Mike Andes argues that unpaid work alongside higher-paid colleagues is an investment in skills that pay dividends for decades. By positioning yourself near people a pay grade above you, you become the natural successor when they leave, climbing the ladder faster than peers who only chase immediate paychecks.
I would do everything in my power to gain skills, and then I would put so much effort in and extra hours to be able to get around people that were one pay grade ahead of me. And even if I had to work for free, just to be able to be around them and gain skills from them, because when they drop out, when they leave, when they retire, I'll be the natural fit for that role. And if I just keep doing that over and over again, 10 years down the road, I'll wake up and I'll probably be 4 or 5 rungs up the ladder. You aren't working for free when you're not getting paid by the or a salary to do extra work. What you're getting is skills, and that skill pays you in the long term. It's like an annuity. It keeps paying you every single day, every single month, every single year after you acquire it. It's not like a paycheck where after this hour and you get paid, there's no more money coming from that hour. So I would rather work for free but gain skills that pay me forever.
