Focusing on better opportunities instead and even left a "good" review so that everyone is aware of their tactics. I received another much better interview offer with another place and it is day after tomorrow. Also received one rejection that was honest and saddening because the pay was really good.
I have also found useful tips for working around a better portfolio and filled out 2-3 more applications just in case. I don't know when this hunt is gonna end but let's hustle together. Btw I'll appreciate any tips regarding interview for me?
That's against labor laws in every state in the US. It's considered "wage theft".
EDIT: I do understand there exists "Unpaid Internship" positions and "Volunteer" roles.
There could also be simple things that are unpaid like a 30-minute unpaid driver test for a driver position. With paid orientation for passing.
However, going in for a "trial" for a week is absurd to begin with. Especially with the expectation of a paid position.
That would require an employed person to take a vacation for a week. Because why would anybody put in a two-week notice for a week long "test" to see if they made it?
It would require an unemployed person to put off everything they're doing for other positions they're looking at, for an entire week.
At the very least it would have to be paid. Though it makes little sense to go to unless you're really desperate.
However, it's important to understand since there's an expectation of a paid position, it would have to be a paid week of work, otherwise they are in violation of labor laws in every state of the USA.
There's been discussions in other subreddits about these trials, and most people are against the idea.
Ya it never happened. There was no company that said you have to work a full week of unpaid trial period. OP likely just misunderstood what a trial period is and got emotional when they replied to the email.
Yeah man plenty of exploitative companies out there, to jump straight to that sounds suspect to the OP is an idiot who can't understand an offer is pretty wild.
Well that’s what it seems. If the email said “UNPAID” why wouldn’t they quote that. The only term they quote is “one week trial”. OP inferred the rest. One week trial DOES NOT MEAN unpaid. A trial is a trial. A ton of jobs have trial periods. Trial periods are never unpaid. OP read one week trial and thought it meant unpaid. It’s as simple as that.
They are not quoting, they are being sarcastic to the fact the company calls it a one week "trial" when in reality they want to potentially just use him for a week, for free. I also don't think trials last only a week, they tend to be a month or more to give the employer enough time to assess your potential.
They didn't misread anything because they didn't read anything, they are reporting what they were told in the interview.
You’re really reading into OP’s use of quotes. In fact, YOU are the one inferring a lot explicitly from placement of the quotes. OP is telling you they were told by this employer that the trial period was unpaid and your comments here are to say “no it wasn’t”? Super helpful, thanks.
Sure thing sweetie. Not my fault you didn’t know that trial periods are common in the workplace… and are paid. Deep breaths.
Nah vet clinic i worked at legally (ontario) was required to pay for trial period... they didn't pay any of the staff for that period. Just cuz it's law doesn't mean companies won't try to save a few bucks.
Exactly. Thank you for confirming that trial periods are paid. OP heard “trial period” and thought it meant unpaid trial period.
Did you willfully miss the part that despite it being promised to be paid, it wasn’t?
I didn’t miss it. It just doesn’t apply to the discussion at all. I’m not stating that some employers don’t illegally withhold pay. OP is stating that the prospective employer outright said that they’d be forced to work an unpaid one week trial period and I’m sayin that definitively did not happen.
OP 100% heard “one week trial period” and immediately thought that meant it was unpaid. That is not the case. Trial periods are very common and they’re always paid. Whether or not some employers try secretly ghosting a new employee is another thing entirely. But they’re definitely not outright advertising it by telling everyone in the interview that they’re forcing you to work an unpaid week.
It’s kind of like this…. thieves steal from people. Of course. No one is saying that doesn’t happen. But… thieves are NOT telling the people they’re trying to rob that their money is going to be stolen from the start. Otherwise, no one would “invest” their money in the first place. They’re two different things. Companies aren’t blatantly saying they force new employees into one week unpaid trial periods. Some may try to get out of paying them. But they’re definitely not advertising it.
I'm from Italy. One time a company proposed a 3-6 weeks of unpaid trial period. After that, they wanted a one month period in another city with only traveling and house expenes paid...
“Come in a day and try the position out” --> ghosted and never paid.
That never happens but I’m sure it sounded good in your head.
Why you being such a dick? Lol
Because he's a boot licker.
This exact thing has happened to me!
Happened before to myself. Idk where you're commenting from but as I replied earlier, just because it's illegal doesnt mean people wont do it.
It does happen alot, in for example, the service industry.
Idk, I had a boss once who would have considered this a genius, ambien and vodka fueled idea.
