Here's my experience with this. Maybe it will shed some light on your situation, maybe it won't.
At one particularly insane start-up, I went two months without a paycheck. It was such a bizarre place to work, and so interesting, I didn't care. The company officially went under. The State of California has ruled that they owe me $30,000 (including the penalty for not paying). I'll never see it.
They did, however, call a meeting and tell everyone when they were unable to meet payroll. There was no attempt to deceive the employees about this. There was no psychological pressure put on to continue working.
Bottom line: While they were meeting payroll, I made really good money—better than 99.9% of the human population. I learned lots of cool stuff, did some cool stuff, and lived in luxury despite working in a warehouse with a cement floor (I don't care about that sort of luxury, anyway). Even after two months without pay, I had saved up so much in the bank that I was still in nice financial shape.
I would do it again. The big danger, at least for me, is that the company might have taken a long time to officially terminate. The smart thing to do would be to set a date: if payroll isn't back on track by that date, then I move on. In hindsight, I was lucky that they officially crashed in only two months, since that forced me to leave and start making money again.
At one particularly insane start-up, I went two months without a paycheck. It was such a bizarre place to work, and so interesting, I didn't care. The company officially went under. The State of California has ruled that they owe me $30,000 (including the penalty for not paying). I'll never see it.
They did, however, call a meeting and tell everyone when they were unable to meet payroll. There was no attempt to deceive the employees about this. There was no psychological pressure put on to continue working.
Bottom line: While they were meeting payroll, I made really good money—better than 99.9% of the human population. I learned lots of cool stuff, did some cool stuff, and lived in luxury despite working in a warehouse with a cement floor (I don't care about that sort of luxury, anyway). Even after two months without pay, I had saved up so much in the bank that I was still in nice financial shape.
I would do it again. The big danger, at least for me, is that the company might have taken a long time to officially terminate. The smart thing to do would be to set a date: if payroll isn't back on track by that date, then I move on. In hindsight, I was lucky that they officially crashed in only two months, since that forced me to leave and start making money again.