Should you work for free?

We're talking a lot about internships, paid vs unpaid and those pesky entitled millennials who, depending on who you listen to, are either busting their butts working for a rusty nickel in the snow, or are entitled smug little twits who just want to live at home til 36.

As ever, the truth of this story lies somewhere in the middle. 

But there are also stories beyond the fringes. 

Let me tell you mine...it's not so fringe...

When I was studying, I never worked for free. Since the age of 17 I've been self-supported. I worked in retail to put myself through 2.5 of my 3 degrees. I scanned groceries, hawked futons, sold antiques...often I was living on less than $150/week.

When you're that strapped, you live to a strict, limited routine each week and try to keep very, very still lest something happen to throw that routine out. Before this gets too "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me", let me explain why the discussion around paid and unpaid internships are limited until we identify ways to alter the underlying structure of work/leave. I have a few suggestions.

The idea of working for free for me was laughable (in that breaking a sweat while you die of anxiety kind of way).

I couldn't take a free internship because the time away it would mean losing my job.

Worse, I couldn't even take a PAID intership because there was no guarantee that I'd get my job back once it ended.

Casual and part time workers are at the mercy of the shift manager and your availability is king.

Meanwhile, I watched my peers take up these opportunities and start to move faster as a result...which was annoying.

In short, I was skint, living on a knifes edge while hoping to god that this education long shot would come good. If it did, I'd have an uncertain future.....but maybe one one filled with possibilities. If it didn't, I'd be back in my hometown with the checkout apron on full time.

Starting career-relevant work earlier pays dividends across your career.

I wonder if I would be further along if I had been undertaking career-relevant work for an extra 10 years? It's hard to say of course. I do think hustling like I did helped me in other ways. But the choice of a mix of the two would have been awesome.

So what do we do about up-and-comers who would benefit from a work experience which relates to their degree? How do we get them into career-related work earlier for the benefit of us all?

For small businesses, losing a staff member for a number of weeks is tough to bare. Perhaps there is a way to talk to your staff and integrate some more responsibility and skills into their work schedule.

Instead of just checking lotto tickets at the newsagent, perhaps your young staffer can learn cashflow, ordering or action some marketing ideas to tap a young audience like him?

But for the big employers of young people, our Coles, Woolies, Bunnings and KFC, Macca's and Pizza Hut, cutting your staff a break with some study leave, like you would your full-timers parental leave or personal leave, would go a long way to ensure that job security is maintained while your staff are trying to upskill.

I guarantee they'll appreciate it and be more engaged, productive workers if there's some flexibility to their employment.

Tell me your thoughts!