Rant: Unpaid work

Unpaid work The American calling from CNN made me feel important. Come to the Paris studio on presidential election night, she said, and talk at intervals about developments.

Why not? Freelancing after decades of salaried employment as a journalist, I was being offered an opportunity to travel from home in southern France and be in the capital as votes were counted.

‘Oh, please don’t misunderstand,’ she said. ‘We’re not paying.’ Rather, I would drive to the nearest station, pay to park and buy tickets for a four-hour TGV journey and then the Metro.

‘Think of the exposure,’ she added. But, already pushing 60, I had no interest in costly self-promotion. It was a sobering introduction to a world of unpaid work that now feels familiar. If I had 50 euros for every time I have received comparable propositions, I would not be rich but feel a little less poor.

CNN is not alone in expecting something for nothing, and the approach is not restricted to the media. Nor, as the anecdote demonstrates, are schoolleavers and graduates the only casualties.

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