Will Work For Free

This morning I wrote a post about the election and in it I made the comment that all the best people I have employed were prepared to work for free.

Apparently (going by the number of terse messages I received) this was a terrible thing to say.

All that does is strengthen my resolve that my point was valid. Most people who are gainfully employed will at one stage have done some work where pecuniary compensation was not their motivation.

All over the country these holidays there will be students and young people scrambling to be accepted as interns in companies, workrooms and agencies. To be given an opportunity to get real life experience and more importantly prove their worth to future employers.

Interestingly these are the people that generally go on to have great careers in their chosen fields, not because of their qualifications but because they have been prepared to view working “gratis” as an investment in their own future.

As a person who pays tax personally and professionally I am inadvertently funding their future via that tax. So as someone who regularly invests in other people’s futures is it too much to ask them to do the same?

Why does the ability to get a job always need to be about the money?

Isn’t the opportunity to be noticed in your chosen field a bigger prize than $520.00 a week before tax?

Or is sitting at home on the dole complaining that all the jobs you've applied for are underpaid a better solution?