some years ago i lasted a solid month at a local immigration workers non profit for an unpaid internship (i know, i know, i was naive) and i’m just recalling how fucked over i was.
never mind the irony of being a LABOR org that exploits the unpaid labor of interns, they also weren’t up to par with the legal credentials to have an unpaid internship. sometimes i was cooking food, sometimes i was out canvassing for employees when they would be back at the org throwing get-togethers. in many ways, they violated the fair labor standards act. they never even mentioned at any time of the internship that it was unpaid.
at times the work was educational and informative, but as time went on, they became relaxed with what we did and started using us for labor they didn’t want to do. i finally told them i couldn’t afford to work for them anymore, and they told me if there was any way they could support me they could. i wanted to say, “well, pay us then!” but i was young, over worked and frankly 100% over it, so i said no and moved on with my life.
what a waste of my time that was.