(3 minute read – unpaid work)
Hi there accounting fans!
Let’s talk about a subject close to my heart:
‘Unpaid Work’
I’m sure many of us are familiar with the story: New graduate starts out. Needs some experience. They go door to door looking for work, offering to do work for free in exchange for experience. The same goes for unpaid internships. There seems to be this prevalent idea among business owners that it’s somehow ok to get people to work for free.
‘Oh, but they’re getting valuable experience,’ I hear some of you say.
Well, stuff that.
Experience won’t pay their rent, put food on their table or keep them warm in winter.
I often hear of the same things affecting other fellow creatives like myself. Where they are expected to do free creative work (art, design, writing) for ‘exposure’.
On a related note, mates’ rates suck as well. Here’s why.
Exposure, much like experience are useless forms of remuneration. It is wrong to expect people to do work for free. Here’s why:
Reason #1 : Every work is valuable
Even the most basic forms of routine adminstrative work has its value in any organisation. Yet when an intern joins a big corporation, they’re expected to complete these menial tasks for free. Interns should be remunerated a fair rate (or the minimum wage at the very least) because they are contributing to the company. Having interns being able to perform the most basic tasks means that more senior team members are freed up to focus on more value driving projects for the company.
‘But what about the valuable training interns get?’ I hear some of you say.
Oh yes, sure, but isn’t everyone learning something everyday on the job? Is intern learning suddenly worth so much more than the learning that other team members experience daily (and are paid for as well)? This does not justify them having to work for free.
This is especially true for creatives. These individuals have amazing talent and have invested a lot in honing their creative skills. Their work has real value and you cannot expect them to work for exposure. That is insulting and demeaning to them. Respect your creative team. Pay them what they are worth.
Reason #2: Unpaid work creates a race to the bottom
Imagine a market place, where everyone is competing for the same job. Let’s say that job is brick-laying. One person offers to do it for $15 an hour. Then another person steps in and offers to do it for $10 an hour. Finally, someone offers to do it for free. Who will you choose?
If we’re looking at minimsing costs, surely we’ll go for the free one right? But this means that we’re hiring purely on price, not on quality of outcome. We’re no longer paying for quality work, we’re looking to get people’s time for free. This creates a race to the bottom for the industry which devalues the overall industry.
If you expect your team to work for free, how can you justify a higher sales price to your customers? What’s stopping them from expecting your company to do work for free as well (or a much lower price).
This can become a vicious race to the bottom. So don’t be part of it. It only serves to devalue your business.
Reason #3: Unpaid work will make your team will leave you
Sure, go ahead and not pay your interns and your new team members. They will leave as soon as they get a better offer. Once they’ve got their ‘experience’ that you’re paying them with – they’re gone.
But can you blame them?
If you’re not paying them anything why should they stay?
Now, I know that there are a lot of other reasons why employees will stick with a company. Things like motivation, engagement, challenge and value alignment. But by the end of the day, if the company is not looking after their team’s financial needs, they will still leave, no matter how much they love the company.
And if your team leaves your company, who’s stuck doing all the work? That’s you – the business owner.
Reason #4: Paid team members do better work
Funny how people produce better work if you pay them fairly for it.
Who would have thought?
By paying them fairly, team members will feel that their work is valued. Their engagement with your business increases and so does their buy-in. They can then draw the direct connection between they work they do for the company and how it can benefit them.
It’s interesting how if you pay people nothing, you get nothing in return.
Pay your team members. Every one of them.
As you grow your business you will require different individuals to perform different functions. Some work may be more valuable than other work. Some work may require more expertise. That’s up to you to determine the different remuneration tiers for the different types of work.
So long as you make it a point to pay ALL your team members. It doesn’t matter what it is that they do for you, if you want them to work for you, you need to pay them for it.
If you disagree with me, ask yourself this simple question:
“would I do free, unpaid work for my clients?”
And you’ll see my point in no time at all.
Stay positive!