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There are several excellent posts on the problems with volunteer/interns in science:
1. Here’s mine
4. And by Susan Letcher on Small Pond Science
Today, Sean McCann shared what has got to be one of the worst offenders: this post on EvolDir. Go ahead and read it (though mind the awkward formatting). In brief, the pay is $0. Oh, and it will cost you $300/month for food/accommodation, $1100 for permits (WTF?!), travel, insurance, and a minimum 6-month commitment… well you can see where this is heading.
And every so often, colleagues and I point out the inequalities perpetuated, the problems inherent, and the general issues with volunteer “staff”. What baffles me is that this seems to elicit a very strong response, not necessarily in accordance with my/our views. Volunteer positions are defended, lauded, and held up as the key breakthrough in someone’s career. I’m glad to hear that.
But consider for a moment some alternate realities. Would you be as successful if:
- you were a person of colour?
- you were caring for an elderly family member?
- you had a child?
- you were LGBT?
- you had little/no financial means?
There’s ample evidence to suggest that these groups are those most at a disadvantage by the current university system, and in science as a whole, and to whom I (and others) argue are done the most disservice by the perpetuation of volunteer positions used in place of paid staff. See the four posts at the beginning of this page for the evidence.
The argument that unpaid positions are the norm isn’t valid: it used to be(/sadly still is?) the norm for women to be kept out of positions of power, for there to be poor field safety, for mothers to smoke while pregnant, for LGBT folk to be assaulted/arrested, or for racist/sexist jokes around the dinner table, and for child labourers to work 80+ hours/week. But, by and large, western liberal democracies have adopted cultural norms that state these are not acceptable.
We don’t ask dentists, car mechanics, analytical labs, airlines, departmental administrative staff, or bakers (or any other professional) to volunteer “for the experience”. We need to treat our field staff (whether they be trainees or not) as professional scientists, because that’s what they are.
So, in an effort to highlight some of the problems in hiring wildlife/conservation/ecology field staff, I and a few others have started CrapWildlifeVolunteerJobs.tumblr.com, the premiere site for all unpaid positions! Feel free to submit job adverts you’ve found that don’t pay their “staff”. As the site says, the goal isn’t necessarily to call out people or organizations, but to highlight the issue as a whole. It even has an RSS feed, so you can follow along.
No money = no lab analyses
No money = no field supplies
No money = no gas for the truck
No money = no staff
It’s not rocket science.
The Lab and Field 
oops, just to clarify, that bit on Small Pond was a guest post by Susan Letcher.
Duly edited!
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Hi Alex,
I think you’ve definitely got a good point on this.
Question: how far does your logic extend? For instance, you and I both have blogs. We voluntarily give away our writing for free. We’re able to do that in part because we’ve got steady jobs. And you can make a strong argument that the existence of *lots* of people like us–amateurs who are happy to just write stuff for free and put it on the web–makes it very hard for a lot of professional writers to make a living. To the point where now a lot of professional writers or wanna-be professional writers get asked to write stuff “for the exposure” or “for the experience”, or for a pittance. So are bloggers like you and me exploiting others, or at least helping to create a situation in which exploitation can happen? Honest question.
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for an interesting point. In no particular order:
No matter how poorly staff are paid, there’s going to be someone who will do it for less. That’s how we ended up in this in the first place. Privilege means just that, so if I suddenly win the lottery and become a millionaire, I can pursue activities with greater ease than I can now, or than a recent grad. The best way to break the cycle is from the employers’ side. The equivalent would be editors insisting that their writers are paid. Some places do that. Others don’t.
I’ve written a bit about the increased “free” availability of photographs here. Photographs can be used for different purposes, and there are lots of folks sharing images for free, though more are licensing their images and taking action against those who use them without paying (Alex Wild, for example).
There’s a great piece with a musician’s response to a restaurant ad looking for a musician to play “for exposure” that I think highlights what we, as a society, consider activities worth paying for, and how that differs based on the job.
But as you say, we both have jobs, and do this for enjoyment/off the side of our desks (though one could argue that using it in tenure/promotion/grant applications as evidence of outreach makes it *part* of our jobs), so we are privileged enough to be able to dedicate the time to think, write, and comment on each others’ blogs. As I said above, it comes down to the fact that someone can always do something for less, and I think it’s up to those who do the hiring to start the change.
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Hi,
I was wondering what happened to CrapWildlifeVolunteerJobs.tumblr.com? It does not seem to be functional anymore. If that is the case that’s a shame I wanted to add some recent job that my friends and I found while preparing for the upcoming field season. I think that it was a great concept and raised much needed awareness.
Cheers,
Asia
I’ve been looking for CrapWildlifeVolunteerJobs.tumblr.com too I wonder if it just moved to another domain. I’m trying to create a site or something for exposing these kind of unpaid volunteer jobs.