Post by the excellent Han Worsley, one of our bloggers.
What’s in a job? An income? A sense of purpose? A group of mates?
As a university student, you work HARD. Not only do you work, but you pay to work — either upfront, or through a slowly increasing HECS-HELP loan that is too daunting to think about so let’s just stop talking about it okay? Okay.
And for those who need to support themselves through university, we need to find an actual, paying job. Like just about anyone else in society, income is generated as a direct result of the hours you put in in a workplace, and regardless of how much you enjoy it, it is a necessity.
But there’s a worrying attitude when it comes to work, particularly to university students. The kind of worrying attitude that says “work in an unpaid internship for 30 hours a week and don’t expect a paid job at the end and also keep studying and paying rent please” and “because you’re desperate let us grossly underpay you”. And my personal favourite catch-all, “Stop complaining, you’re such a typical millennial.” Isn’t that fun?
One article that really made me raise an eyebrow was the interview from the start of the year, published in an article on news.com.au. Now I’m late to the party, but Muffin Break General Manager Natalie Brennan espoused a sentiment that I hear fairly often — essentially that millennials are entitled and self-important, and therefore unwilling to do unpaid work. The interview has all the classics — accusations from a business that young people are “Insta-obsessed” and need constant rewards for doing no more than their job. But Muffin Break, as a business, also has the exact attitude problem towards young people I’m talking about — a history of underpaying three migrant students collectively $64,000, and a franchisee told to consider underpaying staff he could trust not to blow the whistle.
From a generation of people who received free university education, young people are being told to dedicate their time to unpaid internships and work experience to get ahead in their careers, or in some disciplines, to make it at all. And in the unfortunately not isolated case of Muffin Break’s GM, those people tell us this while sitting on a throne of financial and job security built on the abuse of vulnerable young workers.
The fact is that work experience is useful. Internships are an incredible opportunity. But the luxury of time, literally “free” time, to engage in these is not available to all. Students don’t turn up our nose at these opportunities because we are entitled or self-important. It’s not because we are saying “um look at all my Insta followers, I deserve better” or “I want to be paid for doing absolutely nothing thanks”. If people stopped to listen, or even to look at the statistics that show the exorbitant rent we need to pay, or the important dental work we avoid, or the old, unsafe cars we drive, they would probably see that there’s more to the problem. We are saying “hey look I’d love to be able to take on that internship, but my rent, healthcare bills, general expenses, and mental health can’t handle themselves.” In the case of many practical careers, such as teaching, nursing, and medicine, unpaid placements are a non-negotiable part of a degree, and students must simply make it work, even if they risk homelessness or malnourishment. And that is the reality.
We don’t have an attitude problem. We don’t have a sense of entitlement. Rather, we are already working incredibly hard to get ourselves an education, and there’s no more space there for unpaid internships, or underpaid and underappreciated workplaces.
Now there are absolutely generalisations made here. Some students are lucky enough to have parents or families who can support them through university. Or like myself, have a flexible job that pays well, treats workers fairly, and just happens to be relevant to my degree. But for every person with that luxury, that privilege, there are many more who struggle with the reality of a world of employment that expects students to somehow ignore the realities of their existence to get experience, and deal with utter contempt in the process.