Work Trial

[Charliesunnysky10]

My 16 y/o daughter has been invited to a work trial at our local Italian and a few of her friends have said that they know of others who've had a work trial there where they've not been hired, and it's just to get free labour.

I've responded to her concerns that if someone is present, assessing her work, not leaving her unsupervised, she can feel reassured it's the real deal and that it's good experience as long as she gets feedback and an offer/decline at the end of one session.

It would be a pity if she goes into it half-hearted as there are so few opportunities around here, but I obviously want to ensure she isn't explioted.

Is there any other advice I should pass on, do you think?

Her friends are correct, she should be paid for her shift. They are trying to exploit her.

Is it an independent place, or part of a chain? Worth checking so if no pay, you know who to complain to.

It's a tale as old as time. There is a cafe on my local high street that's notorious for it.

how many hours long is this trial?

Italian in my old village never paid anyone to work, they had an unending stream of willing teenagers who thought they'd be the one to get the job.

DD did a trial shift in a household name restaurant. She's very experienced and it went well. They asked her to do a second unpaid trial. She said she was unhappy about not being paid and they said she'd only get paid if they eventually offered her a job!

Thank you for your replies.

@LlynTegid It's an independent. I work for the Marriott and asked my boss what he thought. he said no way would the Marriott get involved in unpaid work trial - there would be uproar. He said that's what a probationary period is for.

She found the job on Indeed. We looked at the employer reviews and they were very favourable. However they are still advertising the job.

@lljkk 2 hrs. I'd be really unhappy if it were more.

The main manager wasn't in on Tuesday night when she did the trial so they asked her to come back Friday night when he's in. I felt surely the duty manager could have reported her performance to him. The thing is she'd only be due minimum wage for a 16 year old which is £5.80 so she's only missing a tenner. And jobs are like hen's teeth round here when there are so many students finishing term right now. She's got nothing to fall back on so wants to go ahead with the second trial shift (probably unpaid again) because it's valuable work experience she can't get anywhere else and she is covering most service points (working on the pass, setting and clearing tables, making desserts).

She is keen to go back and impress on Friday, and I had suggested dropping the manager a line to say she's looking forward to joining the team again on Friday and would it be okay to be paid for the hours please? But she said if he comes back and says they don't need her, she'll be upset will have lost the chance of more experience to help her succeed with other opportunities.

@Comefromaway I know it has to be her decision, but she's agreed, this will be the last unpaid work on Friday.

@LawksaMercyMissus I'm really surprised a chain would be doing this! I hopes she got the job (if she wanted it) and got paid. I think a lot of these independent restaurants rely on casual family hours so it's nothing to them to ask an applicant to do this. They probably know the job market is tough for teens.

@MarigoldGlove It is looking that way. It's just the experience she wants to help her move on. She has friends who did months of unpaid charity shop work for D of E (this is completely different but as she said, it's valuable experience).

This was common practice from a family-run Italian restaurant near us too. They'd ask 16/17 year olds to do a 4 hour trial shift, tell them at the end they didn't think they were suitable and get another teenager in the next night.

Their antics were highlighted on the local FB group and they got a right roasting for it. DD is 17 and started a hospitality job about 6 weeks ago, she was asked to do a trial shift before starting but they were very clear that however it went, she'd be paid for it.

ask 16/17 year olds to do a 4 hour trial shift, tell them at the end they didn't think they were suitable and get another teenager in the next night.

I would have thought most companies would quickly exhaust local supply of 16-17yr olds doing that. We're in massive labour shortage for youth around here.

@Charliesunnysky10 thanks, she’s nearly 30! Sadly taking advantage of hospitality staff continues but she now has a job she’s happy with

@GulesMeansRed THAT is the right way to do it. I applaud businesses who do the right thing in a industry where it's not always the case.

@LawksaMercyMissus Yes, it's not on that this bad practice continues. There was a lady in Scotland I think who was lobbying the government to put an end to the unpaid trial shift.

@lljkk Where are you in the UK? Despite reported labour shortages in hospitality, there's certainly no end to the hoards of applications where I work at the Marriott, especially this time of year. We don't tend to take on many 16/17 year olds due to the licencing aspect and tend to hire more mature applicants.

Rural North Norfolk. The oldest district in UK, median age ~ 51 yrs.
We have the largest workforce participation rate age 65+, too.

@lljkk Wow...that's quite something!