Local Painting Company Discovers Hipsters Will Work for Free

Akron, MN-

After 3 fruit­less months try­ing to con­vince young peo­ple at local high schools and col­leges to explore a paint­ing career, Elsie Hobbs, busi­ness man­ag­er at Pris­tine Paint­ing, had a unique idea. 

“Over and over again I was hear­ing that what we offered was just too sta­ble of a job, essen­tial­ly,” says Hobbs. ​“Decent pay, ben­e­fits, a 40-hour work week, over­time… It’s not what they want­ed. These young peo­ple appar­ent­ly need more adven­ture, artis­tic expres­sion, and less accountability.” 

As a solu­tion, Hobbs rebrand­ed her hir­ing ad to read like this:

“Are you tired of work­ing for some big cor­po­ra­tion? Are you sick of let­ting your val­ue be dic­tat­ed by a dol­lar sign? Come ded­i­cate your sum­mers to some­thing big­ger, some­thing chal­leng­ing, some­thing unique. We’re look­ing for free-spir­it­ed Arti­san Appli­ca­tion­ists who are ready to improve com­mu­ni­ties, and will demon­strate vin­tage crafts­man­ship while enjoy­ing deep con­ver­sa­tion, fair trade cof­fee, and all the Edamame beans you can eat. Don’t set­tle for a job when you can have an experience!”

“It worked,” Hobbs reports. ​“We now have 15 local hip­sters work­ing for free. And, we’re show­ing up on Insta­gram… a LOT. So, there’s that ben­e­fit too.”