won’t say where (contract reasons and might work there soo) but it’s an outdoor camp for children. i’m a minor.
firstly, i filled out in my resume which age groups i wouldn’t mind working with. i’m 15 so of course they wouldn’t let me work with 12 year olds. we had 3 training days required. was NEVER told beforehand what age group i would work with other than i got the job. other than staff introductions i honestly didn’t learn anything. like, i don’t even remember what they discussed. it’s a huge camp and we never got a tour. basically found out first day after getting lost and driven to our group area that i would be working with 4-5 year olds that at the most have been in pre-k. it was HARD ASS work. first week felt like quitting but based on my experiences when i was younger going to multiple daycares throughout the year, i know how important of a place it can be and i wanted to give the children experiences & life lessons i couldn’t/can’t have. it was fun in a hard work pays off kind of way, but the actual pay was HORRIBLE. 7 hours 5 days a week for $1 an hour. we got payed every two weeks and my first paycheck was a week late. minors get 30 min breaks but often there was too much to take care of to take a break. when you COULD have a break it was kinda fun, you could do camp activities or walk around or whatever. of course there was no one to actually make sure you get a break. basically the parents would tip you at the end of camp but again tips aren’t guaranteed. we had a camper in our bunk that had a behavioral disorder and the parents were in denial about it and didn’t tip any of us. it was a situation where we needed a special caretaker for him but didn’t have one so my co-worker had to step up and be theirs. i feel like if anything they should have been tipped extra if there was a tip to begin with. not to mention the extra precautions and other things we had to do especially last year. the adults, and i even thought myself, made it seem like you get paid in the value of hard work and experience. they said it’s a great first job. i don’t have an actual problem with the children themselves, i love them. and my category supervisor(?) said i improved a lot and we would have things like counselor of the week etc.
i just don’t like the idea of “we don’t feel like paying you so you’ll have to rely on any additional money you MIGHT get from the parents at their generosity.” it’s an expensive camp too and for all this money the parents pay (we’re talking thousands.) at the time i was having fun and feeling determined by my best wishes for the kids’ futures. the whole time i was wondering if the work hours and pay were even legal, but still had a great feeling about the place. it was like a home away from home and a productive escape from my actual one. but now months later looking back i feel awfully exploited. i mean every counselor has different ways of going about things and we all did excellent. we worked well together and no one really slacked on the job or didn’t show care towards the kids. but i heard in reality jobs can replace you easily, but it’s not like your run of the mill job y’know? teachers and caretakers are people you remember for life. i wanna bring what i have to offer to their childhoods but i just really don’t like how they cut corners and it just feels slightly shady. should i work there this summer?