I have personally seen this happen to a friend of mine, and he idiotically worked the shifts and was somehow surprised when there was no job offer for him at the end of it.
I told him it was very clear that the restaurant was using "trial shifts" as a replacement for paid labour and that, maximum, a 2 hour trial shift on a single day would be possibly acceptable, but asking for 5 days of full labour is the largest red flag and clearly wasn't the actions of a company who was seriously looking to recruit staff.
This was in the UK.
Tl;Dr: It DOES happen.
Well we aren’t talking about the UK, but thanks for sharing your story! The UK has much bigger things to worry about anyways. Make sure to not offend anyone in here too … you’ll have those speech patrol agents at your door in seconds if you use speech that hurts someone’s feelings.
I'm not sure what country this post is talking about to be honest. Our employment laws are far more friendly to the employee than the US employment laws are though, so it happening in the UK is a much bigger thing than in the US.
Totally agree with you about the free speech issues though!
My dude, don't be cocky and wrong. I can tell you during my job search I ran across multiple startups requesting something like this. Most of them offered to pay for the week, but they absolutely do work trials
Like others have said, to suspect OP just didn't understand it, is fuckin' absurd.
When I was younger, about 18, I got swindled by a company who was doing door-knocking and they pretended that they weren't doing that. There are PLENTY of shitty companies out there.
Perplexity did. One of the founders was a speaker at a conference I went to, and he admitted that they had done unpaid work trials.
You've clearly never read the choosing beggars job posting section before. This has been offered by companies before. Some companies do this during their busy seasons and then don't follow through with the job offer and use people as free labor.
Oh no. I’ve read them. But the vast majority of them are karma farming posts that aren’t even close to reality.
Time to log off for a bit
Sounds good. Let me know when you’re back. Toodles sweetie!
My wife got tricked when we moved to a new state. Guy got a free days wage from her. We should have sued honestly.
No way I believ OP, I applied to work at a diner out of college as a part time side gig on weekends, and was told I had to work the first 2 full weeks for no pay and could not keep tips during the "trial".
I loudly said I refuse to work for you for 2 weeks and not even get to keep my tips in front of the handful of tables that were there (obviously I was asked to come for the interview during a slower period so the restaurant wasn't even close to full).
They went out of business within the year. Lol.
Imagine working 2 weeks for free then coming in to work months later and you're back to square 1.
Crazy af. But it happens unfortunately.
*Edited to make it bold where I literally say they want me to work 2 weeks for no pay whatsoever since some people can't read apparently 🤷♀️
No server in training gets to keep their tips. You still make your minimum hourly wage. But what waiter/ waitress is going to let you shadow them when they’d have to give you their tips. That’s very common. It is more rare to find a place that allows the servers that are shadowing/ training to keep tips. It’s still not unpaid though. Servers make a minimum wage that is offset by tips. If tips are zero, you still make the minimum wage.
Two weeks no pay and no tips and I'm down voted for leaving?
My first server job ever I only did 3 days training and received standard minimum wage for training hours, not expected to work 2 weeks for free..... there's a huge difference between "no tips" and "no pay and no tips"......
Yeah the only thing ive heard like this is a stage in cooking. Where you basically work for a week either for the experience or as a interview. Ive heard of people getting a recommendation based on how they did on their stage.
😂😂😂😂😂 peak
I had an experience like this. I was still a math major and it was a weird point in my life where I was on autopilot. I was interviewing for a math tutor position at a local shop. She said come tomorrow for a test run. I didn’t make the connection that it was unpaid labor. Guess I was too young and ignorant to make that connection.
I’m a private math tutor. I run my own business. I hire tutors to work for me. I would never consider not paying them, omg. I throw money at my good tutors to keep them around. I work hard to train them and will do what it takes to retain them, lol.
Tutors are literally a g*d-send. I love you all! Thank you for everything you do!
I m ade the same mistake in college. They ended up offering me the job and I ended up rejecting because I realized that I wasn't going to get a commission for any of my sales that day.
In the 90's many companies required several weeks of unpaid training. Southwest Airlines did it the most in my home city. Southwest tried to claim these trainees weren't "employees" yet. The government shut down this B.S. in the mid 2000's, but I remember seeing job after job advertised with unpaid training in my local newspaper.
If anyone asks me for a "test run" I charge $250 per hour as a consultant. I'm available any time at that rate ;)
Please report the for violating the US labor laws.
I had an interview for a small office, nothing too crazy for the medical industry. But the Dr. who owned the company wanted me to do a “trail” period of two weeks. So, you want me to burn my PTO to come work for you, just to hopefully have a job there???? Who really thinks thats an attractive offer?
