How should I deal with an unpaid volunteer position that treats me like an employee?
I accepted because I want to write more, and it's for a medium size tech website that gave false hopes of "we might be able to pay you if you do well". They seemed nice at first, but now they're a lot more strict. Since I have experience working on websites, they want me to do that, too. Some days, I am putting in 3-6 hours and skipping meals because I have to finish work for them.
Am I being unreasonable in thinking this is too much for free, or is this typical of volunteer work?
>volunteer work
They literally have no reason to treat you any better than a slave as that's basically what you are to them.
Your time is the only precious thing that you have in life.
Don't give it away for free.
That's not typical for volunteer work at all. Volunteer work is generally just a couple of hours a week and they're not THAT strict on you. They usually expect you to do the job but they recognise that you're just a volunteer and that you could walk away at any time
>>17995345
you volunteered to help. they asked if you could do more, and from what we can tell, you agreed. its not wrong for volunteers to be asked to do more. its up to you when to say no.
also please keep in mind that you may only technically be a volunteer, but when it comes to writing, you're really more of an intern. you're putting in time to prove your worth it and pad your resume, you're not out there feeding the homeless or building houses for people.
you're doing this with the hopes of getting noticed. interns and PAs are treated like shit a lot of the time. is it right? no... but they can get away with it becuase some of the 'volunteers' will put up with it to one day get a real job in their desired industry.
should you deal with it? depends what you get from it. you can always scale back or quit but if you become inegral and then threaten to leave they will likely pay you
>>17995345
Walk away.
>>17995345
are you a volunteer or an intern? either way they shouldn't be treating you that way, and as an intern you're supposed to get a lot more value out of the position than the company.