A Difference of Expectations

I find the balance between work and life an interesting one. Many employers, or perhaps just the smart ones, clearly ask for more than they pay their employees to do. However, how does the mechanism work in the opposite direction? In the public as well as the private sectors, employees are asked to work extra hours (directly and indirectly) or they are asked to complete more projects and in many cases the compensation does not change. In past experiences, where I have been working on an hourly schedule, the idea of higher compensation for more work was fairly well communicated. That is to say, that working 41 hours in a week earned more compensation than working 40. Likewise in work experiences where my job has been linked to increasing revenue there is a stronger link between how the organization benefits and how the employee benefits.

I find it odd how arbitrary compensation scheme is working in the "public sphere". Although methods such as "pay for performance" are said to exist, the grounds for measuring performance are not ones that are based on monetary gain. If this were the case, teachers who brought more students into the district would get paid more. (That is in states where district/school funding is partly determined by the number of students). I also find the compensation scheme not nearly as direct in times where there isn't as much money being freely spent (times such as now).

The link between this subject an "internship" is an odd one as well. As many providers of these types of experiences search for a best (most qualified) candidate, however many aren't willing to pay more for more qualified personnel. In many cases, many aren't willing to pay at all. In these cases, what is the distinction between the work that is rendered and simply referring to it as "volunteer work". While I was working in Germany I worked with many of companies that took on interns. In truth, a lot of companies in Germany seemingly run, themselves, on interns because in the system it seems that they are a replacement for entry-level jobs. However, are both terms interchangeable?

These are just some ponderings as I move forward in my life, and I sincerely intended to write them in this train of thought style as crafting a more complete piece would be much to long (both to read and to write) in blog format.