Two former unpaid interns who had "worked" on the set of the hit movie "Black Swan" have filed a lawsuit against the producer Fox Searchlight Pictures. One is 24. The other is 42. Although this issue of unpaid interns surfaces in the general and legal media, it's unlikely that this kind of lawsuit will signal the beginning of a trend.
In THE NEW YORK TIMES, Steven Greenhouse reports that the plaintiffs contend that Fox Searchlight Pictures:
" ... had the interns do menial work that should have been done by paid employees and did not provide them with the type of educational experience that labor rules require in order to exempt employers from paying them."
With so many other employment issues confronting the courts, the Congress, and American values, this complaint seems trivial. After all, the focus in labor matters is on big-ticket items ranging from illegal immigrants in jobs that could be done by Americans to discrimination in hiring against the unemployed.
Also, the interns chose that road increasingly traveled now. The evidence is unambiguous: unpaid internships often lead to not a job but another paid internship. Investing in internships just doesn't seem to be a savvy move. The serial intern acquires a stigma, just like someone who keeps losing jobs. The wrong message gets delivered about the suitability of that professional for the workplace.
What is savvy is to chase after a real job, no matter how menial. Working the counter in a fast-food outlet or stacking boxes in the FedEx warehouse is paid work. The alert will learn plenty about whate gets us ahead in the workplace, what systems are used to operate a successful business, and what further training might be needed. The odds are that this paid worker, if a hustler, could be promoted. Even though these employees might have majored in English or art history at college they could climb the ladder in fast food or shipping.
Hustling, hunger - they're all back in America.
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