LOL…the nerve.
What company was it for?
Don't be shy, drop the company's name for us to see and do what the internet is best know to do.
This is insane. Who are these idiots in charge?
Are you sure they weren’t going to compensate you for this week trial?
What industry is this in?
"Wishing you luck finding no one comfortable with that arrangement" is such a sick burn and I absolutely love it!!
Yikes red flag
Should have countered one week of work and no pay with one week of pay and no work.
As you should! The things employers ask for is ridiculous.
Did better than me. I just would have stopped showing up, no call no nothing.
That’s crazy
I would love to accept that role, then file an NLRB claim and alert the IRS. The penalties from both would likely put them out of business, and the owners in jail. The tax man takes no bullshit.
Not under the current administration sadly...they've all but dismantled the nrlb for the time being
NLRB is union stuff. You'd got to your state's Department of Labor. Unless you live in FL, which doesn't have one!
Who The F! is doing this?
Can we name and shame
I interviewed for a position last year that told me the first 2 weeks of training would be unpaid. That’s an entire paycheck!
If you are in the USA I advise you to report them to your local dol.
Trials should always be paid, and in most cases are. This is illegal and can be reported.
DoL
Name and shame
Beautiful email! Well done! 👏
Yooo good on you for telling it like it is. Hats off to you, wish you luck in the future
I applied at a place as a designer a lot time ago and they sent me a bunch of their unfinished projects asking me to work them as a trial. I was like lmao fuck no.
Excellent, no notes fantastic
Third paragraph chef's kiss
Sorry, unless you’re willing to name and shame, I don’t believe you. In this day and age, you’re more likely to be someone trying to get clicks and engagement.
I absolutely love everything here !
This is so insulting
Weird ask from employer to work unpaid fulltime for a week. Unfortunately there are few who will be interested in these roles as some people are really unemployed for sometime.
In my current role, to complete the application, I had to spend a week in hotel nearby and report daily. They paid for EVERYTHING and my hourly rate.
Shreya from Puffy?
The worst kind of job that still exists and it shouldn't.
If I may offer a piece of advice: I would avoid the word reject in various forms, (in this case, no longer interested) and I’d rather write “I decided to withdraw my candidacy “
Why?
standard business jibberish; by rejecting you create a negative "vibe" with the HR and you assert control, the smartest way to get yourself out without burning the bridge is to withdraw from the process, it creates the sense they are in control, while it's not. It's really a small thing, most likely not noticeable, but I was thought to check these kind of things
Why would anyone want to keep that "bridge"? Fuck them.
And you think asserting control is a bad thing? This person was offered unpaid work. I am a firm believer in taking full control of the situation to not let anyone run you down.
It surprises me how much abuse candidates are willing to take sometimes. No one should. HR and recruiters are nonsensical majority of the times.
Awesome comment, it’s not a bad thing, but it’s not necessarily the smartest long term strategy either
There is no dumb thing long term. No one wants to work for bad corporations or team. When vibe is wrong or feels wrong, keep moving.
I get what you're saying, but you're trying to convince the unwashed masses who relish in being assholes to people they believe wronged them not to be assholes. It is a losing proposition. Better to let them go scorched earth and laugh at their sob stories when shit like that comes back to bite them.
You perfectly got me, and I always hope someone won’t be as stupid as I’ve been :)
Fuck that “vibe” and fuck that bridge. Some bridges are meant to be burned. There are thousands of companies around, no need to lick ass of every random HR at yet another random company.
I'm a freelance writer. I've burnt bridges for the last 15 years. Still have work, still doing OK. I don't even use "professional" words, just say, hey I can write this.
They haven’t used the word reject babe.
You indeed are right, I wrote fast and didn't fully explain myself, thanks babe.
Fucking people like that on reddit man. Don't even waste your time... Public is gods gift to earth it seems
Ya. You dropped the ball here. There is exactly and precisely a 0% chance that it was unpaid. Literally didn’t happen. You probably got emotional and misread the email. I know you’re embarrassed now so you’ll never admit it, but anyone with a brain knows that there wasn’t any company in any state that requires a one week unpaid full time work trial. Do better next time. Breathe before sending out emotional responses. Maybe have another person read it.
A “one week trial” means you work and they evaluate your skills and abilities during that time without the need for a formal “firing” if it didn’t (as firing employees can be costly). If it works out, you’re onboarded as a full employee with full benefits (that are offered). “One week trial” doesn’t and never has meant unpaid.
