He'd be better off to look for another job.
The bad thing about working for no pay is, you keep spending money, and wasting your time, when you could spend that time doing something else.

I've told him the same but if he does that that means that those months of working have been wasted.

^^
all the more reason why he shouldn't waste more.

AjanleKoko:

He'd be better off to look for another job.
The bad thing about working for no pay is, you keep spending money, and wasting your time, when you could spend that time doing something else.

True talk . I once worked with an organization that couldn't pay salaries, my case wasn't so bad though. Salaries were never paid on time and when paid it was never the full amount.

It's a waste of time, energy and personal resources, I was constantly borrowing money to get things done, then paying off debts once paid. Tell your friend it's not worth it. Chances are he won't get paid I left that organization with them owing me a full month's salary.

^^
Na wow.

My guy is about resigning but he wants to take his employer to court just to make sure his debt will be paid.

odumchi:

^^
Na wow.

My guy is about resigning but he wants to take his employer to court just to make sure his debt will be paid.

Let him try and do what he can to get his money, but am skeptical if that will yield positive results. Do you know how many times I called and emailed my former boss to pay me my money. It was 80k just one month's salary and he hasn't paid as I write. If this man refused to pay one month's salary am not sure 5 month's will be paid ooh.

i have been in the same situation in the past,working without pay

Wisdom demands that he look for another job and off that job cos it remain a curse to that kind of boss for refusing to pay him of his sweat. Let him take a vital step rather than to destroy his destiny there.

As the boss is complaining of "bad market" I'm sure one day "bad market" will come!!!

jobs are scarce agreed. there are many people out there looking for employment, yes. but working without pay for months is slavery. most nigerian companies now are fund of this. why , let them remember, "the worker deserves his wage" it is share wickedness not to fulfill this obligation. abeg let your friend quit that job

Am Alone:

As the boss is complaining of "bad market" I'm sure one day "bad market" will come!!!

THIS is sooo funny

5 months without pay is way too much for anyone to endure.
Your friend should resign ASAP cos it's possible he isn't even gaining any valuable experience that can improve his career and lot in life so what then is the point?

Per the arrears, it's a two way thing, he either gets it or he doesnt. Depending on the integrity of the boss.

Let your friend take some day off (about a two weeks to look for another work) and clear his head on the next step to take.

The problem with your friend and many other Nigerians is that they are completely ambivalent to the workings of the organizations they claim to belong. It cannot take me a month to know whether an organization is worthwhile and it is certainly not up to us onlookers to determine if he should continue. His success is entirely up to him. If I were him these are the questions I would ask myself. What are the prospects of the company. Is it earning income or not and does it have the potentials. Are there management problems. Are there issues with sales. Is is suffering from excessive competition. Are its products seasonal, expired, outdated or irrelevant. There are many factors to consider. Your friends' position in the Company, how much influence he has, the organizational structure and his relationship with his boss or bosses.

If he has no influence, no internal relationships and the Company is the typical one-man, socialist enterprise, then that's a complete sham, he's in real trouble and should leave promptly but on the other hand if the Company has potentials and he can communicate them effectively, he should pull up his socks as it can be a potential goldmine for him. I've seen people take the reins in similar situations and have driven themselves into management positions.

Spare sometime, do some after work work, research the company, its products or services and see what you can do personally to drive them then propose it to your clueless boss and don't just be a 9 - 5 statistic.

OP
Dem swear for your friend? E not go resign? Abi he want make him oga tell am first. 'You are fired' comes easy only when you are a Donald Trump

Best for you friend to speak to his boss, candidly and make him understand that he is really pressed for cash. Like someone said, if he goes the gra-gra route he might not get anything. Whilst softening oga up, start looking for something else. it is a shame that in 2011 on proper employment law to protect the employee

Reference:

The problem with your friend and many other Nigerians is that they are completely ambivalent to the workings of the organizations they claim to belong. It cannot take me a month to know whether an organization is worthwhile and it is certainly not up to us onlookers to determine if he should continue. His success is entirely up to him. If I were him these are the questions I would ask myself. What are the prospects of the company. Is it earning income or not and does it have the potentials. Are there management problems. Are there issues with sales. Is is suffering from excessive competition. Are its products seasonal, expired, outdated or irrelevant. There are many factors to consider. Your friends' position in the Company, how much influence he has, the organizational structure and his relationship with his boss or bosses.

