Working for free

There are lots of times when it’s really worth it to work for free. Although it might not seem like it at the time.

I was promised a job on a tv show, with an apartment and a great salary. I got the job on the tv show. Just not a salary. Or the apartment.

On the show, I taught a Chinese lesson, danced with Bosnian rock stars, tried to hypnotize a chicken, acted the part of a reality show contestant, blew out candles on a birthday cake in a shower of confetti. I wore crazy outfits and had very big hair. I loved taking the run-down Sarajevo trams up to the huge brown building of the Federal Television Station, nodding to the security guard, paying 50 cents for a sugary coffee from the vending machine, sitting down at the computer to google Bosnian celebrities I’d never heard of, recording my voiceovers a million times, taking Bosnian elocution lessons, editing documentary shorts, overcoming stage fright and just generally joking around.

I had no money. The tv station cafeteria lady was my new best friend. My friend Elma freelanced for a pittance, getting paid by the news segment for her reporting. Dzanko said it was like working in a bakery and churning out buns.

If I had known in advance that they wouldn’t pay me, I wouldn’t have done it. But I’m so glad I did.

Ironically, two years later, they actually did send the payments that they had originally promised. There’s a two-year backlog. At the time it seemed like so much money; now I earn that amount every 2 weeks. Wealth is so relative.

But I still believe in unpaid work, in some form, as essential to creative development. That’s why I write this blog.