Things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse on this year’s camphost job. If I didn’t need the income so badly, I’d be inclined to quit right now. I anticipate much more pressure than last year. Jace let me do my thing last summer, with no micro-managing. I enjoyed what I did, for the most part, and even worked many hours for free. I wanted the campgrounds to look awesome and the campers to be happy.
Well, there is a new boss, Tori. She is old and tired. I really don’t think she would be that bad. But her superior, Debbie, is leaning on her hard! She wants costs cut, profits maximized. Employees be damned! Tori will never stand up to Debbie and probably doesn’t care anyway.
In this district, most positions got their hours reduced, including me. Almost all employees from last year either did not want to come back or were not asked to return. The new batch of workers look worse than last year’s and are inexperienced. At least 3 positions got eliminated or consolidated. At the same time, paperwork has been increased. If the paperwork isn’t correct after the first couple weeks, the employee will be terminated. Debbie says that there will be snap inspections throughout the season. The inspections will include wearing uniforms correctly, timecards and paperwork must be always up to date, how the campground appears, and anything else that she wants to nitpick. Anything that isn’t perfect can, and likely will, be cause for firing. We are only supposed to spend 4 minutes checking in each camper.
My daily hours were reduced from 8 to 7 last year, and now to 6 this year. So each year, I earn less than the previous year. That costs me thousands in lost wages. Likely, next year my hours will be only 5 per day, if I decide to return. But the bosses still expect us to produce as much work or more per day as the previous year.
I used to wonder at some of the long-time employees, why they didn’t seem to care about the company or doing a good job. They seemed to be just putting in the time and doing the minimum required. Now I understand. My attitude is going to be different this year. No more busting my butt or doing any work for free. What gets done in those 6 hours I’m going to be fine with, even if lots still needs to be done. I told Debbie that I really needed 8 hours to do the job right, instead she reduces my hours. So, it’s on her if campers are dissatisfied and work is incomplete. I plan to relax and get away from the job, either hiking or reading/writing. I’ll be much less available to campers this year, unless I really enjoy their company.
When I received my first paycheck, I discovered that I’m making the same as the new hires, despite this being my third year. Not only that, I didn’t get my gas allowance and was shorted 3.5 hours of pay! I don’t know if that was intentional, but I’ll definitely complain the next time I see my boss.
Debbie also said that I’ve been reporting the wrong mileage, going to and from the other campground daily. She said that I will only be reimbursed for 2 miles one way, not 3. I checked the exact distance on my odometer, 2.9. Plus I have to drive another .3 miles around the campground. Definitely over 3 miles covered, 12.8 miles total per day after 2 round-trips.
Being so cheap to the employees is just plain evil. The top 50 people in the company, who are in management probably make 50+% of the salaries. While the bottom 450 scrape by on barely above minimum wage and reduced hours. I dislike unions and socialism, but crap like this is why the lower class are in favor of them.
iggyvandweller 