Three days of undeclared work, disguised as a trial period, have cost a luxury five-star hotel on Venice's Lido more than €60,000. The hotel claimed it had legally terminated its employment with a seasonal chambermaid after five days of training in the spring of 2024, deeming her unsuitable. However, the Venice Court of Appeal upheld the wrongful dismissal. Former coworkers testified that the young woman was already actively involved in mastering the computerized management system, exposing the hotel. The judges concluded that this was not a straightforward assessment, but rather the actual work that was completed prior to regularization. This irregularity led to the hotel forfeiting its protections: the fixed-term contract was terminated and was automatically converted to a permanent one on the first day of employment. As a result, the lightning dismissal became null and void, activating the safeguards of Article 18 of the Workers' Statute. The final bill for the hotel was high: nearly €55,000 in compensation (equivalent to 27 months' salary in total, including compensation for the unjust dismissal and the reinstatement payment the young woman renounced), as well as €6,000 in legal fees. For merely three days of unfair probation, the hotel had to pay more than two years' earnings.