I work for a media company. We’re quite busy lately, and I would like to send our interns, who are unpaid college students, on the occasional coffee run, but it seems wrong somehow. I know they wouldn’t be learning anything, but isn’t it better for the company to have an unpaid intern rather than a paid employee do this? —Name Withheld, New York
IF ONLY “better for the company” were synonymous with “ethical,” I would have an easier job. Many employers and colleges justify paying interns little or nothing by reasoning that students will earn college credit and their experience will be essentially educational. Having made that bargain, both employer and college are bound by it. Interns should be given tasks that are at least potentially illuminating. If you want to hire people to run errands, do so but be candid about it.
Some flexibility is called for. Much can be learned just by hanging around an operation, and newbies must expect to do some scut work. So when tasks pile up and deadlines loom, interns may be sent on coffee runs. Such chores can teach them how co-workers help out in a crisis but shouldn’t become routine.
—Adapted from “The Ethicist” in The New York Times Magazine