Coworkers

Last year, I had some trouble with coworkers, generally because they didn’t do their jobs. They refused to clean the bathrooms, didn’t pick up trash on the ground, were reluctant to spend time with visitors who had questions, and were lazy. That’s the main reason that I wanted to be at a campground where I didn’t have to do other people’s work for them or deal with that stress.
Many of those workers moved on, but I’m still glad to be alone. My boss stops by twice a week briefly and doesn’t even get out of his pickup to check how things look. The garbage man doesn’t talk much, he just wants to collect the garbage and get down the road. I see Bearded Dan briefly once or twice a week. He covers for me when I’m having my weekend off. He’s cool and always positive.
The guy who took my place from last year, worked for a couple months then vanished one day without notice. He had no work ethic or personality, so he wasn’t a great loss. One of the camphosts couldn’t take the altitude, was always grumpy, and didn’t clean the bathrooms or campsites properly. So he’s gone, along with his wife who worked at the store.
The couple at another campground started off gung-ho, but quickly got a bad attitude and are doing a minimal job now. They said they will stay until the end of the season but will never do this again. The guy just sits in a chair and plays online all day (they have WiFi there), except when he has to collect money from the day-use customers as they drive in. I was there a couple times on my days off and the bathrooms were filthy, with no toilet paper on the rolls. And I saw micro trash scattered around the ground.
Kelly got fired for pissing off the Forest Service people. She’s the one who wanted to move into the van with me last year, but when I rejected her, worked as a hooker in Vegas for the winter. She says her life is ruined now because of being fired and is looking for someone to save her. Jesus is the only one who can! 😉
Kathy is a new hire and seems nice. She is happy for the work. She is homeless and lives in a small SUV with a cat. 44 years old and on disability because of colitis and immune system problems. She has low energy and can’t stand for extended periods of time. I like her and wish her well, but I think she’s going to get worn down easily and have a hard time doing everything she’s supposed to. Not that the others are, either!
Another new hire named Lee took over my old job from last year, after the other guy vanished. Haven’t met him or heard enough to make a judgment on how well he’s doing. And I haven’t been around the people who work in the company store or the two lower day-use areas.
It’s necessary to be self-motivated here to be happy in your job. I like interacting with visitors and having the campgrounds looking spic-n-span. The work doesn’t bother me, physically or mentally. I know that I’m underpaid, for both quantity of hours worked and quality of work, but can’t do anything about the pay, so I accept it and put it out of my mind. You can kinda understand why the company pays low wages when so many of the workers aren’t even worth minimum wage. I’m in a beautiful place and can dictate which hours I work, within reason. That’s worth something to me. I can live off of this income. And at least I’m not dealing with lousy coworkers this year, where I’m at!