4 ms·

So call it volunteering? Surely volunteers are not illegal yet.

by drhodes 17y ago

pbhjpbhj 17y ago
So "the government thinks we should pay people who work for us, but what we're going to do is prey on the jobless and exploit their desire for a job in the future, we'll use that hope for a job to get them to volunteer to work for us - then we can dump them and get some more suckers later, we'll be even more rich and they can starve for all we care". Volunteering should not be illegal. Having people "volunteer" as a way around paying them to do work for you should be. Differentiating these positions is pretty hard - a simplification might be that volunteers can work free for a charity but not for a for-profit business.
- apotheon 17y ago
  > Having people "volunteer" as a way around paying them to do work for you should be. I think the idea is that it would be nice to allow people to volunteer/intern when you have no other way to give them that introductory experience. If your options are "give people a chance to get some experience without paying them" and "let them figure out how to get that experience in a down economy on their own because you can't afford to pay anyone", I think trying to find "a way around paying them to do work" is actually good for them. > a simplification might be that volunteers can work free for a charity but not for a for-profit business. So, what you're saying appears to be that for-profit businesses can't directly do anything charitable without paying enormous out-of-pocket costs, since they can't use volunteers. I think your plan sucks.
dbul 17y ago
You could call it cddddring if you like. The question is whether the labor of the person benefited the company in any way. If it did, then according to the Fair Labor Standards Act the person must receive compensation. http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.pdf http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.p...
tnovelli 17y ago
Volunteering is something you do for a charity.
cdr 17y ago
I volunteer for a huge corporation, along with hundreds of other people, to do things that couldn't be done if they had to pay employees. It's a hobby that has aspects of a side-job. I don't see why it couldn't work for Cuban. (Interestingly enough, volunteering is illegal in France, where the people that would be volunteers for this otherwise are actually employed and in a union.)

So call it volunteering? Surely volunteers are not illegal yet.

by drhodes 17y ago

So call it volunteering? Surely volunteers are not illegal yet.

So "the government thinks we should pay people who work for us, but what we're going to do is prey on the jobless and exploit their desire for a job in the future, we'll use that hope for a job to get them to volunteer to work for us - then we can dump them and get some more suckers later, we'll be even more rich and they can starve for all we care". Volunteering should not be illegal. Having people "volunteer" as a way around paying them to do work for you should be. Differentiating these positions is pretty hard - a simplification might be that volunteers can work free for a charity but not for a for-profit business.

apotheon 17y ago
> Having people "volunteer" as a way around paying them to do work for you should be. I think the idea is that it would be nice to allow people to volunteer/intern when you have no other way to give them that introductory experience. If your options are "give people a chance to get some experience without paying them" and "let them figure out how to get that experience in a down economy on their own because you can't afford to pay anyone", I think trying to find "a way around paying them to do work" is actually good for them. > a simplification might be that volunteers can work free for a charity but not for a for-profit business. So, what you're saying appears to be that for-profit businesses can't directly do anything charitable without paying enormous out-of-pocket costs, since they can't use volunteers. I think your plan sucks.

dbul 17y ago

You could call it cddddring if you like. The question is whether the labor of the person benefited the company in any way. If it did, then according to the Fair Labor Standards Act the person must receive compensation. http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.pdf http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.p...

tnovelli 17y ago

Volunteering is something you do for a charity.

cdr 17y ago

I volunteer for a huge corporation, along with hundreds of other people, to do things that couldn't be done if they had to pay employees. It's a hobby that has aspects of a side-job. I don't see why it couldn't work for Cuban. (Interestingly enough, volunteering is illegal in France, where the people that would be volunteers for this otherwise are actually employed and in a union.)