Working for Free

Just get a job. Quit being lazy. Grow up, already and find some work. You leech.

Believe me, I've heard them all. I've probably thought about half of the negative things you can say about unemployment about myself.

You can barely open a newspaper (er, or open a website that used to be a newspaper) without seeing some article about the delayed adulthood of millenials and generation Y and how we're not buying houses or we're still living at home or whatever else is wrong with us this week.

I know. I should just get out there and get a job so I can move out and be an adult. Right. This is the first time I've ever been told that, and clearly that idea had never occurred to me before. Let me get on that now.

Except nothing is ever that simple. In case you haven't noticed, the job market sucks. Single posts on employment sites get hundreds of responses. It's even nearly impossible to get a job at McDonald's right now. And when you're a creative type, it gets even worse, since the people who show interest in hiring you still don't want to pay you.

Via The New Yorker.

Yes, I do a little free work. It's for places that are labors of love, plus I know they're hardly breaking even on server costs and aren't paying anyone. They aren't advertising on the media boards like they're a real job and then - surprise - either calling themselves "internships" or offering something insultingly low per piece.

So in a world where you practically need a doctorate to get retail work, but employers in your field want you to work for nothing, how are you supposed to get out and do all the things that are established markers of adulthood? I don't have answers to that. I'm still just trying to get by, and unfortunately right now that means I'm figuring things out from my parents' spare bedroom.