'That's a 40 hour donation': Job candidate rejects job offer with fiery email after learning they need to work an unpaid "one-week trial"

Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor

Jan 8, 2026 3:00 PM EST

Would you — or rather, should you — work an entire week without pay if it meant gaining yourself a new job?

The old saying used to advise that if you're good at something, you should never do it for free. Turns out that in today's day and age, companies constantly ask you to do things for free just to get a job in the first place. That old advice has withered away and instead, you have to ask yourself: how much of my free labor does a company deserve in order to assess if I can do this job? (I admit, the old saying has a much nicer ring to it.)

These days, if you're good at something, I suppose you should do it for free for long enough to show off your skills to the hiring manager. It's not a satisfying answer, but in some job fields, you truly cannot get the job any other way.

However, this company is really pushing the boundaries of workplace etiquette here. Some might say they're even breaking laws! These people apparently requested that one candidate give them a trial period, unpaid, for an entire week.

This is problematic for a lot of reasons. Let's consider that it was paid. Who can quit their current job for a week to try out a new one? What if the company decides they don't want to hire you after that week, and now you're totally jobless? This would give those who are currently unemployed an edge, but still, this isn't gig work, it's supposed to be an application for a full-time job.

I worry that this kind of thing targets young professionals who don't know any better. They might be used to doing unpaid or low-paid internships and they think that this is just how the world works.

Well, money makes the world go round, baby. This person sent back an excellent email roasting them, and commenters had lot of differing opinions on the whole debacle. Check it all out below and see who you'd side with here… and think about if you'd work a free week for any job, ever.

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via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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This person shared an email they sent to a potential job...

via @****youIquit
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via @****youIquit
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They explained further why they chose to do this

via @****youIquit
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via @****youIquit
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via @DebBrow163449884
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via @JakeSpectre89
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via @jimheps
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via @PaulSpetrini
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via @Andrey__HQ
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via @NonCitizenFive
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via @ryderjj89
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via @Vicky1232989
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via Getty Images For Unsplash+

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}