pruning trees in New Zealand

Work Exchange Tips:

When Work Exchange Goes Wrong 

This year I’ve excitedly shifted most of my travels from SE Asia over to Oceania. Since mid February I’ve been slowly exploring New Zealand, Fiji and Australia, spending 2-3 months in each country.

Because these travel destinations are all relatively expensive, I’ve joined several work exchange gigs via HelpX, whereby I put in a few hours of work per day in exchange for a room & meals at peoples’ homes.

In past years I joined work exchanges in Australia and USA via WWOOF.

landscaping in NZ

Most of these gigs have been good, if not fantastic, experiences. I’ve met heaps of great locals, made new friends, taken care of many wonderful pets, enjoyed lots of gardening work & other jobs, gained many useful experiences & skills (for my own future gardening endeavors)…

… have been served heaps of delicious food and been taken on fun excursions & family gatherings. And, of course, I saved myself heaps of money traveling!  Read more about my New Zealand HelpX gigs here.

It’s actually no surprise that I’ve repeatedly had great work exchanges experiences. Besides the fact that most hosts and most volunteer workers are nice, down-to-Earth, adaptable and fair people, I always do a series of careful preparations before accepting any given work exchange assignment.

hanging out with other HelpX volunteers

Good preparations include:

*  Having an awesome profile on the work exchange website that includes my photo(s) and details about my work skills, experiences, interests and character. Having good reviews from other hosts and other recommendations lined up.

* Reading the hosts’ profiles carefully and selecting ones that suit my skills, interests, desired situations and the areas I want to visit.

* Communicating with the hosts a few times to get a feel for each others’ personalities and to hash out any details.

*  Making sure to clarify any points such as work hours, meals, accommodation, things to do in the area, pets, kids, internet access and whatever else is important to me and/or the host.

However, eventhough I make thorough preparations beforehand, until I actually arrive at a new hosts’ home, I don’t really know 100% what the people are like, what their home & environment are like, how well they’ll provide meals, what the work will be like and so on.

You can only know those things for sure by showing up, meeting the hosts and jumping in. The best you can do is arrive at the hosts’ home, optimistic for a great time for everyone involved.

with a HelpX host in New Zealand

Most times, after all the careful preparations, everything is great. You like the hosts, they like you, you’re happy with the tasks you’re given, they’re happy with your work abilities, you’ve got a great room to yourself and plenty of good food to eat. Usually there are interesting things to see & do in the area and you have plenty of free time to explore.

In my experience, 80-90% of the gigs work out like this.

However, on occasion, things don’t go quite so smoothly.

Maybe it turns out that your personalities, characters or way of doing things clashes a bit. Maybe they’re overly demanding with work loads. Or maybe you’re not comfortable with the way they treat you. Maybe they have temper issues and yell a bit too much. Or maybe they’re really stingy with food.

Maybe you just get a sense that the only thing they care about is you working for them but otherwise they could give a crap about you – they don’t seem to take responsibility for looking after you as a guest and a volunteer worker putting in your time and effort to help them.

Or perhaps for some reason they just don’t take to you. Maybe they think you’re a lousy worker or inept at the tasks. Maybe they can’t deal with your quirks. Sometimes people just do things so differently that they are incompatible working together.

Maybe there’s a completely unrelated issue causing problems: lack of internet (for someone dependent on the internet for income, like me) horrible weather or even an inexplicable reason you’re not happy at the place.

sanding at at HelpX gig in Fiji

And that’s what just happened to me recently. I had two back-to-back week-long gigs in Australia’s ‘Hinterland’ where things just didn’t go smoothly. Neither situations were complete disasters, like my one super bad WWOOF gig in the USA in 2011. But they were far from ideal, for very different reasons, and caused me a tremendous amount of stress.

They included two separate HelpX gigs for one week each. At the first place I liked my host lady and enjoyed most of the easy tasks she gave me. But there wasn’t much food around to eat and her place was dirty to the extent of being a bit creepy. She lived way out on top of a mountain in the boondocks – a fact that was not at all clear from the HelpX profile – so I felt ‘stuck’ – about getting food or exploring the area.

But the main issue was my internet connection. Basically, it didn’t work, even though I’d bought a Telstra sim and prepaid credit specifically to go stay there. Since I earn my living online running my travel blog, that was a huge stress. I was nearly freaking out.

Long story short, I left much earlier than planned and relocated to another work exchange gig nearby. In the meantime, the host and I worked out a back-up plan. I worked one full day at her place then hitch-hiked into the nearest town on alternate days to use wifi at the library. That was far from ideal, working online only every other day, but it was better than nothing and functional for one week.

propagating lemongrass at my 1st HelpX gig last week

The second gig I simply disliked my host from the beginning. I suppose we had a clash of personalities, priorities and outlook on life. Every day I found myself feeling angry at the way she treated me and the way she did things. It was just all wrong.

