What happens if a workaming job doesn’t work out?

First of all, we have to say that workamping is lots of fun. We have really enjoyed workamping; BUT, what if there is no fit between you and the workamping job? That happens! In fact, in the four years we’ve workamped, it has happened twice. We’ve had six workamping jobs since 2003, and, unfortunately, twice they didn’t work out.

The first one we quit, we were able to give one weeks notice. It was a job working for a company that we had already worked for one season. But the management had changed. Our first experience with the company was Okay, but not great. Our second experience was miserable; at least that was Larry’s opinion, not necessarily Adrienne’s opinion. We gave them a week’s notice. We even told them that we would keep our resignation quiet until our last day. However, then next day the Human Resources clerk yelled across the parking lot that we were leaving. How’s that for professionalism.

The second time we failed to fulfill our contract we gave no notice at all. We gave the management our letter of resignation and were gone within a few hours. In this case Adrienne couldn’t tolerate the attitude of the Operation’s Manager. Larry was happy but Adrienne was anything but happy, so we decided to leave.

In both cases, finding another workamping job was easy. In both cases we do not feel bad about leaving, although there was certainly some soul searching at the time.

How do we feel about leaving early? Frankly, it was the best thing we’ve done. In both cases we left a job that was less than ideal to one that was extremely rewarding. Fortunately, we do not have to work. Working doesn’t not provide us with the necessary income to survive; we can do well financially without working. But, working does provide some additional income, which is nice. Even more important, working gives us a purpose and it also forces us to stay in one location for a period of time so we can really learn more about that particular area.

That’s not to say we like to leave early. When we accept a job, we view it as a commitment. We take the job with the intent of meeting our commitment. However, if a particular job doesn’t seem to be what is promised, if the working conditions are extremely bad, we won’t hesitate to leave early. After all, the employers also have some responsibility as well.