I use to travel around the US installing steel structures and playground equipment. Clients included golf courses, high end resorts, hotel etc but by far the worst I ever had to deal with was Church Camps.
These huge “non profit” camps were the most toxic, racist, sexist, inequality ridden places ive been to.
Let's start off with the non profit status. Nearly ever camp was a non profit. This means the owner of the camp would build a huge house on the camp ground and say it was part of the facilities. I've seen several mansion with elevators and driveways full of luxury vehicles. The homes are always located at the very edge of the camps property on private roads. They pay themselves a 6 figure salary to “manage” the camp.
Nearly all the employees are unpaid volunteers. Aside from the owner and a few maintenance guys almost every one you see is a teenager or young adult that doesn't receive a dime. They pressure these young kids into volunteering by saying “it's God's work” OR they take people from foreign countries who need citizensship and extort them by giving them a “job” for their visa.
These people get treated terribly. They get told when to eat and sleep, when/if they can leave the camps and constantly criticized and demeaned. I can't count the number of times I heard people being referred to as boy, girl or women. I over heard one of the “leaders” publicly chew out a girl in front of the staff for talking to a guy. “Girl, if God wanted you to see and talk to boys he wouldn't have placed you here. You need to focus on reading scripture and working”. The “girl” he was speaking to was 22.
When they thought no one was looking their theory on why “colored people” or “Brown people” had “so much violence and poverty” ussually came out. Predictable, in their mind it was a lack of work ethic, poor character or (insert racial stereotype here).
Working for them was a nightmare. They expected everything done for free on their schedule.
On one project we showed up for an installation and none of the site preparation was complete. Concrete footings weren't poured, soil samples had not been taken etc. They asked if we could “wait 3-4 weeks and help with that too”. It should have only been a 7-10 day job. We were on a contract and had traveled over a thousand miles from home to get there. They wanted us to just hang out and help because they deserved it? When we told them “No” they looked genuinely shocked and started trying to convince us to stay without actually offering additional compensation. Needless to say, we left.
We didn't go back but another crew did. Apparently they had decided to do some of the metal structures themselves. We used 3/8 stainless steel powder coated support columns in the areas that were exposed to water for safety. I guess they had decided that 1/8 inch spray painted mild steel was just as good. Our supports had 3/4 inch flanges that rested concrete footings and were secured with multiple 1 inch concrete anchors. They dug holes and put their supports directly in the ground with concrete poured around like a fence post. I would be shocked if they haven't rusted through yet.