If it's weekday job in company with good brandname then i'll go for it. Sometimes even small scale and startups are not that bad as well. But i prefer not to take risks. So i'll go if there is any 6 month internship or no pay job is there but in such cases i'll not work on saturdays and sundays which many companies in india ask for while working on intern/no-pay job. :|For social service, i dont mind at all. I'll not think second for profit or so from it. Infact i'm doing it for one during weekends. Good thing about non-profit is that you get to know more people and social networking increases.

[sheepdog 10]

Hands on experience can be a value in it's self. If you are going to learn a trade or something of value, it might be a fair deal for you. Considering the price of school tutition to learn a new trade. It can be pretty steep in some cases. And then when you factor in the fact that there are some things they really can't teach you in school that you would learn from actually being in the business, it might just be the way to go. Of course, if you have to make a living to support yourself at the same time, that could sure be a problem!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I don't work for free unless it is straight-up volunteer work for non-profits. Other than that I would only work for a for-profit organization if I got some benefit from it. This does not have to be monetary compensation either. It could be as simple as me doing writing for someone and them allowing me to advertise on/in it and keep all rights to what I wrote. To me that is worth more than most places would pay anyways, and they would get the rights to what I wrote.

[Quatrux 4]

It depends what your age is and how much free time you have and what you want to do, personally I worked for me being a moderator and a little more on some hosting companies years ago, before I found Xisto (Xisto), it all was done for free, but later you were allowed to do more, like creating new accounts, controlling WHM and etc. controlling the users, it was all for free, except that you had hosting for yourself free and it was quite fun and also you gained experience working with the server and it's server, so it has it's revenue..But I personally couldn't work for free lets say looking after an old lady, it's just not something I would like to do. Sometimes, some jobs may give you some kind of benefit of working for free, for example, one of my friends worked in a bank for free, as a student, for over 6 months and later he got a normal job there in the IT department.

[chini13 11]

I think we can't work for free for anyone..unless and until we gain something..material or not material..may be recognition ,adding up to your self esteem or your work profile..(exceptions..some social welfare task or some emotional reason)..If im gaining in terms of knowledge ,something which will be adding up to my work skills i can work for free.

Edited September 23, 2010 by chini13 (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I think we can't work for free for anyone..unless and until we gain something..material or not material..may be recognition ,adding up to your self esteem or your work profile..(exceptions..some social welfare task or some emotional reason)..If im gaining in terms of knowledge ,something which will be adding up to my work skills i can work for free.

I agree with this. It pretty much reinforces that you do not truly work for free, and that no matter what you are always getting something. Even your own self-happiness for knowing you volunteered is still a form of payment.

[web_designer 7]

for me yes and a lot. why? because i have a lot of reasons to work for free for others. like helping a friend, helping someone in trouble (like in my last job when someone have a job to be done in a limit time and he/she doesn't have time to finish it alone), to prove a point of view ( like when i say that this is the right way to do things and the others disagree with me, so i do the work myself to show them what i want to say ),for getting experience and knowledge and learn from others, for supporting others and give them confidence that they are doing the right thing since i show them that i am by their side.

[k_nitin_r 8]

Sure, I'd work for free if it were for a charitable cause. Volunteering is a good deed in itself, and if any of the United Nations subsidiaries, such as the World Health Organization or the United Nations Childrens Education Fund were to put up volunteering opportunities, it's a dream for just about anyone who grew up watching the flying doctor. Putting a roof on top of somebody's head, treating injuries or illnesses, and feeding the hungry are rewards in themselves. Monetary compensation is not the first thing you think of when you get a smile of thanks from a child, for instance. The Blue Cross offers volunteering opportunities for animal welfare and while the animals receiving the service do not express emotions in the same way as humans do, they do express their gratitude in their own way and we are just paying off society's debt to them.

