"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Camp Hosting Tips

I've now been at my first camp hosting job for close to eight weeks. It is not going well.

Here are some tips on what should be done to avoid some of the issues I'm now facing:

1) Confirm the details of the arrangement before moving in and sign a written contract;

2) Make sure you and the manager agree on what constitutes hours that qualify towards the minimum expected to cover your rent (or whatever you're bartering for);

3) Get a bit of background on the people you will be working with (how long they've worked there, what they do, what their expectations are for temporary staff);

4) Don't allow them to make significant changes to the contract without a new contract being signed;

5) Don't assume that you and the manager speak the same language. Reiterate very instruction that you are told until you're sure you know exactly what s/he means;

6) Be aware of just how much value you are being given for the number of hours you put in. Camp hosting can turn out to not be cost effective;

7) Carefully evaluate the proposed schedule to ensure that it will not be damaging to your health.

3 comments:

1001 Petals said...

What's going on?

Can you leave?

Best wishes!

Rae said...

I think that what's going on can be inferred from the contents of this post. :-)

I really want to leave. That said, I'm a chicken about such things, so I'm working on screwing up the courage to tell the manager, so long and thanks for the all the fish.

1001 Petals said...

Ah, I am the sort of person that requires actual examples to often understand things. . .I'm quite literal, if that makes sense (one of the many reasons I think I have Asperger's.) I prefer blogs over traditional media because of the personal anecdotes and stories rather than the generalizations you get in articles, if you know what I mean.

The manager can't expect you to stay there forever so hopefully they won't take it personally!