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To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

The forums are mostly read-only and are in a maintenance/testing phase, before being permanently archived. Please use this time to get the contact details of people you'd like to keep in touch with. My contact details are here.

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My Unpaid Slavery
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Evan92 Offline
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Post: #1
My Unpaid Slavery

I'm presently enrolled in College studying finance, luckily or rather unluckily I managed to score an unpaid internship 3 days a week at an oil and gas firm. I entered into this figuring I would gain invaluable experience in their accounting department. Well that was the furthest from what actually has been occurring. I've been here a total of three weeks and dread showing up to slavery.

Venti caramel and cinnamon dulce frap hold the cream and soy milk NOW, is all I hear all day. "The copier isn't working call xerox", "My husband and I going through a nasty divorce, if his lawyer calls tell him I'm in a meeting". All of this for a name on a resume to get ahead. And worst of all, office potlucks. I don't get the point of potlucks, no one wants to eat your nasty food and everyone gossips behind everyone's back. †here is a senior accountant in his mid 50s who threw up drunk at 10:30 in the morning on the floor of the mens room.

Yet these people most of whom are in their 40s and 50s act like kids. Really makes you think about the state of humanity. Well another day in hell tomorrow I suppose.
05-27-2014 07:41 AM
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brainiac3397 Offline
Machiavellian Amoeba

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Post: #2
My Unpaid Slavery

If you are in the USA, threaten them with a lawsuit.

Recently, courts have been siding with interns when it came to lawsuits against unpaid internships.

Plus I don't believe in unpaid internships. The only reason I'd ever do it is to destroy the company that dare attempts to take us in as SLAVES! DOWN WITH THE CORPORATIONS! DELETE THEIR SYSTEMS, BURN THEIR DOCUMENTS AND JAM THEIR PRINTERS! SPIT IN THEIR DRINKS! SCREW UP ORDERS! THEN CURSE THEM AND THEIR MOTHERS AND THEIR FATHERS AND THEIR ENTIRE FAMILY!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Mwahaha

(as you can see, I'm very passionate about these things...)

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(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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05-27-2014 09:24 AM
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Evan92 Offline
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Post: #3
My Unpaid Slavery

Im in Canada unfortunately, the law is rather grey on whether unpaid internships are legal or not here. What I do know is that I have voluntarily enrolled myself into this in exchange for uni credit and a reference. I wouldn't call it voluntary but more or less forced do so for the need of a fucking job when I graduate. The people who have won settlements here had 2 common factors; they were forced to work outside of designated hours of service and they were not sponsored by a college or university. Were all slaves in the end, doesn't matter if your flipping burgers or making up numbers.

And LOL about destroying paperwork. I actually signed an NDA as well other documents saying destruction or leaking of intellectual property would result in civil litigation against myself. Really work, university, high school, it's all the same. Someone else exerting power over someone else and the whole micromanaging mentality that comes with it.
05-27-2014 10:04 AM
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no Offline
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Post: #4
RE: My Unpaid Slavery

They can't sue you if you destroy the universe they're in.

Hello, traveler.

This is an ancient account I have not used in a long time. My views have changed much in the intervening months and years.

Nonetheless, I refuse to clean it up. Pretending that I've held my current views since the beginning of time is what we in the industry call a lie. Asking people to do so contributes to moralistic self-loathing. "See, those people have nothing damning! I do! I'm truly vile!"

Because you can never be a good person with a single blemish on the moral record, I thought that simply entertaining some thoughts made me irredeemable. Though I don't care for his writing style, William Faulkner presents a good counterexample. He went from being a typical Southern racist to supporting the civil rights movement. These days we'd yell at him for that, probably.

People are allowed to change their views.

Nevertheless, this period of my life has informed some of how I am today. In good ways and bad ways. To purge it would be to do a disservice to history. Perhaps it will not make anyone sympathetic, but it may help someone understand.

If, after reading all this, you still decide to use the post above as evidence that I am evil today, ask yourself if you have never disagreed with the moral code you now follow. In all likelihood you did, at some point. If some questions are verboten, and the answer is "how dare you ask that," don't expect your ideological opponents to ever change their minds.
05-27-2014 10:08 AM
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thewake Offline
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Post: #5
My Unpaid Slavery

It's not slavery.

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05-27-2014 01:42 PM
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Trar Away
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Post: #6
My Unpaid Slavery

Maybe technically not, but it still sounds like Hell. Unpaid internships can be pretty hellish, and that's ignoring how they're wrong in principle.
05-27-2014 05:13 PM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #7
My Unpaid Slavery

So how long do you have to put up with those idiots? Will they fire you if you do clumsy things, like accidentally trip and spill their coffee on them?

