Would you rather work and not get paid for several months, or be unemployed?

What could be the point of working without pay and then being afraid of the possibility of being fired? That makes no sense at all.

It’s always better to keep working. If I’m working and not getting paid for it, it’s called volunteering, but I’d do it at a non-profit company. I have received at least two lucrative long term jobs from doing volunteer work. This is because philanthropists like to support non-profits. They have money, and in my case, this person saw how honest I was, and my work ethic, so they hired me for a real job. I don’t worry, and I’m not afraid.

There are many people who work as unpaid interns with the hope of learning the business in order to get a job, or do volunteer work while actively looking for a job.

People who work on commission can sometimes work long hours without getting paid. My Father In Law was a Real Estate agent. He often went for months without getting any income in spite of working long hours every day. When he sold one property, he made a full year’s worth of income, and in his good years, he sold three or four a year.

Mom was employed at a regular daily job that earned her very good money. They lived on her income and saved his for retirement. He has passed away, and she is now living in an upscale independent living apartment.

I would do both, work for experience (none paid) and look for a job at the same time. Plus of course a promotion within the company I am working for, for free.

Me:Oh oh oh, so you are not going to pay me for several months? Oh, great. That’s great.‘Cause I don’t…
Boss: Do you rather want to get fired today?
Me: I don’t have to eat this month. Great. Give it to me.

But seriously. No. Just no.
If you have no other income you are just eating away your financial reserves.
Then there is the issue of WHY you are not getting paid? The likely reason is that the business is going down the shit river, and if the boss has so grossly mismanaged the company that he can not pay his employees for several months, a recovery is also not likely.
So, chances are, you will lose your job anyway, plus you have lost several months worth of savings that you will never get back, even if you sue.
It is better to cut your losses.

Months? I’d quit. If there was some sort of money trouble at work I might work for two weeks if they believe that they can back pay me once something gets fixed with the money available if I trusted my employer, but not much longer.

@YARNLADY I don’t consider working on commission working without pay. I wonder if the OP does. I’ve done that many years of my working life. The majority there was a small draw’ but not when I was in real estate.

I would rather be unemployed. My job is shit as it is, without not getting paid as well.

I have worked without pay for several months. It’s called an internship.

Screw that, if I’m not gonna make any money, I’m not slaving away for some fucker for free. Much easier to starve if all I’m gonna be doing is playing video games, too.

And then there is the job of homemaker. I have worked the last 30 years for no pay, no days off, no vacations, no holidays, but the fringe benefits are well worth it.

Well, there was a real vacation just last month, when Hubby’s company paid for me to accompany him on a business trip. I did zero work that week.

In the U.S., it’s generally illegal, under federal law, for someone to work as a common law or statutory employee and not get paid.

There are two exceptions. (1) Exempt organizations can use volunteer labor. (2) If someone wants to work as a learning experience, for a commercial interest but for his/her own benefit, that might be ok. But, the individual can’t fill the shoes of a paid employee, and the position must be primarily for the person to advance his/her own initiatives, not for the employer’s gain.

@SadieMartinPaul Nicely put. I like especially the second exception.

Something that crossed my mind early in the thread is the potential for someone to step into an uncompensated position, do an inconspicuous and unremarkable job of it, and use their access for nefarious information gathering, or planting sabotage into company operations.