I never said that you had to make them toil, for nothing. I am the one who cries about undercutting.
I forgot we live in a country with no shortage of inept dolts, who make it someone elses fault when they get in a pickle, creating a good living for ambulance chasers.
I'm just saying that if someone wants to learn and OFFERS to work for free, they are not expecting to get paid, aside from the cool experience of learning.....
I don't think the original poster is talking about a full time position, in fact if he is, it's an absurd post. I believe he is talking about a person that wants to come on for a job or two, to get the feel for it. Many people learn how to weld and then discover they don't really want to do it for a living. It's intimidating what I do for a living.
Do you know how many times I, myself, have worked for free? For years I volunteered on projects for the experience, and as one poster suggested......I always got paid in one form or another, but the biggest paycheck was always knowlege..............my two bits.
Lawrence, I'm not wanting to take advantage of the guy. If I take him on as an "apprentice" I would like to compensate him for his time in some way. That said my time and experience is worth something. My thought is to try him for a few hrs a day for a couple of weeks. If he has potential and I can fit him in the budget , then I'll offer him a job. If not I'll cut him lose.
Lawrence it really does s*ck we are talking about this but I'm from Louisiana and people who live here know that this state is really SUE happy really bad.
I do agree see if there is a way you can have him sign a contract or something, again ashame we have to do this but you gotta keep yourself safe. Just because he may not come after you doesn't mean his mother or father won't. Maybe i have seen to much bad stuff here in Louisiana I don't know.
In my opinion (which probably is not worth much!) I would not take on an intern, apprentice, trainee, or any employee unless I was willing and able to pay them. If you are not able to offer at least minimum wage, I would probably not treat this as anything more than a friendly weekend showing someone aspects of a trade and allowing them to ask questions in a non-work environment. If nothing else, it would allow you to get a better feel for how he is as a person and possibly how he is as a worker. Treat the time as an extended interview with the bonus of him of getting to pick your brain.
The last company I interviewed for there were three different interviews in three different states and the total time spent interviewing was around twelve or thirteen hours. It certainly gave them a feel for if they wanted to employ me and if I wanted to work for them. It is cheaper to find out you do not like someone over lunch than it is to find out on a jobsite when time, equipment, and customer satisfaction is at stake.