Interns Get Fired En Masse After Protesting Dress Code at Work

[Crissi]

Uh, it certainly is. If you have to rely on the money to subsist, and without it you and family starve to death, then it's a unilateral relationship one party cannot back out of. It's exactly like slavery.

Except for an internship, this is generally not true as you're going to get experience, not to live. Unpaid is basically like volunteer work. As long as you join willingly and are able to leave without consequence (beyond losing company benefits), it's not actually slave labor.

Not to say it can't be abused, but calling it slave labor is hyperbole

[Orange Joe]

Yes, if they don't choose to do so, they don't have the money to survive. That is essentially coerced.

Whether they are held at literal gunpoint to work, or have their lives held at ransom, it's slave labor in both cases.

The only difference is whether the blackmail is less material or not.

? No lives are held as ransom and they are free to leave and get a different job any time they choose. Hell they can go live off welfare.... This is not slavery or anywhere close to it.

[Ragedaug]

Woah, woah, woah. Where, exactly, are we told that the boss has stated anything, "several times previously" on this topic?

Why would you assume it didn't happen?

[bigbaddan]

Uh, it certainly is. If you have to rely on the money to subsist, and without it you and family starve to death, then it's a unilateral relationship one party cannot back out of. It's exactly like slavery.

Oh my, that's not slavery. At all. Slavery is the buying and selling of humans. If you are intending to use 'slave labor', well that's not this either. Slave labor is performed under duress or coercion. This is not that. At all. Interns choose to work for free. They could very easily get a job for pay elsewhere.

[Independent voter]

Interns are slaves! lol

[PosPosPos]

You don't seem to either.

I certainly do, just that people like you love to take things overly literally. "Hey, I don't have a gun pointed at my head to work, but if I don't work my family and I dies, that's totally not slave labor because I wasn't held at gunpoint and in chains even though my life is held at ransom in both cases."

[Dextroden]

Sorry that you don't understand what the definition of slavery is.

Never realized slavery was voluntary.

[Orange Joe]

I certainly do, just that people like you love to take things overly literally. "Hey, I don't have a gun pointed at my head to work, but if I don't work my family and I dies, that's totally not slave labor because I wasn't held at gunpoint and in chains even though my life is held at ransom in both cases."

This is 100% false. (considering interns are UNPAID)

[Ragedaug]

Usually, when I see colleagues wearing slippers or otherwise violating dress code, they show some sign like crutches, limps or even affected gait. Amputees are in another world altogether, I have never seen one walk perfectly with a normal poise and balance.

I've worked with many folks throughout my career who had a limp. I didn't assume they all had missing limbs, though a couple of them did.

[Deja Thoris]

Its the fact this all happened so early on. Extreme red flag,. better to find new interns than risk future headaches.

Thanks for your indepth analysis based on deep understanding of the topic at hand. "extreme red flags" are what are raised when people with bombs walk into airports, not what happens when a 22 year old asks to wear less uncomfortable shoes.

I agree, potentially ruining peoples lives because they had the gall to ask about the shoes they have to wear seems like a rational and reasonable response from an enlightened employer (that was sarcasm - you don't seem bright enough to catch it without explanation)

[PosPosPos]

Oh my, that's not slavery. At all. Slavery is the buying and selling of humans. If you are intending to use 'slave labor', well that's not this either. Slave labor is performed under duress or coercion. This is not that. At all.

Slavery is not specifically and only buying and selling of humans, that's human trafficking.

If you hold someone's life at ransom, be it by gunpoint or what they need to live off on, it's slavery.

[echoSAW]

This was not some great injustice a plucky group of brave young folks decided to challenge. This was a bunch of guests at a place of employment who say something they didn't understand and thought was unfair and decided to throw a fit about in the most college way possible; a petition! I hope they learned something from this.

[PosPosPos]

I've worked with many folks throughout my career who had a limp. I didn't assume they all had missing limbs, though a couple of them did.

I didn't either, if you bothered to read my response carefully.

[Orange Joe]

Slavery is specifically not buying and selling of humans, that's human trafficking.

If you hold someone's life at ransom, be it by gunpoint or what they need to live off on, it's slavery.

No lives are being held at ransom...... Just how dense are you?

[Crissi]

Slavery is specifically not buying and selling of humans, that's human trafficking.

If you hold someone's life at ransom, be it by gunpoint or what they need to live off on, it's slavery.

You're basically broadening the definition so broadly that actual volunteer work would qualify as slave labor. Unpaid internships are for experience only, not work to live

[Ragedaug]

...what kind of logic is that?

The same logic the counter argument is applying.

With no background information at all, we hear one story of one event and conclude that nothing ever happened before this story and it was completely isolated. Life rarely happens that way.

I choose to believe the side of the probable. The probably reality is not that they were model employees who never complained about anything, then 1 day said 1 thing and then all got fired.

The probably reality is that this was an ongoing bur in the manager's side and the petition was the last straw.

[Dextroden]

I certainly do, just that people like you love to take things overly literally. "Hey, I don't have a gun pointed at my head to work, but if I don't work my family and I dies, that's totally not slave labor because I wasn't held at gunpoint and in chains even though my life is held at ransom in both cases."

They knowingly decided to work a job that paid little/nothing.

Go to fucking Qatar if you want to see slavery.

[Slant]

At this one job I had there was some office drama. One of dramatists came up and asked me what I thought about it and I told her. Turns out she was taping my response and she replayed it for the boss. 4 or 5 of us were let go. I don't need to say that I keep my mouth shut these days.

I hope you weren't fired for making a remark that was recorded without your knowledge.

Other than that, good lesson on keeping your mouth shut. What these children haven't understood is that office space is not the right place to start your own activism bullshit. The only purpose of your existance in that space is to make money for the company. If they think a dress code helps with that, you comply or GTFO.

And... something you never, ever do is bother managers with bullshit. Ever. The only reason you speak to them is because they speak to you, you have an idea that could potentially increase profit or you are sick or want to quit.

This is aside from small talk on the floor or when you meet them in the kitchen or something, but never, ever go into their office saying "Hey, we'd like to complain about..." if it's not something actually worth complaining about. Like a fire on your desk or you working for 0 dollars per month.

I'm glad those kids got let go. Hopefully they'll learn the lesson that others don't need to be told, that school's out and they're in the real world now where bullshit won't be tolerated.

[Ragedaug]

I didn't either, if you bothered to read my response carefully.

You had a very sarcastic response regarding the probability of a person with a prosthetic walking perfectly with no limb. I saw several big holes with your logic sprinkled throughout your statement. I nearly didn't respond to it because of how ridiculous it was. So many assumptions.

[Slant]

If you are not paid at all, or for peanuts, then yes it is slave labour. Just like not paying a livable wage.

Interns are paid with experience. That is the actual point of them being interns. Unless you want to start paying school students that slave away over differential maths or have to.. *gasps* run laps in PE?