The Worst Job Offer Ever

This may cost me a future opportunity but whatevs.

Ok, it wasn’t an actual job offer. It was an inquiry of interest, but STILL. I was recently approached about a potential job…LOL…not in person, on LinkedIn, obviously! It’s 2024, baby!

It was a role for which I was reasonably qualified. Check. I felt confident I could deliver high-quality work. Check. It was only 20 hours a week. Check.

Okay, I’m listening…

Weird formatting, but OKAY…

I have been working for twenty years, and this is perhaps the worst (almost) offer I have ever received–– and I once worked as an assistant manager of a hot dog stand for 50 hours per week at $24,000 a year.

This is the real-life hot dog stand where I chopped 25 lb bags of onions, changed fryer oil first thing in the morning so I smelled like shit all day, and got yelled at for doing admin work in the office! At least I was paid.

There were positions listed for four execution roles (read: not senior leadership with actual decision-making power to build a company), so I can’t imagine the equity was anything to write home about. And 20 hours a week is A LOT of time. That’s half-time to be precise. The website speaks of this amount of time like 80 hours a month is a piddly side hustle. I’m still taken aback by the audacity to offer half of a job for no pay. It’s essentially a bet.

I’d rather go to Vegas.

The last time I was in Vegas was my birthday in 2018.

I’m left wondering, who has the time and resources to take such a gamble? I think about the Instagram story my friend,

Kira Cook

(please follow her Substack if you’re partial to delightful musings on life) reposted with this chilling data from Scott Galloway:

It’s easy to understand why the numbers look grim when considering that we’re being propositioned to work for way below market value—or, in my case, less than that! If you are an entrepreneur or founding partner, I understand taking a pay cut to get your baby off the ground. But asking people to come along for the ride and build YOUR dream for nothing other than a mention in the acknowledgments…is outrageous—to me, at least!

The problem is someone, or four someones, will say yes to those roles. They will work for “equity” and normalize this behavior so it keeps happening. They will do it because we were all raised to believe unpaid internships are acceptable. They will do it because the job market is bleak. They will do it because startups still haven’t lost their allure.

Anyway, I politely said that I could not entertain any unpaid work right now. I left out that preschool for my two kids is $3,000 a month. But I suggested we keep in touch when paid work is available.

Why burn a bridge? Unless it’s fodder for your newsletter.