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Anyone from Tax team?? DM me please.
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I did one trial shift as an overnight cleaner years ago. It was paid, but the work was so awful and the schedule so messed up that I backed out immediately after. As long as the trial shift is paid, I think it's fine as part of the hiring process. If it's unpaid, it's an instant pass. No one should be working for free.
Unpaid trials are a red flag and I wouldn't do them. They are a fair part of the process as long as you are getting compensated for your time!
Conversation Starter
Absolutely the bare minimum they can do is pay you for your time with these.
I accidentally just let out the biggest laugh because, yes. I had a very similar experience and was like immediately nope. This was back when the job market was a bit better and we had the ability to be picky, but this is a huge red flag IMO.
In theory, trial shifts can be a good thing, they can give a manager a reasonably good sense of what someone is like to work with. But in practice, oh boy, the concept can really get abused. Like your example, someone folding clothes for hours, that's just wrong. A manager could ask someone to do that task for ten minutes and be able to assess whether they can do it. Anything beyond that is just taking free labor from someone. So yes, trial shifts are often problematic and the practice takes advantage of people.
Conversation Starter
Yeah I think you've hit the nail on the head it's just free labour and false hope to a lot of potential employees. Hopefully everyone realises the abuse won't stop when/if you get the job it'll only get worse!