So remember last week when I posted about corporate america taking advantage of the current economic situation and thus mistreating people. Well, today the trade publication for the glorious (GAG ME) industry I work in had an article about how a highly awarded, considered to be a place of amazing creative work decided to SELL its interns on Ebay... I'll say that again....
SELL THEIR INTERNS ON EBAY. ALL 38 PEOPLE ARE BEING SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.
Is it just me or is this not a form of slavery??? I'm going to assume that no waivers were signed, these "kids" probably didnt seek legal advice to review said contract if there was one and therefore they are basically being sold to work as the agency and purchasing "client" sees fit??? Why is this ok?? Who's to say it will stop at this. What if other agencies follow suit and start "selling" people as a way to generate additional income in this shitty economy.
And I'm sure people will say "its an amazing opportunity, they should be grateful" or "what if this is what they wanted to do". To those comments I say, I'm sure the first africans who were taken into slavery thought the idea of a boat ride was pretty nifty and we see what that led to. Just sayin...
1 comment:
I have had the same realization over the last year after I experienced a mentally torturous experience in corporate america. I left a 6-digit job to keep my sanity in the worst job market ever if that gives any indication. Ever since I have been researching company cultures and talked to people who have experienced similar situations. It's absolutely modern day slavery and so blatantly obvious now with bad economic times here. From what I've seen it's that you're either a slave or a favorite child. Ironically, the slaves are typically the knowledgeable and capable while the favorites are not as much but know the art of people manipulation and being nice. Ironically for how pervasive it is, it's an unspoken thing...There are three books that seem to try to address this: The Age of American Unreason, Cain and Abel in the workplace, and First Break all the rules. Additionally, Malcom Gladwell's recent book Success addresses it in the section about "The trouble with geniuses"
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