I have no idea where you got zero percent from. I have heard of people (young people particularly) being conned into doing unpaid trials in various industries.
It's certainly possible this was the case, but it's not zero percent.
Had a barista job and a hospital job telling me the same thing. An one week trial period, to ascertain my suitability for the role. Was paid everyday as a barista, and at the end of the two week trial at the hospital.
Unless it was specifically mentioned to be unpaid, it doesn't hurt to ask if the trial is paid or not.
Assuming that this is not a manual labor/retail gig, it costs way more in setup costs to allow a prospective hire into your various production systems than any theoretical "free" labour you would extract from them.
If you have ever onboarded a new team member the process is generally having multiple conversations with at least 2 layers of HR and/or IT.
Then you pray to God that all the credentials work.
Then you pray to Krishna that this new fuck did not lie on the resume about being able to use productivity tools.
Then you pray to Satan that they don't break anything in their first 5 days.
If you expect a brand new hire (or in this case a maybe/baby) to do anything resembling productive work in that timeframe, you must have the patronage of a far higher power than those 3.
No. It didn’t happen. Unpaid internships are very different and not at all the same thing. No job requires a full week of unpaid work for a trial. With how much every person loves suing everyone in the US praying for a payday, that company would’ve been closed by now. It never happened. OP 100% misread and didn’t understand what a “1 week trial” meant.
Why you acting like you know all the context behind everybody’s situation. I don’t think there’s any point that you should be 100% sure about somebody else’s experience with 0 evidence concerning that person’s perspective
No no no this person knows literally every company within the United States and all of their hiring practices
Hey. I was delusional like you and thought the same. That was until I did a one week trial, without pay, and they let me go cuz “I wasn’t a cultural fit”. I had another friend applied to it and she was offered the same “deal”, however, she told me she ghosted them after the first day. She asked if she’d be compensated after the trial week, and they said they’d review terms by the end of it. Flash news: review terms = bye thanks for your free labour
Oh my gosh! That’s so crazy. Was there a moment where the boss came to your house crying that there’s no way the company can go on without you? Did you have an epic f u moment when you left the office to a growing swell of slow clapping from coworkers in awe of the amazing moment? Or is that not how your “totally real and not made up” story ends?
Sober up
You’re embarrassing yourself
Sure thing sweetie. If that helps you sleep better at night.
Get a cold shower and sober up
That’s a good thing. Although you should just stop drinking. It’s not good to get so drunk that you have to tell yourself to sober up. Best of luck in your sobriety.
It’s a fact honey.
Blocking me proves you know I’m right lmfao
He didn't say this was in the US
Well then that’s probably why I clarified I was talking about the US, huh? When OP posts things simply for attention and karma, they’re not always gracious enough to include any actually useful information… like location. So we fill in the gaps ourselves.
I had an unpaid trial before it was supposed to be for 3 days but I asked about pay on the 2nd day and they gave like £30 for a 9-5 😭. And then didnt call me for the third day smh guessing cos I asked to be paid.
Ya, I’m not talking about Europe. European countries are too far gone to worry about anymore unfortunately. I’m sorry you’re stuck there though. Sincerely.
What do you mean too far gone? Where are you from yourself? I’m curious to where it is so much better than Europe.
Okay fine, everyone in the thread concedes that:
But regardless of that, you dont know what the specifics of the offer OP was given, as such, it might very well include an unpaid trial period; as a matter of fact, OP would not make reference to unpaid labour if the offer did not include unpaid labour.
You're accusing others of being too emotional, but you're not really using your brain here, are you?
I’m simply stating that OP blew an opportunity because they didn’t know what a one week trial meant. And that OP chose to have his snarky gurl boss moment instead of sending a professional response that might’ve resulted in the company clearing up their confusion in that the trial period is, in fact, paid.
The amount of people in here telling you from personal experience that yes this does in fact happen, whether legal or "common practice" or not doesnt matter. It happens. It will happen. It HAS happened. And you shoving your head up the corprorate butthole doesnt mean that these businesses would t use a basic legal process to scam "potential" employees in an illegal way
Youre kinda intentionally missing the point babe
Multiple posts without the slightest evidence accusing the OP of getting emotional so they didn't understand an offer.
Have you not heard of unpaid internships? Or how about the thousands of reports of companies asking for real work to be done as an day long interview process? Or job offers being given as long as they do some work on x project to show their style?
How on earth do you know what the offer they got was?
