'He hires 10-20 unpaid interns and gets them to do all the work': Manager refuses to give a recommendation letter for unpaid intern, claims it's against policy

In the words of Bo Burnham, "Who needs a coffee? 'Cause I'm doing a run, I'm writing down the orders now for everyone. The coffee is free, just like me. I'm an unpaid intern." These are the familiar blues of anyone who has even worked in exchange for "school credit." I put school credit in quotation marks because you never really need the credit, do you? You're just taking it instead of money because they don't want to pay you. In the opinion of many, this type of deal should be illegal. 

Firstly, it goes against the whole axiom of getting paid for your work. Plus, it puts people who can't afford to take an unpaid internship at a disadvantage. It's also a tool for certain kinds of bad people to get free labor that they would otherwise have to pay someone a lot for. It's not a good system, top to bottom. 

Author image for JR Atkinson JR Atkinson
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