Alternative Compensations

"If you're good at something, never do it for free." However, some of the Jokers of our time, have rephrased this statement and their words are as follows: "If you're good at something, do it for experience, exposure and anything other than money."

Whether it's an unpaid internship or just the usual work as a freelancer, people who use such impractical forms of payment or honorarium, always manage to get to our nerves thanks to their weird belief that hard working people will be fine with receiving just the exposure and experience. For those who are confused as to what I am talking about and how such intangible things can be offered to professionals as payment, here are some of the things many hard working souls are offered as an alternative to monetary payment.  

Exposure: Legend has it that every time someone asks you to do something for exposure instead of money, a capitalist in a faraway country dies laughing. I agree that exposure is needed when you're brand new to the job market, but why does it have to be a substitute for monetary payment? We would have been fine without the cash, if we could've afforded a lifestyle with just exposure. But unfortunately, we are bound by reality and exposure alone can't pay for our food nor internet.   

Experience: Why get paid when you can have experience and be happy about it, right? After all, experience is just another form of currency like exposure. The only experience people will get from collaborating with someone who has no motive to pay them, is that how much of a miser and illogical some people can be when it comes to appreciating someone's hard work and dedication. We gain experience as we continue to work and thrive in our respective fields. It is something that cannot be offered as a form of payment unless the whole scenario is set in an alternate universe.       

Future Work: When exposure and experience aren't enough to pay them, clients switch to the next form of honorarium, which is promising the young professionals more work in the future. Think about it, you work hard for hours or even days for someone and get their job done, only to hear them say, "I can't pay you now, but if I like your work, I will provide you more opportunities in the future which will include a proper payment." Such promises are often made and barely kept.

Food: Of all the alternative payment methods, this is perhaps the most acceptable one. You can't survive on exposure or experience, but you can survive on food. So this is actually better than the other options. That being said, make sure to eat your work's worth. Don't just settle for a burger and some fries unless your work is worth exactly that.  

Return the favour: This is basically the barter system all over again where people would exchange services. Hence, the problems that plagued the original system is found here as well. You cannot always get the returned favour worth the value of your original work. In fact, many clients will repay you with minor favours, but at the end of the day, they will have repaid you; at least that's what they will think. This system would've worked if you and your client were in the same profession, contributing towards the same cause or skill, but unfortunately, such cases are very rare, making this method questionable as well. 

All these may sound absurd to those of you who haven't faced such situations. In fact, it is absurd. So what impact does this have on our young professionals? Exposure is good for their publicity which will increase the possibility of further opportunities. Experience will increase the weight of their CVs. How can all of this possibly have a negative impact?

Whenever you're offering such alternatives to these young professionals instead of monetary payments, you're in some way, demeaning their work. Even if they are new to the market, having them work for anything other than money makes them lose interest in the work, no matter how small the work is. People often join unpaid internships to add a bit of weight to their CVs and may do a few unpaid projects for experience. But after a while, it gets tiring for them and not everyone can afford working for free. You acquire a particular skill and gain expertise in it after tons of hard work and a lot of dedication. That skill is then utilised by other companies or people from you only to leave you empty handed. Eventually, once you've had enough exposure and experience in your pockets, you'll realise that all this time you were being exploited of your skills by people who sought free labour for their own benefits.

Faisal wants to be the very best, like no one ever was. To survive university is his real test, to graduate is his cause. Send him memes and motivation at abir.afc@gmail.com