And visa/versa, she didn’t really appreciate the way I went about things either. Neither of us was happy with each other. Things eventually came to a head and we both agreed I should go on my merry way.

here’s how I felt when I escaped to the beach!

Quite luckily for me, just that week an Australian climbing friend I know from Thailand realized I was in the area (from Facebook) and invited me to visit. What are the chances, right?!

Two days later I ‘escaped’ Australia’s Hinterland, a woman and situation I hated, and some massive stress. Suddenly I found myself flung from misery into paradise, back on Sunshine Coast’s beautiful beaches and coastal forested walkways. With a friend. Ah, how crazy life is some times!

But my experiences just go to show that one time or the other while doing work exchange gigs out in the world you’re liable to end up in a situation that just doesn’t work out.

So what should you do when you find yourself in such a situation?

Here are my recommendations:

 A. Before heading to the hosts’ home

1. Acknowledge that it’s possible things might not work out.

Probably they’ll be great, but you never know.

This is a good attitude going into any new work exchange gig. It mentally prepares you, just in case, so you’re not caught entirely off-guard. It will also motivate you to have a back-up plan and a plan of action for such times.

Finally, you can take the mature stance of not blaming, of realizing that sometimes people just don’t click and, after all, sometimes shit happens.

 2. With that in mind, if possible, have a back-up plan.

Basically, have an idea where you could go next if you want or need to leave sooner than expected. Perhaps you could have another potential work exchange gig lined up. It’s also smart to know of any nearby accommodation such as a hostel, hotel, campground or a friend/family.

3. Let someone know where you’ll be staying.

Give the hosts’ name, address and contact information.

painting for a new house in Fiji

B. Plan of action if things go wrong

If you show up at a hosts’ home and things aren’t clicking, basically, you have 3 options for dealing with a less-than-ideal situation:

 1. Decide to grin and bear it until your agreed upon assignment is done.

2.  Try to improve the situation.

 3. Leave earlier than planned.

These are decisions you have to make yourself in any given situation, based on what the exact problems are, how bad things are, what you want to do about it, and your hosts’ decision as well.

Personally, I’m not too good at grinning and bearing situations I dislike, particularly if I think people are not treating me well. I’m much more inclined to try improving things by talking the situation over with the hosts, finding a better way of doing things, or else leaving.

However, if the issues are minor and/or other aspects of the work exchange are great, I might just change my attitude & outlook, focusing more on the great stuff, trivializing the things I dislike and sticking it out.

Keep in mind that if you’re unhappy with the situation, most likely your hosts are aware of the problems, too. (Though they might see things quite differently.) If you and the hosts can discuss the issues candidly, explaining things from your perspectives and telling each other what you’re unhappy about, you can probably reach a mutual agreement about what to do.

Perhaps you all can make some changes so everything works more smoothly, like when recently I alternated HelpX work days and internet days in town. Or maybe you’ll both be glad to end the arrangement early, like at my second host’s place.

If you decide to leave, or the hosts ask you to leave, they will probably be willing to help you leave and to reach a new destination, whether that entails driving you to a new hosts’ house, a nearby hostel or bus station at a particular time.

 Evaluation during the situation or afterward

1. Learn from the experience

Spend some time thinking about what went wrong. Clarify what exactly happened. Then consider if there are things you can do in the future to prevent those particular issues arising again.

Maybe you need to update your work exchange profile to make your skills & expectations more accurate? Maybe you need to ask more specific questions to the potential hosts (about the work, food, accommodation, cleanliness, location) before deciding to go there?

Maybe you can gain some insights into what kind of person, work or situations that you’re incompatible with and then avoid them in future?

2. Don’t beat yourself up!

I don’t know about you, but when I don’t get along with people, especially in a work situation, I can get really stressed out and feel a lot of strong emotions.

If I feel they’re treating me badly, I tend to get very angry. If I know they’re doing work tasks poorly, I get quite frustrated, especially if they insist I do things badly too. If I feel they dislike me or they believe I’m inept, I feel let down, disheartened and frustrated.

I can end up feeling like I’m in a kind of nightmare. All that stress and those negative emotions are exhausting & bad for the health.

So, as soon as you sort through the experience, let it go! Remember, it’s just temporary. You’ll be in a better place soon. You can’t get along with everyone, every time, in every situation. No biggie! When it’s over, move on happily to a better place.

You might also find these posts useful:

Work Exchange Pros & Cons 

50 Benefits I Enjoyed During New Zealand HelpX Gigs

WWOOFing at Kuranda 

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