If he has no influence, no internal relationships and the Company is the typical one-man, socialist enterprise, then that's a complete sham, he's in real trouble and should leave promptly but on the other hand if the Company has potentials and he can communicate them effectively, he should pull up his socks as it can be a potential goldmine for him. I've seen people take the reins in similar situations and have driven themselves into management positions.

Spare sometime, do some after work work, research the company, its products or services and see what you can do personally to drive them then propose it to your clueless boss and don't just be a 9 - 5 statistic.

I like this post.
Well, there you have it OP, show you friend. Reference's post.
Is your friend willing to be proactive rather than reactive?
What exactly is he gaining from said job and what exactly is his contribution?

if you have not done that in life, it means you have not started living

I empathise with you sha, But look for another job

Reference:

The problem with your friend and many other Nigerians is that they are completely ambivalent to the workings of the organizations they claim to belong. It cannot take me a month to know whether an organization is worthwhile and it is certainly not up to us onlookers to determine if he should continue. His success is entirely up to him. If I were him these are the questions I would ask myself. What are the prospects of the company. Is it earning income or not and does it have the potentials. Are there management problems. Are there issues with sales. Is is suffering from excessive competition. Are its products seasonal, expired, outdated or irrelevant. There are many factors to consider. Your friends' position in the Company, how much influence he has, the organizational structure and his relationship with his boss or bosses.

If he has no influence, no internal relationships and the Company is the typical one-man, socialist enterprise, then that's a complete sham, he's in real trouble and should leave promptly but on the other hand if the Company has potentials and he can communicate them effectively, he should pull up his socks as it can be a potential goldmine for him. I've seen people take the reins in similar situations and have driven themselves into management positions.

Spare sometime, do some after work work, research the company, its products or services and see what you can do personally to drive them then propose it to your clueless boss and don't just be a 9 - 5 statistic.

Best advise yet, however, most Nigerians are clueless still, and so cannot really help the economy of the small business.

@favouredjb (f)

You can come or contact me, if you need a job since you have been working without pay if you are willing to work.

Just to add a bit to my earlier post. The truth is that when companies or individuals face financial challenges (which almost every company faces at one time or the other) they are vulnerable and undergo voluntary or mandatory restructuring and there's a lot of movement in and out. One thing is certain, managers have far less say and far less control over their staff. He can leverage on that. If is an advanced organisation they may have a formal or informal union. Information flows freely there. If it is a small establishment he probably can reach the boss and over a (glass of water and find out what's going down. If he's story telling while living large then there's a serious problem. You can't change that but you can trade with it.

For instance if I'm working for Seun he can't tell me there's no money for salaries  . It must be going somewhere else. I can't influence that but I can leverage that situation to position myself. However it is critical these days that you don't work in places you cannot know.

@ Reference,

I would say i like your post.

The quality of staff available nowadays are the 9-5 counting 30days for the boss type, not the ones with visons to drive changes to propel a company to growth.

shawonlese:

@ Reference,

I would say i like your post.

The quality of staff available nowadays are the 9-5 counting 30days for the boss type, not the ones with visons to drive changes to propel a company to growth.

Which is one of the biggest problems of small businesses in Nigeria.

Reference:

The problem with your friend and many other Nigerians is that they are completely ambivalent to the workings of the organizations they claim to belong. It cannot take me a month to know whether an organization is worthwhile and it is certainly not up to us onlookers to determine if he should continue. His success is entirely up to him. If I were him these are the questions I would ask myself. What are the prospects of the company. Is it earning income or not and does it have the potentials. Are there management problems. Are there issues with sales. Is is suffering from excessive competition. Are its products seasonal, expired, outdated or irrelevant. There are many factors to consider. Your friends' position in the Company, how much influence he has, the organizational structure and his relationship with his boss or bosses.

If he has no influence, no internal relationships and the Company is the typical one-man, socialist enterprise, then that's a complete sham, he's in real trouble and should leave promptly but on the other hand if the Company has potentials and he can communicate them effectively, he should pull up his socks as it can be a potential goldmine for him. I've seen people take the reins in similar situations and have driven themselves into management positions.

Spare sometime, do some after work work, research the company, its products or services and see what you can do personally to drive them then propose it to your clueless boss and don't just be a 9 - 5 statistic.

