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

[Eyelinerofthetigers]

Because I think it’s a fucking piss take?

I thought there was a law being introduced saying employers have to pay applicants for trial shifts but it seems not as so many employers seem to think it’s acceptable to want applicants to do this.

A friend has recently done an unpaid trial WEEK for a sales job. At the end of the trial the manager of the company said he’d probably got the job but that he just needed to confirm things with the company owner and then he’d be in touch. They’ve since totally ghosted my friend and it’s been 3 weeks!

I didn't know that even happened in the UK. I've always been paid for training.

It’s not training, its an unpaid shift done before a job offer has even been made

An unpaid trial SHIFT is fine, a week is not.

YANBU

A few years ago I did a free trial shift for a casual job, was told how great I had done, and asked to do another one.

I refused and withdrew my application. It gave me a window into how the company treated people.

They were utterly dumbfounded. Unsurprisingly the company are constantly advertising for staff!

Yes, don't agree to it.

There's a risk you'll take someone on who is not up to the job - you mitigate that by interviewing people carefully. They're either taking the piss or testing to see how much they can get away with - either way - you don't want to work at a place like that.

Depends on the kind of job a local pub got into trouble (socially not legally) awhile ago for doing trial weekend shifts for pot washing during the busy seasons never giving anyone a job because the job didn't exist they just needed an extra pair of hands occasionally and didn't want to pay for it came to a head when one parent got annoyed and posted on Facebook turns out they did it a lot to teenagers over a couple of years no-one ever got the job no-one ever got paid now they cant get anyone in for unpaid trial shifts

Shame

Yep, totally unacceptable. A pub near us used to do this at Christmas and new year, put load of people on a trial shift to fill the difficult slots on days others didn't want to work. It was awful for the potential employees but also awful for customers who were being served by totally newbies at high pressure times.

It’s disgraceful. Who the fuck do these companies think they are?

Exactly, and this is why probation periods exist.

Absolutely don’t do this. If they hire you and you are rubbish all the power is with them to fire you. There is absolutely no way this should be legal.

I did get the job after the one unpaid trail I did but how they treated staff when I got the job was really poor. If there was a corner to be cut on paying you or on tips, they found it. It’s telling you everything you need to know.

If you desperately need a job and the money, don’t withdraw your application but make it clear you’ll do one shift and keep looking for other roles that won’t do this. If you have a job already, just withdraw the applications. I’d say this is the only way they will realise they need to treat people better but unfortunately someone will always desperately need a job.

Meanwhile, every teacher is expected to plan and teach an unpaid "trial lesson" as standard or you can't get a job as a teacher in this country. Planning it in your own time around your own workload, providing resources yourself as well as the time wasted waiting around while all the other candidates do their unpaid trial lesson. Given any random class with no knowledge of their abilities, individual learning needs or behaviour. Expected to learn the behaviour policy of the school in advance and follow it. They managed fine without this nonsense during Covid but have gone straight back to it again. And they wonder why they can't get teachers.

I'd love to see the NHS try this. Could you imagine? We're hiring a surgeon, just show us you can actually do a surgery before we make you a job offer, and stand around outside theatre doing nothing while all the other candidates do the same surgery on different patients. Some of the patients will be rowdy or obnoxious and we'll just blame it on you and if we don't really want you to work here we'll purposely give you someone who you can't operate on then demand to know why you didn't perform the surgery.

I'd abolish these sort of work trials completely. If we don't need to see a surgeon do their job before hiring them (which we don't), or to check if a pilot can land a plane to our satisfaction (also doesn't happen), no one needs to see if someone can scan a barcode with a barcode scanner then ask a customer to pay for the item.

Happened to me in my early twenties, twice. Got given a trial morning and told I’d be paid and hear back and never was, despite chasing.

What they may do is have you go on the job for a couple hours max, shadowing someone else, and they're training you on the job. I guess at a push they could claim that as being part of the interview process.

But if it's actually doing genuine customer calls or sales or whatever then you should still be paid.

Otherwise it's just extracting free labour out of people.

Oh and it is going even further now.
Write a medium term plan for RE
Write a sample report
Mark some books so we can see how you pick up on errors and give feedback
Update a policy
AND teach a lesson and show how that links into a week's worth of lesson PLUS the standard interview.

It's ridiculous. Back when I got my job I had an interview and a short session with the other candidates where we brainstormed ideas on how to improve attendance. This was mainly to see how we interacted and listens to each other/conducted ourselves in a working party. The whole thing took less than a morning and there was no prep before hand.

Also, I used to take a portfolio of all of the things above that I had already done as part of my current job. I get that they need to see them but not to be done specifically for the new job.

Edit - sorry quoted wrong poster! This was in response to the teaching job

I Googled because I was sure I'd seen something about legislation to prevent this, but no, it seems trials of up to 30 days are fine 😮

https://www.gov.uk/jobcentre-plus-help-for-recruiters/work-trials

Never the less, I think you're right to withdraw and I might also be inclined to put a curious poston the local FB group. "Xyz have asked me to do x hours as an unpaid trial shift, is that usual or acceptable?".

As PP said, this is widely abused.

But if it’s a single class then that could be seen as part of the interview. Lots of jobs require you to create a PowerPoint mock presentation or attend three to four interviews including group activities and mock situation settings.

its when people are asked to work for a day or week even for no pay that it’s a problem.

A month?! 🤯

Yes a local cafe did the same with serving staff. They would bring in young staff for trials over busy weekends and then at the end say they were not suitable.

Agree. I’ve had to prepare presentations for most interviews I’ve done. I’ve also had to attend assessment days - full days of interviews and assessments as just one part the recruitment process.

A trial shift, should be a paid shift an hourly rate, with the understanding that it can end any time within the 8 hour time frame.

Scandalous expecting people to work for free.

Similarly with cleaning roles. My friend runs a company that offered trials, now you get your 3rd booking for free, cutting out the freeloaders.

She paid the staff for the cleaning trials.

An inclusion talk I was at recently suggested that it can replace interviews for people who don’t have the interpersonal skill to do well in interviews.
Basically you don’t recruit a violinist by asking them to tell you about playing the violin.

It makes sense in that context.

But clearly needs boundaries.

An unpaid shift isn't fine at all. This crap needs to be stamped out.

I wouldn't do it out of principle. It's wrong. Anything after interview should be paid.

How long a "shift" are we talking here? I remember during an interview for Next they had me on the changing room for about 15 minutes doing like a mock role play (cringe), which is fine as it was part of the interview.

It's different for a teacher as the lesson observation is part of the interview and it's usually 30-45 mins max of teaching not a few hours like a "shift".

Yes it's a pisstake. One trial shift (ideally an hour or two) should be all that's necessary to see what they need. A full shift or more is just free labour and so cheeky.

My son had this with a part time job. Was asked to do a week of trial shifts for free. Then given a job with 4 weeks probation. At the end of 4 weeks he AND the other two taken on at the same time were all told they hadn't passed and were being let go. They got paid their wages but no share of tips because conveniently you were ineligible if you had been fired. Immediately replaced by the next lot of hopeful mugs doing a week of free trial shifts.