Most of the work camping articles that I have read tend to paint the picture of a great setting with a lot of nice people having a fun time with perhaps a little work involved. I'm writing this to give you an incite to perhaps a little different side of work camping. After reading this I would like to know what your reaction would be. Would you stay or would you leave? We are still here, if I had to tell you why I'm not sure I could give you a good reason.
We arrived at this campground on the first of March to start our tour of duty, which will take us until mid October. Our terms are 20 hours for site and 60 hours paid per week. We really didn't want to get here quite that early, as it is still cold and new that there would be very little housekeeping to be done until the "season" starts. We along with two other couples were hired to do the housekeeping for the 12 cabins they have here at the campgrounds and 4 more they just purchased that are off site. The park has a maintenance crew of 3 men; their wives work in the office.
After we got here we found not only were the managers new but also so was the owner. Although the managers were here when the new owner bought the campground they had no previous experience. We were correct in the fact that there was very little housekeeping to be done there was "spring cleaning" in the cabins, which got them in shape for the season. Once the cleaning was done, as we suspected, there was not enough work for us to get our full paid hours.
We were offered fill in " so you can get your hours" jobs such as raking leaves, pressure washing the cabin decks ect. We did as we were asked; we were not opposed to the work just not what we were hired for. This work did cause one couple to leave and since one other couple has left. She worked in the office and didn't get along with the managers wife. These two couples were replaced and our workamper count remains the same.
The new owner told us he was going to upgrade the park to make it one of the finest parks in the area. First step was to change some of the primitive (no hook ups at all) river sites to full hookup RV sites total of 22 sites. That was a great idea as it was stated in March -April time frame. Some how though they managed to waste both of those months and work didn't start until May 10.
The first thing they did do in March though was to rent these 22 sites as full hook up sites. The other thing was that during the time that nothing happened they lost the contractors to other jobs now they were booked up for rest of summer. Now I think it is highly presumptuous for management to ask us workampers do put in sewer, water, power and cable facilities spread rock, lay sod.... And actually they didn't ask they now just expected us to do it "to get your hours". And that is what we have been doing for the past two weeks. Maint starts at 8:30am housekeeping starts at 9am and we all quit at 5pm with 30 min for lunch we are still not getting 8 hours per day.
Here is another little kicker for you. We are presently on sites that are in with the rest of the campers. These sites have been rented to campers for the Memorial weekend.... We have to move before the 26th. Yup! We have to move. They are building us new sites "up on the hill". They started these sites yesterday, which was the 19th. These sites have water already but no sewer or power. Guess who gets to put in these facilities I can only imagine what happens if these sites don't get done by the time we need to move.
