This has nothing to do with sex but I'm writing something for work about unpaid work experience/ internships and I'd really like some stories from anyone who has ever done this... Something funny or horrific for example, did your manager throw a hissy fit at you in front of everyone or something like that.
With your permission I'd like to use one of these for an entry for my company (a HR consultancy) and will of course post a link to is once done...
Comment below with your experiences, Pretty please! x
As an inexperienced teenager one of my work placements involved making tea. I had never done it before and didn't know you were supposed to take the teabags out of the cups before serving it up...
Good training is essential!
I did some work experience in a school once when I was about 14/15. I didn't have anything to do and so my class teacher told me to go and help the other year's class with one of her projects and then later in the day complained that I wasn't spending enough time in her class! What a contradiction!
It's a shame you're only asking about unpaid work as I have a cracking one about my previous employer. I'm still not over it 2 years later!
Hope your work goes well.
SBB x
I did 8 weeks with my local council in December of last year.
I'd just left university and had no actual work experience, so after around 6 months I was offered a place on the programme and took it.
It led to a temporary job for 3 months with another department of the council - so I guess that was good. Unfortunatley there's not been anything after this and I am unemployed again, but the 3 months were fab.
I did a month of unpaid work for a work trial. The hours started off as 15 a week, that was increased to 25 the next week, then 40 the week after. I was assured that I would get a job out of it that they just wanted to see if people could do the work. The next week I was given 50 hours as there were lots of people away. I went to see the manager at the end of the month, I presumed this was to offer me a job. Nope, she wanted another month work trial with 40 hours each week. I said that I wasn't willing to do it. She said that she wasn't going to employ me then. I said ok I would look elsewhere, can I please use you as a reference. She said no as it was voluntary work.
Wow some of these stories are really shocking, thanks for commenting. We are trying to get a blog up and running about general HR issues so hopefully my bit about interns (I manage an internship scheme mysef) will come up regularly so I can talk about the good and bad points of doing unpaid work :)
Thank you guys!
P.S. @Avrielle_Aniko: That is the weirdest lay out for a shop I've ever heard. I think I'd get fed up and leave if I went to one like that!
Like SBB, I undertook some work experience at my school, only I was teaching music. Best deterrent to becoming a teacher is to try it. Later, before going off to university, I acquired a placement with a forensic pathologist.
Despina Rose wrote:
…She said that she wasn't going to employ me then. I said ok I would look elsewhere, can I please use you as a reference. She said no as it was voluntary work.
That's an apalling excuse on her part and utter rubbish.. As above: you wouldn't pander to her exploitative whim, therefore she was throwing toys out of pram.
I'm sure you already know this. Whilst there is no legal framework to compel her to provide a reference (unless it was regulated, such as financial, legal and medical work; or indeed, there had been prior agreement), you working voluntarily does not proclude her from providing a (fair) reference. If you were to have included this placement on a CV, it being queried and the woman/organisation you worked for denied — you could end up in a bit of a legal mess.
Naturally she had no intention of employing you…proverbial carrot dangling if ever there was any. If the promise of employment was written, then as far as I can remember, it constituted a contract regardless of how it was presented. Verbally, it is also a contract, but very difficult to prove… Either way, she has breached it.
I notice you called it a trial. If that is what it was meant to be, it is implied that pending performance, an offer of formal employment was to follow.
I've got plenty of "my boss is a ****ing psyco" stories, but she's still a reference so cant really reveal them yet
No unpaid ones come to mind.