The summer before my senior year of college, I worked my second ever paying job. My then boyfriend, Luke*, was doing some free marketing for his previous roommate, Anne*. Anne had recently taken over a summer camp that was originally built to be open for one week every summer for the children of the members of the nearby club.
When Anne took the camp over, she wanted to turn it into an eight week camp. She planned for a new batch of kids to come every Sunday and leave on Friday. She needed camp counselors and Luke told her I would be perfect for the job.
I showed up early for the first day of training week eager and ready in my khaki shorts, Chaco’s, and a fanny pack, covered from head to toe in sunscreen and bug spray. Training week was like being a kid at camp and I loved it. I loved all of my coworkers, singing camp songs, playing games, camp fires, and going on hikes. I even loved eating less than appetizing meals in the hot, open-air cafeteria!
However, things didn’t stay a lovely euphoric adventure for long. Due to poor planning and lack of time, not even half of the kids we had hoped for signed up. Half of the staff had to be let go, which was heartbreaking; getting paid was a huge issue that took weeks to sort out; and in the end, the camp was only actually able to be open three weeks out of the original eight, which meant we all got paid less than half of what was originally expected.
It was Anne’s first time being in charge of something like the camp. She and the rest of the management team were probably naive about everything that needed to go into making the camp function for the full eight weeks. More articles and tips like the ones here could have made for better camp management.
Despite the management chaos, it was a great experience and I made some wonderful friends for life.
Have you ever had problems with management at a job? Please share below and checkout this article that explains several ways to deal with bad management at work.
*names have been changed for privacy purposes
No comments:
Post a Comment