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
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05-27-2014 10:48 PM
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darkmind15 Offline
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Post: #8
My Unpaid Slavery

i hate this era we should revert to primitives atleast there you cant mess up other than dieing
05-28-2014 03:56 AM
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Ky Offline
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Post: #9
My Unpaid Slavery

On a serious note, is there a way to get out of there faster without forgoing their name on your resume?

Public Service Announcement: First world problems are still problems.
05-28-2014 03:59 AM
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brainiac3397 Offline
Machiavellian Amoeba

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Post: #10
RE: My Unpaid Slavery

(05-27-2014 05:13 PM)Trar Wrote:  Maybe technically not, but it still sounds like Hell. Unpaid internships can be pretty hellish, and that's ignoring how they're wrong in principle.

They'll teach you how to fetch coffee like a pro. Perfect for your resume!

At least apprentices got more respect due to being seen as an actual student for a master. Interns are seen as expendable assets(and not being paid, nobody gives a crap).

I'm total capitalist when it comes to employment. Pay me the fair share of the work I do, or sod off.

Hell, apprentices got fairly paid for their work. What they earned was probably reflective of what they could contribute(being inexperienced). Of course a lot of internship jobs I've seen generally aren't things that require the skills a carpenter might need. Internships take an easy to learn job and make it appear hard.
(my opinion)

And credits are not an acceptable alternative. Credits are monopolized by colleges. Screw them.

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(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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05-28-2014 07:46 AM
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Evan92 Offline
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Post: #11
My Unpaid Slavery

Just got in from another day, called the work coordinator at the uni on my lunch break. More or less told sorry your on your own, and I was also told by the coordinator that she expects my weekly skill set summary report in by friday at 4 pm. I asked her what does she propose I write in my reports, given that fact i haven't acquired any tangible skills? She told me verbatim "bullshit your way through this and don't make waves". So i guess I will pull something out of my ass to appease the program directors. Thankfully my duration ends mid August and I will receive my credits.

Also found out that I am "at will" and have very little, if any recourse and any party can terminate the process at any time. Just chew on this, a public university funded by tax money and tuition (I pay these bastards 7500 a year), lends out "help" to private enterprise under the guise of furthering education. When in all reality my day consists of coffee fetching and the odd bit of excel documents thrown in.
05-28-2014 08:49 AM
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thewake Offline
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Post: #12
My Unpaid Slavery

Can't you just quit? Or is that name on your resume so valuable that it's worth more than whatever activity you're forgoing this summer to do the internship?

Makes me want to be a little more aware and do a little more research for when I start to look for internships. I don't mind an internship being unpaid, but I do mind it not teaching me anything.

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05-28-2014 09:16 AM
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brainiac3397 Offline
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Post: #13
My Unpaid Slavery

Quote:bullshit your way through this and don't make waves

I'd start questioning her qualifications. If it's so easy for her to tell you to bullshit through and not make waves, who knows what she's done herself(and what demons she's unleashed)

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(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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05-28-2014 10:07 AM
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Evan92 Offline
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My Unpaid Slavery

Her only qualification is her fat ass has sat long enough in a chair to acquire tenure at the university.
05-28-2014 10:16 AM
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magikarp Offline
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Post: #15
RE: My Unpaid Slavery

I wouldn't underestimate being able to put up with difficult people as a skill. Fair or not, getting used to office politics will likely be just as useful to you
as anything else you might have learned.

And also like, the conditions that allow this kind of thing to be common (mostly a labour surplus) don't primarily hurt well-educated 20-somethings who can afford to work for free for a couple months, so.

"Do we treat straight public sex differently than we do gay public sex? Of course. Straight people are so proud of their public sex that they named a cocktail after it."
(This post was last modified: 05-30-2014 09:50 AM by magikarp.)
05-30-2014 08:17 AM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #16
My Unpaid Slavery

Quote:I wouldn't underestimate being able to put up with difficult people as a skill.
lol, yeah... that is actually a valid skill. Would be pretty hilarious if you put that on your report.

"Acquired 1000% more patience and self-control to refrain from punching morons in the face"

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
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Click here if school makes you depressed or suicidal

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06-02-2014 03:00 AM
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Evan92 Offline
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Post: #17
My Unpaid Slavery

Yes it is a skill, I have potluck this wednesday and do not know what to bring. Any ideas?
06-02-2014 01:00 PM
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thewake Offline
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My Unpaid Slavery

Cake.

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06-02-2014 02:24 PM
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Gwedin Offline
dumb shithead

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My Unpaid Slavery

(06-02-2014 02:24 PM)W Kuts Wrote:  Cake.
06-02-2014 03:10 PM
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brainiac3397 Offline
Machiavellian Amoeba

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RE: My Unpaid Slavery

Let them eat it.

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(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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06-02-2014 04:07 PM
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