Boss lays off employee 2 weeks before Christmas, asks her to do unpaid work for him 2 months later 'as a friend': 'The only other employee, his wife, left him and the business.'

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• My former boss called me for unpaid help “as a friend” after laying me off at Christmas… Sorry, but NOPE!

  

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• She shouldn't have even considered going back. If they're going to lay her off once, there's a very good chance they're going to do it again when the going gets tough. It's relatively low-risk to do freelance work for a company that gave you the brush, because it's not likely that the freelance work is going to be your sole source of income. If you accept a full-time position from a company that previously laid you off, you can't be surprised when the same thing happens again. Luckily, she found another job, so it didn't have to come to that. 

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  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

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  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

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• It's not cool to call your employees your friends, even if you are paying them and they're working for you! Those are reasons alone that they can't really be your friends. I think that employees in different departments and employees with the same title can be friends. Heck, I even think that a manager could be friends with their direct report outside of work, depending on their relationship. But the person who decides whether you will still have a job tomorrow is not your friend. They have too much power over you to be your friend. It's like parents being friends with their kids. They can be friends with their kids once they're adults and no longer have a legal position of power over them, but they can't be friends with them when they are responsible for their care.

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