To withdraw my job applications when employers want me to do an unpaid trial shift?

I worked in hospitality for longer than I care to admit.

Unpaid trial shifts are very common.

I was stung a couple of times before I was made aware of the fact that trials should only be 1-2 hours and after that should be paid at the hourly rate.

Once I done a really busy lunch shift, was told I got the job and would be paid. I wasn’t.

Second time was a Friday night in a fancy hotel restaurant. Again was told I had the job and they would be in touch about shifts.

Shitty employers use trials to fill gaps in labour and prey upon young, uninformed people desperate for work.

I have done trial shifts and ended up with the job and worked there for a long time. I definitely wouldn’t work for any employer who required an unpaid trial nowadays though. It’s a big red flag.

Yanbu they really take the piss with this stuff.

@BurntBroccoli yes I meant dressage!

Well done to @Slimagain for getting money out of them! 👏

Dressage? On Facebook?

I wouldn’t do an unpaid shift. Their interview process should test my ability and suitability in other ways, not require me to do the full work expected of an employee for free. If they need to test someone working on a shift then they should pay. Years ago, Aveda asked me to work a day on their shop / salon floor for free after I’d passed their interview stage. I said no. There’s no need for me to be observed using a till and greeting people for an entire day at my own expense!

When my daughter was 15 she did a trial shift at a v posh v expensive tea room in the middle of the main town tourist attraction. (Similar to Baths Pump dining room) . She wasn’t even told until the end that it was unpaid. She came home disappointed because although she had been told how well she had done - had not been offered the job. Yes I am THAT mother. Long story short but she was paid in cash that evening despite the ‘owner being unavailable’ . . The reason I went toe to toe with them was a few enquiries about how she had heard about the job and then a few posts from my daughters friends and acquaintances made it obvious that they were ‘trialling’ 3 kids EVERY weekend - none of whom got the job.
Picked the wrong kid. I work as an investigator in modern slavery and human trafficking . They closed a few months later .

This!

As a newly qualified primary teacher (many, many years ago now!) I naively accepted an unpaid ‘trial day’ offered to me by a supply agency. They said that the school were looking for a permanent teacher but wanted to check out their ‘teaching styles’ first. This was in the 90s and at that time, there was none of the hideous ‘interview days’ that we have now. No teaching a lesson or data tasks, just a short panel interview and a tour of the school.

I was new, keen and really needed a job, so I agreed. It never occurred to me that it was a scam! But it was!

I was told to be there by 8am and was shown to a classroom. There was a list of what I needed to get through, but no resources and nobody to ask (everyone ignored me and there was no TA). It was a Year 5 class in a very, very deprived area of Manchester. Behaviour was shocking.

I kept thinking that at any point, the head would come in to observe me teach (or at least someone!) as this was supposedly a ‘trial’ to see if I would be a good fit for the school. Nobody came in! At lunch time, I went and found the deputy (head was nowhere around) and asked if someone would be coming in to observe. She didn’t know (apparently!) Nobody did…and at 3.30, just after the children had left, I finally found the head and said that I was surprised that nobody had come to observe etc. She said, quite bluntly, that she ‘knew I wouldn’t be a fit for them’ so hadn’t bothered coming in. I asked how and why she thought that, as this was the first time we’d spoken. She just shrugged and held open the door, saying ‘once you’ve marked the books feel free to leave’. I did NOT mark the books!

I found out later, via the head of the school that I did get a job in, that this school does this several times a week, to cover sickness and staff shortages. There was no job, and the supply agency was run by her husband!

If this happened to me now, I’d report them to Ofsted, but I was a very young, straight from Uni, graduate and I just inwardly fumed.

Unpaid ‘work trial days’ should be unlawful.

I can't believe the outrage in these responses.
I work in hospitality and after nearly 20 years in the industry, I'm yet to interview for a position that didn't include an unpaid 3-4h trial shift.
I'm not saying I support it, but it is a standard practice in some industries

Absolutely YANBU. I find this to be utterly patronising on the part of the employer. Either offer a job or don’t, the unpaid free trial is an insult

I don't agree with it, but I can see how a trial shift would make sense in the service industry for instance. I expect a fair bit of it is shadowing anyway.

@Eyelinerofthetigers Although unpaid trial shifts are legal in the UK, I agree it's an absolute piss-take. Personally, I would withdraw my application and I'd be clear about the reason why. Any employer who is prepared to take advantage of job seekers in this way is not a company you should want to work for. On the upside, at least you've found out this early that they're arseholes.

An unpaid ‘couple of hours’ should surely be enough to demonstrate an applicants capability to do the job……full shift is unacceptable and a week is taking the piss!

Again, brava. Everyone who exploits YP should be outed

Did a trial shift as a carer in covid, it was 6 - 12, ended up staying til 4, then they tried to give me a job in a totally different area than they had agreed and on nights when I had said i could only do earlies, i did not end up with a job

We asked an apprentice to do an event but paid them for it. She was great and stayed for about 8 years.

This reminded me of something that happened to my DS. After COVID there was a scheme to get young people into work, a 6-month trial while being paid UC. This was a really awful job - think clearing houses, rats in the garden, God-knows-what on the walls. There were 4 young people on the trial, one was fired and one was always late so the odds of my DS getting a job were good. Roll forward 6 months and he was told he hadn't got the job because there was only one position but it turned out none of of the trial people were offered employment (we were on really good terms with the lady at DWP). We also found out the company had wanted to take on another bunch immediately but DWP got wise to them and turned off the free labour tap.
My DS learned a lot from that job, not only skills but interacting with older people so it wasn't wasted and he got a permanent job soon after. The scheme did help and I don't have any objection to people on UC doing trial shifts to get work experience but employers should not be allowed to take advantage.

Withdraw. It’s a violation. You’re either working or you’re not. None of this ‘unpaid trial’ crap.
If all candidates refused to participate in this unpaid labour, businesses would have to have a different approach.

I think we all have to stand up against this nonsense.

Unpaid 'trials', 15 million interviews just to be rejected at the end, AI scanning CV's etc.

Unless we collectively say no to all of this, companies will just keep doing what they do making us all think their torture is 'opportunity'.

I don't know what the agenda is but it's unbelievable and not acceptable.

DD did a trial shift at her current job and the one before (pubs). She got both jobs so it wasn’t a problem for her. It also helped her decide if she wanted to work there.

@QuantumLevelActions yep, that's her. I realised after posting that she's an eventer.

My husband has to do a lot of this too. Personally I think it’s completely unacceptable. A verbal pitch, short written pitch fine, but asking for work which is then ripped off is ridiculous imo.

Any kind of unpaid work is unacceptable.
Edit: with the exception of school work experience.

Dressage woman? She looks as hard as nails.

I don’t know why anyone would work for free even for a minute. It’s just exploitative.

What if you already have a job? Are you supposed to take annual leave to work for a profit-making company for free? 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'd say "Sure, no problem" then ghost them lol