0% chance fuck off
Internships are not even remotely the same as or similar to trial periods …. not even in the same universe. I’m sorry if that upsets you but I can’t help you with that.
No shit they're not the same, they do, however, involve people working for no wages.
Look dude, you don't have any actual insight about this. You're just spouting an uninformed opinion with 100% certainty. You might be right. You might be wrong. Why do you have to be such an absolute dick about it?
Merry Christmas bitch
Were you dropped on your head as a child? I almost feel bad but I’ll say it very, very slowly. New hire trial periods are not unpaid. I hope that helps you sweetie.
New hire trial periods are not supposed to be unpaid. That said, there are documented cases of companies trying to pull shit like this, so it has happened. Saying it can't happen is objectively wrong, and it's not a grey area.
Honest question- why do you believe you have unique insight into this? You could be right, you could be wrong. I'm skeptical of it myself.
But you are convinced. Why? Do you truly believe no company would ever engage in wage theft like this? Do you believe every company abides by the rules?
I’m convinced because it simply doesn’t happen anymore… not anywhere near the number of times it is regurgitated in this channel on Reddit. I read so many posts every day claiming “I walked out because they wanted me to work 90 hours a week” or “I walked out because they wanted me to work for free”. By now, it’s simply just a karma farming technique people post and repost day in/ day out.
People are so litigious anymore that things like this are just so beyond rare, the chances of even some of these repeated stories being true are near zero. If any company was telling every candidate they talk to that they have to work for free, they’d be shut down or bankrupt in a week.
They can be, as someone else has already commented in the thread you patronizing ass.
Just because YOU haven't experienced one doesn't mean OP hasn't. You get that your life experience is very limited and thinks happen to others that don't happen to you? Right?
Stop claiming certainty when you have limited information, and then using that false certainty to be really obnoxious.
Sure thing sweetie. It didn’t happen but we can pretend if it makes you feel better. Edit: it 100% didn’t happen.
Real solid "trust me bro" arguement. I think everyone would be willing to believe you if you had evidence to substantiate your claim
The great thing is… No trust needed. Trial periods are common in every single industry and they’re always paid. I’m glad I could help clear that up for you.
Ahhhh.... i get it.
You're an 18 year old qho just got their first job and cried about thr trial period until someone explained you would be paid for it... So now you have to project your stupidity/ignorance on other peoples.
I see you a lot clearer now.
Thank you for agreeing with me that trial periods are 100% always paid 😂 I appreciate it.
As someone who had an “unpaid trial period” in a job years ago before I knew better….yea, this happens
No it doesn’t. But thank you for pretending.
Are you that ignorant? lol It’s actually quite sad.
Shreya? That you?
I’m Arjun, Shreya is out for the day.
I did get a chuckle out of this though so I gave you an upvote. I love being the one making this comment usually
Only if there were other countries other than the "States"
Breathe before sending out emotional responses!
100% agree. Hopefully OP learns this for the future.
I love how every other comment saying they have had a similar experience with an unpaid trial period is just fake news to you and didn't happen. how convenient.
Ya because… now watch this… I am actually the owner of the company that this OP applied to and I’m the one who communicated with him. We told him that it was a trial period that is PAID but he didn’t understand what a trial period meant. He got all in his emotions and started crying right there in the interview room. His mom had to pick him up. He went home and typed out this email and we felt like we dodged a bullet and crossed him off of the list. We even reviewed the security camera and it clearly said “paid”.
Well there you go… I typed it out, so it must be true, right? Based on your logic, if someone posts it, it’s fact. Surely people don’t constantly lie online, right?
No shit but you act all knowing and dismiss everyone saying otherwise as false. Could they be lying? Sure. But they could also be telling the truth. It isn't that far fetch to think that a company would do such a thing.
Right. So you could also be lying and wrong.
Of course I could be lying. Is this news to you? Lol. At least mine is backed by the verifiable fact that it is highly illegal for a company to require unpaid trial periods. Not just like slap on the wrist. Like end of business type consequences. I am also exaggerating when I say 0%. I’ll agree it’s not a 0% change. But the highest I’m willing to go is 2.5% chance lol.
I’m sure some will find ways to try paying less/ not at all. But that doesn’t change the fact that I 100% do not believe that a hiring manager told this person - outright, before even onboarding- that they require an unpaid trial period. The world is way too litigious nowadays for this to be true in any significant capacity. I simply don’t believe that any company just outright told him this. Especially because the way OP wrote the email, they seem to think that “trial period” (which they quoted) means unpaid. It doesn’t. At all.