"Know-it-alls" & "Sour grapes" need not apply!

SueJean

Active Member
WARNING: This post may offend a few people! :p

(However, as DH likes to say, "If the shoe fits.............) :cool:

I'd like to preface this by saying that we've only been "full-timing" since June '09 and I know that a lot of you have been "on the road" a lot longer and seen a whole lot more of what goes on in the "RV'er's world". I realize I have a "small perspective".

As part of my education process, I spend a lot of time reading RV'ers forums/blogs/travelogues, etc. We've looked into a lot of the different work-kamping options and tried both workkamping and volunteering as a way of earning some money and keeping busy/active. Some things have been good, some not so good.

One thing that we're finding as a "common thread" in our experiences, however, isn't so good. As we've been traveling around, we find campgrounds/parks/rv resorts that really need help/staff.


When we ask them if they ever thought about workkampers, we get told the same thing every time. "Yeah, we used to have "those kind of people", but we don't want them anymore." :mad: (This is usually said with heavy overtones of anger/disgust.)

The next obvious question is "Why?" and I'm usually too slow-witted to avoid asking it.

The answer is almost always the same. "We hated having these people come in to "work" and they would always try to tell us how to "do things better"." :confused:


We love full-timing and workkamping and we hope that there will be plenty of job opportunities for everyone..........................;)
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
SueJean, No offense taken. We've worked at RV Parks for a couple of years and it's been an interesting experience. One of the things we've found is the owners or managers of some parks often want more out of their "staff" than what was expected or contracted.
One recent experience.
We didn't have a written job expectation other than 16 hours per week (two 8 hour days) for each of us. Fair nuff!! After a couple of weeks, we were expected to help out at most activities in the park. Set up, clean up or whatever else may be needed. This added several hours to our original agreed upon 16 hours and it wasn't always on our scheduled days to work. This expectation from management took away time that we would have otherwise used to do as we pleased. We did what we were asked but resolved to be more specific when interviewing for our next work camping experience.

Other work campers actually refused to do the "extra" work. I can see where this may sour some park owners but expectations should be clear from the git go.

We took this last winter off and relaxed but we may look into work camping again next season. This time with our eyes wide open.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
It is our belief that no one should just jump into workkamping without researching it. www.Workkampers.com is a good resource. There is tons of info there. Ray hit the nail on the head by saying that clear expectations need to be understood by both the employer and employee. One also needs to consider the tax implications of workkamping. Happy travels.
 
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