[humblebeginnings 0]

Yes, I would and have worked for someone for free. It made me feel good about myself just helping someone in need. Although this person did seem to take advantage of my good nature in the long run. I volunteered to help her with some things she needed done around the house because I knew she was on a fixed income and up in age. She was the mother of a friend and about 80yrs old. It was originally supposed to be a few hours of work but turned into four days of everything she could think of. She would call me all the time (mostly while I was working) and expect me to drop everything I was doing to solve her every problem. It eventually grew to be too much to bare and I had to lay down some ground rules.I guess this is most likely not exactly what you were discussing but usually "you" also get something out of this kind of relationship also even if it isn't money.

[iGuest 3]

I often see listings for jobs, such as intern or non-pay positions.

Would you ever work at one of these jobs, just for the experience? Or would you feel that the employer was taking advantage of you. using you and your skills to further the company, and then at the end of your stay, they drop you like a hot turd.

 

What do you say?

 

Some thoughts from personal experiences in my past life.

Long story short - free work is good for you

 

For me there has been no free work that one should regret, that has not been god for self development. From EVS to extra steps with clients. It's all good not only for skills, experience, contacts & fun that comes with many free work places but also it contributes something that we call - human.

Try to find out what are you singing up for.Warn about tasks/hours that you can not work with. Sometimes you might feel used but the one who give work also put hes/her trust on you. Make sure to ask questions if you would like to know upfront about what are you getting in to, can you leave when you want, is there some extra benefits/restrictions from them, no reason to lie. If you afraid asker would not understand your answer then warn about it before. "Well, i would be clad to answer to this question but I have slight .... that we might understand the meaning of this differently"

You know, like some drugs usage might tick someone off who do not have boarder understanding about substance or is just lacking will to accept other's ways in life. This does not mean you should do things on work that are not allowed and getting yourself (or others) in to trouble.

 

There might be some that still uses cheap or free work for selfish reasons but how long will they last and is there really something that does not benefit you? Maybe it's win-win situation.

Some might try to manipulate, trick or force someone to work free using even tools that are close to ones heart. In these case you should not just letting the boss & company know what you think (first your supervisor, then boss, then company, then workers - if no good reasons comes back to you) but also make some public awareness in locations where people can debate about it and share their experiences. Also take in consideration that we might feel like this but others - might not. Do not leave things like that unnoticed - sometimes boss even has no idea how badly some things work for someone. Help them, help others if possible, if reasonable.

 

 

This was some thoughts about wide aria of situations that we might come across on our life path, sooner or later.

[k_nitin_r 8]

Would I work for someone for full-time for free? I would have in the past. However, I now have bills to pay and loans to reimburse, and with expenses going up by the day because most organizations think they need to raise prices to survive this economy, there's just little to be done except work to earn an honest buck and pay off bills and loans.I still am willing to donate a few hours of my time every week and can afford to shell out the cost of volunteering for as long as I have a paying gig.

[Harlot 2]

It really depends. If you have never had a job before, and it is an internship with a end date, I would suggest that you go ahead and work for free just so that you can get experience and be able to say that you have work experience when it does come time to apply for a paying job. Also, if the internship is working with something that you like to do that is even better. Its really best to get an internship that you are interested in or in a field that you would like to know more about because in that case, you have more of an incentive for working for free. I did as internship, and although I was paid, I would have done it for free and when the guy told me that funding was tied up I told him that I would do it for free because it was something that I was interested in getting more experience in. However, obviously the funds for untied up and I got paid while at the same time doing something that I enjoyed and wanted to learn about, so it was two thumbs up. I think the internship really set the stage for me getting a new job. Whenever I got to an interview, I was always asked about my work experience and I would have otherwise had nothing to say. Nevertheless, I was able to say that I interned at this place and list all the duties that I had, and I was even able to create conversation by telling stories about my experiences on the internship and how I handled the quickly and professionally. I had been to job interviews before the internship, and I had to simply say that I had completely no experience, and that pretty much meant that I would not be hired. So I say that if you don't have work experience and you can afford to take it, take it even if it doesn't pay. In fact, when you are in your next job interview mention that you worked an unpaid intern. That really says a lot to a potential employee about your dedication if you worked for no pay.