I just about had a fight with my sister over the first bit of the title about offering to work for free. And it's been a reoccurring theme from others i have come across regarding the other comments of selling yourself short just to get a job. I know my sister means well and i get where she is coming from in terms of doing WHATEVER it takes to get a job so you can pay the bills, as no job at all means no income, but my beliefs, my criminal justice background, my ideals of fairness and a better society for all SCREAM AT ME that supporting that kind of ideal/attitude is just wrong.
I live out in Northern Utah in a rural area where there are more people looking for work than good paying jobs. This means we have families in the area all pooling money together from the lower end, more service sector retail gas station jobs, just to afford 1 home because ther are so few single full time job can cover the mortgagee out here. If you are 1 of the lucky few who get a production job you might just make it in this town. But again for every 1 good production job we have dozens upon dozens of people applying just for that 1 spot meaning the rest are screwed.
So ya i get the idea behind offering to work for free to try and sell yourself as the “good worker (cough cough, boot licker), offering to work for less, offering to be on call and have open availability ALL the time but at a certain point i just can't stomach the idea that we still live and are propping up this system where workers are set to fight each other for the job to the point of never having a job or never being able to be financially independent.
It's to long and length to write up here but the short version of what I tend to believe in is that anyone who works/contributes into society, WHATEVER the job is, should be able to get a piece back from society to be independent. It should not matter what the job is as long as it supports the function of society as whole: So the cashier to the front desk clerk contribute in their time doing their job that allows other parts of society to function and thus they should be able to live without worry of not making enough to pay the Bills.
So the notion that we still live in a society where we fight each other for the UNPAID job just to hope we actually get the PAYING job i believe sets the precedent for more greed and corruption within our society, from companies, and a mindset that is mentally and emotionally damaging for people.
Think about it this way: apart from doing work without getting payed being illegal, if companies intentionally pit workers against each other to simple GET the job by “volunteering” and being Interns, which by law the company is not supposed to financially benefit from yet we all know it happens where you perform the work for free that they benefit them and then they hide it, then why would they ever want to have a full staff and just have workers fight to be an intern without ever spending a dime for the labor.
Could you imagine if that was the standard we implemented across the nation: work 1-3 months for a company for free and then they will decide IF they want to hire you. If you don't get hired just work another 1-3 months again at the same company or another company right? This is the kind of, and forgive my language, FUCKED UP thinking that i just can't stand to support or reason with and i refuse to fall in line to do that JUST to get a job.