I will never understand why people need to lie.
In my previous life, I was a realtor for 30 years. I sold many homes to many happy people. I never felt the need to withhold the truth about the homes they were excited about. My philosophy was: Do the Right thing because it is Right!
I always disclosed any defects; in fact, I would try to find them and either negotiate the repair of the defect or attempt to get a satisfactory price reduction to make my client happy or find them another home. Another thing that we privately used as a description of the Real Estate business was, “Buyers are liars, and Sellers are Yellers!”
In our next career, we became full-time workampers. My husband and I took jobs for (FHU) full hook-up sites with a salary, which was usually minimum wage. I did not lie on my resume or in my work history, and I obtained permission from all my references.
The information that I receive from prospective employers is a horse of another color! As an example;
Several years ago, I spoke with the National Supervisors about a position as Activity Directors at a “theme park” (which will remain nameless). I was told that:
- They have just finished a $ 5 million Rec Center (the operative word here is ‘finished’).
- We would be co-directors (we assumed there was another couple to share the workload, but it turns out we were it.
- Our salary was $ 2,500.00 a month, with full hook-up for our RV and propane at half price.
- We would have a staff to schedule the work.
- They would like us to arrive a month early to become familiar with the program.
This is what we found when we arrived nearly a month early:
The manager was new and did not know that we would be on salary and would have to work for a site. It would be nine hours each. When we told her 9 hours was not enough time to get the program ready and that we were supposed to be on salary, and would have workers. We were told they had to “check on it”. We were finally told that starting Saturday, we would indeed be on salary. So we either had to wait at our site or go to work for free.
Seeing the disarray of the Rec building, the tee shirts, and the ceramics, we opted to go to work.
By the way, the $5 million Rec Center was not completed. We have no Wi-Fi to work with, no computers, and our “office” is not finished, with a trench running through the middle of the floor. Additionally, there is no telephone. No workers would be assigned; we were it!
We inventoried all the ceramics, T-shirts, and kitchen supplies and entered the information into spreadsheets on our own computers. There was no inventory available and certainly no spreadsheets.
Our staff consisted of us for a week, until we asked for another couple who was also waiting to work in the store. They were assigned to us, and between us, we prepared all the paints for painting the ceramics by manually shaking all the gallon cans and marking the colors of each one. We labeled and filled all the understock paints and the small containers for everyday use. We relocated the ceramics and tee shirts from the old area to the new one in the rec center, cleaned the kitchen, and prepared the tables for the Sunday morning breakfast that we were also in charge of. We also had to hunt and peck for whom to order supplies from, and we managed to find all the vendors’ telephone numbers to place our orders for the year.
It seemed like every day, a new task was assigned, and when we asked where the information from previous years was so we would have a track to run on, we were told to “make it up as we go along.” That is what we did, but we were unsure how long we could tolerate the disorganization. We set up all the activities for a month on the very slow Wi-Fi and programmed them, only to be told it was wrong and needed to be done differently. I did not have time to putz with the program.
We are responsible for cleaning the Recreation room and taking out the trash, as well as washing and driving the Train and Fire Truck (either us or one of our many workers) around the park on a weekly basis. Additionally, we have three costumed characters that we need to have out every day, one at a time.
We now have another couple coming to work this week and were told that they have three more people that we can call in to work. It must be the new math because that doesn’t sound like ten people.
We were looking for another job and would leave, just like most people have in the past. It seems that this park has a reputation of going through people fast.
For the record, I prefer not to leave a job until the end of our contract; however, what RV Parks/Resorts should understand about “Workampers” is that we are independent contractors and we are on wheels! Most of us are retired or “just tired” and are not slaves or indentured servants, and we work most of the time for minimum wage.
Employers should feel lucky to have us work for them! We perform many tasks that others cannot handle. They believe that the site we receive is a significant perk. We more than earn that little piece of dirt with water, sewer, and electricity!
The funny thing is, even if they had told us the absolute truth, we might have taken the job and stuck it out until the end, smiling all the time because we are honorable people.
The final straw that broke the camel’s back was delivered when we were told that we were responsible for mowing our site. Most of us RVers do not carry lawn equipment with us to mow our sites, and we work full-time, which keeps us busy all the time. The grounds workers were not allowed to mow our site. The day we said, “Done,” and packed up to drive off, the clover was knee-high at our site. We also know that for every mile we drive, our RV costs us $ 0.50 per mile, so leaving a job mid-term was expensive. But there was only so much crap we could take. This was around 2010.
Currently, we are happily retired from RVing, but the lure of the open road calls us periodically, and we are unaware of the ups and downs of the Workamper business.
If you are bitten by the “Open road bug,” take a little time to investigate what your actual cost of being on the road will be before you take that leap.
Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly
Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options
Immortal Enemies
Spirited One Book 1 The Protector
Spirited One Book 2 James
The end of the Road
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions
Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus
Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss
Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park
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