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In 2007, Kristen Rae Spicer of the University of Georgia told the Wisconsin Legislature that during her 2005 summer work for The Southwestern Company, she worked 80-hour weeks, was raped by a co-worker and was subjected to company “brainwashing.”
Representatives of Southwestern were on the UI campus recently to recruit students for summer work. They spoke in front of classes and distributed a little orange slip of paper titled “Summer Work Interest Questionnaire.” Those who received the survey may not have known its purpose because the representatives did not clearly identify themselves or what they do.
The questionnaire asks what students did the previous summer, if they are paying for university expenses by themselves and what their plans are for the summer. The only options given are “work,” “attend school” or “both.” It then asks, “If you are planning to work full- or part-time, and if a summer opportunity came along where you could make more money and gain more experience, would you be interested in hearing about it?”
Who would say no to that? The Southwestern Company knows this, so the next part of the survey prompts students to provide their name, major, year in school and up to three phone numbers. Guess they are really banking on some people being desperate.
The students who signed up with Southwestern should prepare to have fun working 12 hours a day Monday through Saturday — Sunday is spent meeting with other Southwestern reps — going door-to-door in a strange part of the country to sell educational children’s books. According to the company’s Web site, students become independent contractors by purchasing books at wholesale and selling them to customers at retail price, keeping the difference as profit. It’s even admitted that the “most successful” salespeople work “72+ hours every single week of the summer,” even though it says the average student income in summer 2006 was $7,944. That’s a lot of kids’ books.
Shortly after that, the Web site mentions that there is “no guaranteed income.” That means there are students out there who sign up with Southwestern, are shipped to the other side of the country and spend almost every day of their summer as traveling salespeople, only to return home in debt in time for school to begin.
Just like Spicer.
“They say the job is not for everyone,” she told the legislature. “And I’ll just say it’s not for anyone because it’s unhealthy, because it breaks labor laws, because it’s breaking the rights of students to know what the job requirements are.”
With so many risks involved, why is UI allowing these recruiters to target students? Does the school receive money from Southwestern in exchange for access? Representatives are not clearly identifying themselves to students, many who are in serious need of a stable work environment and a steady paycheck, neither of which Southwestern can offer. Maybe some students somewhere are getting rich, but for all but the chosen few who are blessed with natural sales ability and a hefty dose of good luck, hundreds of better jobs are available locally.
The fact that Southwestern is operating as it is on campus is a sign that students here need to carefully evaluate any “opportunities” presented to them, because even something allowed by the university may by a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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