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I understand why an intern would live in a tent I understand why an intern would live in a tent
(1 day later)
It just goes to show that you never do truly know the inner workings of someone’s home life. Your colleague turns up to the office in an immaculate suit, a crisp white shirt. Hair coiffed, ready to take on their daily tasks as part of one of the most prestigious, diverse, challenging organisations in the world. He’s on an internship programme that thousands of young people would give anything to participate in, and all the while he’s been sleeping in a tent.It just goes to show that you never do truly know the inner workings of someone’s home life. Your colleague turns up to the office in an immaculate suit, a crisp white shirt. Hair coiffed, ready to take on their daily tasks as part of one of the most prestigious, diverse, challenging organisations in the world. He’s on an internship programme that thousands of young people would give anything to participate in, and all the while he’s been sleeping in a tent.
Related: Unpaid internships rig the system. Curb them, now | Owen JonesRelated: Unpaid internships rig the system. Curb them, now | Owen Jones
It’s easy to imagine what went through 22-year-old New Zealander David Hyde’s mind when he was accepted on to a UN internship halfway across the world in Geneva, where accommodation costs are prohibitively high. Four words: “I’ll make it work.” Because you do, or at least you try to, whatever your background. Chances like this don’t come along all that often.It’s easy to imagine what went through 22-year-old New Zealander David Hyde’s mind when he was accepted on to a UN internship halfway across the world in Geneva, where accommodation costs are prohibitively high. Four words: “I’ll make it work.” Because you do, or at least you try to, whatever your background. Chances like this don’t come along all that often.
It’s a shame that, in the face of public uproar, Hyde chose to resign. Whether he was under pressure to do so, we don’t know. Often, when you take up an unpaid placement at a powerful organisation, there’s a tacit understanding that you don’t draw attention to its practices. Having young people living in tents because you contribute nothing to their survival while they work long hours in your office is not great PR. Especially not when your founding principles are to “defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands”. Yes, perhaps there were things that hinted at Hyde’s situation – a slight dishevelled look, a slope off to the toilets to brush his teeth, the rucksack under the desk; but coming out and saying it? That’s just not on.It’s a shame that, in the face of public uproar, Hyde chose to resign. Whether he was under pressure to do so, we don’t know. Often, when you take up an unpaid placement at a powerful organisation, there’s a tacit understanding that you don’t draw attention to its practices. Having young people living in tents because you contribute nothing to their survival while they work long hours in your office is not great PR. Especially not when your founding principles are to “defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands”. Yes, perhaps there were things that hinted at Hyde’s situation – a slight dishevelled look, a slope off to the toilets to brush his teeth, the rucksack under the desk; but coming out and saying it? That’s just not on.
Hyde is right. The UN’s intern policy is not a fair system but this is also a story bigger than the UN; bigger, even, than exploitative internships themselves. Internships may often be the gateways to high-flying careers but for those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, the struggle to keep your head above water doesn’t end there. This story is about the things people do to “make it work” within an economic system that takes no prisoners. It’s the seam your grandmother drew down the back of her legs to resemble stockings, or the smile your dad painted on his face each morning. It’s the vague answers about what you did on your weekend, the running joke about the executive who lives in his car, your secret cry in the stationary cupboard as you tug at your itchy second-hand suit, the bed on your friend’s floor. In my case, it’s the car boot sale in a field in Anglesey that paid for my internship at Vogue. Hyde is right. The UN’s intern policy is not a fair system but this is also a story bigger than the UN; bigger, even, than exploitative internships themselves. Internships may often be the gateways to high-flying careers but for those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, the struggle to keep your head above water doesn’t end there. This story is about the things people do to “make it work” within an economic system that takes no prisoners. It’s the seam your grandmother drew down the back of her legs to resemble stockings, or the smile your dad painted on his face each morning. It’s the vague answers about what you did on your weekend, the running joke about the executive who lives in his car, your secret cry in the stationery cupboard as you tug at your itchy second-hand suit, the bed on your friend’s floor. In my case, it’s the car boot sale in a field in Anglesey that paid for my internship at Vogue.
In the years since university, I’ve come to regard the media as a kind of Hunger Games assault course. You charge through the barrage, head first, as other members of your generation fall by the wayside. Save for a small few, only the well-off, the determined, or the lucky stay the distance. But it’s not just the media – everyone’s known someone who has been desperate to “make it work”, for myriad reasons. It may even have been you. In which case, you’ll know that it’s a struggle that incorporates many factors – high rents, low pay (or no pay at all), zero-hours contracts, stagnant wages, elitism. We’d be surprised, I’d wager, just how many people are swanning around offices giving the impression of a well-ordered, professional existence, when actually they’re living in a cupboard, or a garage, or a tent. Let’s be honest: there’s paying your dues, and there’s paying your dues.In the years since university, I’ve come to regard the media as a kind of Hunger Games assault course. You charge through the barrage, head first, as other members of your generation fall by the wayside. Save for a small few, only the well-off, the determined, or the lucky stay the distance. But it’s not just the media – everyone’s known someone who has been desperate to “make it work”, for myriad reasons. It may even have been you. In which case, you’ll know that it’s a struggle that incorporates many factors – high rents, low pay (or no pay at all), zero-hours contracts, stagnant wages, elitism. We’d be surprised, I’d wager, just how many people are swanning around offices giving the impression of a well-ordered, professional existence, when actually they’re living in a cupboard, or a garage, or a tent. Let’s be honest: there’s paying your dues, and there’s paying your dues.
This story is about the things people do to 'make it work' within an economic system that takes no prisonersThis story is about the things people do to 'make it work' within an economic system that takes no prisoners
It isn’t just non-disclosure clauses and the fear of a disciplinary hearing that perpetuates this culture. Something happens, I think, to those who, despite the odds, manage to prevail within the rat race. Either, having made it, they feel so unbelievably lucky to be where they are that they will not speak out, for fear that they end up in their previous miserable situation (the terror of poverty, especially when you’ve already experienced it, is a powerful motivator). Or, they think “well, I’ve done it, so others can too”. They become complicit and start to believe that those who fail do so as a result of some inherent flaw – laziness, stupidity a lack of commitment. They start to believe in a meritocracy that they nigglingly know, on some level, doesn’t exist. We owe it to Hyde and all those others struggling to make it work to condemn exploitative labour practices. But until people are able to look beyond their own successes into a wider world of poverty and injustice, the cycle of inequality will continue.It isn’t just non-disclosure clauses and the fear of a disciplinary hearing that perpetuates this culture. Something happens, I think, to those who, despite the odds, manage to prevail within the rat race. Either, having made it, they feel so unbelievably lucky to be where they are that they will not speak out, for fear that they end up in their previous miserable situation (the terror of poverty, especially when you’ve already experienced it, is a powerful motivator). Or, they think “well, I’ve done it, so others can too”. They become complicit and start to believe that those who fail do so as a result of some inherent flaw – laziness, stupidity a lack of commitment. They start to believe in a meritocracy that they nigglingly know, on some level, doesn’t exist. We owe it to Hyde and all those others struggling to make it work to condemn exploitative labour practices. But until people are able to look beyond their own successes into a wider world of poverty and injustice, the cycle of inequality will continue.