Has anybody worked without being paid?

[sonearsofar]

The small company I'm in is having problems and hasn't been able to pay us for a couple of weeks. If we don't work, it'll definately go under, and if we carry on, there's a chance we might be OK. So, at the moment, we're all going in. Would you do the same?

I might for up to 2 weeks more, because I could survive without pay, however not everyone can and they may want to cut their losses. If you carried on working without pay, will the company pay you back or at least pay you something once it's back on its feet? I would expect that to be the case.
I believe that you are entitled to redundancy if a company goes bankrupt, provided you have worked there for a year(?) so you might want to explore this option. The government will pay the redundancy payout if necessary

My mum used to do some teaching without being paid as the school where she and my dad taught felt that further maths (they taught it between them) was unviable. So she did her part of it for nothing. Not sure how long that went on for but it got reinstated again :)

I have done for a few months - the charity I was working for lost its funding, so I reverted to being a volunteer. We don't need what I was earning to live - it provided extras, so I was (much) more fortunate than many others.

Would you do the same?

No.

Although there are two parts to my answer, in all cases the answer is the same.

Firstly, I'm not in a position to work for free even for 2 weeks. We rely on my income to pay the bills - literally couldn't cover our (very basic) outgoings based on my husband's wages. So the element of choice would be taken from me. I'd have to find another job, simple as that. Of course I'd make it as easy as possible on the company e.g. offer to come back in future whilst looking for temping work (if I enjoyed working there, so they don't get further crippled by recruitment costs in the medium term).

But even if I didn't need my income:

Put simply, if I work for free I'm going to work for a charitable organisation, not a profit making one. If I put in significant time to a project, I want it to benefit people , not shareholders or company owners in the long term.

So, no, a thousand times no.

thank-you everybody for your replies. I think the situation will be resolved one way or another this week, but I find it very useful to get other people's take on this.