Nice perspective.
You talked about the chicken. Now let's talk about the egg . It's kind of hard to expect staff to be motivated when the owner is a truant, undisciplined, and is only milking the company's opportunities. Why should an unpaid employee now take the initiative to drive the business, while the owner is busy setting fire to the opportunities?

I've been in this same situation at the very start of my career, when I worked for a software company. The owner had major clients in oil and gas, banking, FMCG, etc, but was taking out money as fast as it came in. The dude did not invest in the company at all, until the staff started to leave. The only benefit to me was, I was able to sharpen my software engineering skills enough for me to find another job and press on, but the level of motivation itself was very low. In fact, all the development staff resigned within a month of each other. A couple didn't even have jobs. The last straw was when a multinational FMCG was considering the deployment of our software across its Africa operations. Their top brass visited our offices and were disgusted. They even put in a plan to phase out our application as soon as they saw the state of our environment.

For non-tech people, such as sales and marketing staff, who have little to gain by way of skills, they will have it a lot more tedious if all the odds are stacked against them. Imagine being stuck with an impossible product to sell, no tools, no incentives, and no wages. Yes, some have persevered despite the odds ( I know a few guys who worked as commissioned insurance salesmen and were able to build a solid network of clients which stood them in good stead), but most will not, and those impossible odds will drown them eventually.

I'm a co-owner of a small business myself. We have a few staff that we pay at the going market rate, and we also motivate them with transportation allowances as well as laptops/smartphones and BB subscriptions for the salespeople. If you are running a business and can't put in some level of enabling environment . . . well, you deserve whatever results you get. As it's popularly said, if you pay peanuts, monkeys will work for you.

.

Omatek Computers is owing at least 80% of her staff 9 months or more and the salary liability as at the end of January was in excess of N95m. The sad thing is that the woman who owns the company a certain Mrs. Seriki seems not to care. It is PLC by name but one man company by action. I have no pity for those who work for her my sister left the company last December and she is owed nearly N2m in salaries. 5 months.

AjanleKoko:

Nice perspective.
You talked about the chicken. Now let's talk about the egg . It's kind of hard to expect staff to be motivated when the owner is a truant, undisciplined, and is only milking the company's opportunities. Why should an unpaid employee now take the initiative to drive the business, while the owner is busy setting fire to the opportunities?

I've been in this same situation at the very start of my career, when I worked for a software company. The owner had major clients in oil and gas, banking, FMCG, etc, but was taking out money as fast as it came in. The dude did not invest in the company at all, until the staff started to leave. The only benefit to me was, I was able to sharpen my software engineering skills enough for me to find another job and press on, but the level of motivation itself was very low. In fact, all the development staff resigned within a month of each other. A couple didn't even have jobs. The last straw was when a multinational FMCG was considering the deployment of our software across its Africa operations. Their top brass visited our offices and were disgusted. They even put in a plan to phase out our application as soon as they saw the state of our environment.

For non-tech people, such as sales and marketing staff, who have little to gain by way of skills, they will have it a lot more tedious if all the odds are stacked against them. Imagine being stuck with an impossible product to sell, no tools, no incentives, and no wages. Yes, some have persevered despite the odds ( I know a few guys who worked as commissioned insurance salesmen and were able to build a solid network of clients which stood them in good stead), but most will not, and those impossible odds will drown them eventually.

I'm a co-owner of a small business myself. We have a few staff that we pay at the going market rate, and we also motivate them with transportation allowances as well as laptops/smartphones and BB subscriptions for the salespeople. If you are running a business and can't put in some level of enabling environment . . . well, you deserve whatever results you get. As it's popularly said, if you pay peanuts, monkeys will work for you.

I am telling you this from experience. whatever you give can never be enough, I have paid employees well and on time too, even when making losses, and they have enjoyed it for years, In fact, my employees don't leave, in the last 3 years, only one left to a telecoms giants, but what about the others?, How much development have they brought, I had to fire a good crop of them in the last 1 month, and hire new set of people, where we will work on job responsibilities, developmental responsibilities relative to time. In fact these new people get paid far cheaper, but I made it clear to them, growth is not a big deal, as company grows you grow,  tell them point blank, we are able to achieve so and so, more money comes in, we all smile to the bank. Simple as that.