The trial shift would start at 4am
A candidate interviewed to sell for a popular local artisan bakery at a farmers’ market. The next step, they reported, was unpaid: arrive at 4am, load the truck, set up the tent and market station, work the market, then tear down and drop everything off.
They described it as “about a 10 hour shift with heavy labor.”
The candidate emailed the business to check that they had understood correctly. Before deciding what to do next, they wanted one thing made explicit: was the full shift really meant to be unpaid?
The account describes a trial made up of the role’s productive tasks: loading, setup, sales and tear-down. Its scale matters within this account: a 4am start and about ten hours, not a brief sample of one task.
The candidate’s email is the boundary check. They did not claim a legal verdict; they asked whether they had understood the unpaid arrangement correctly. This is their report, not a conclusion about the unnamed bakery or trial shifts generally.