WOOFer Warnings
There are some worldwide hospitality membership clubs that seem to work to forge some interesting scenes. But watch out for the model of accepting temporary work using the "WOOFer" model!
WOOF stands for "Workers On Organic Farms". It evolved because farmers couldn't pay the prevailing wage to keep its workers there to do the farm work required. So under the promise of teaching people everything they needed to know about how to have their own farm, farmers evolved a sort of "sponsorship" of a time investment for temporary stays in exchange for mentoring people who were considering getting their own farm later in their lives. Essentially, the farmers were supposed to house AND feed their temporary workers, who donated 5-6 hours of work, four or five days a week in exchange for learning how the farm business functioned.
BUT - this quickly became twisted into "let's exploit travelers and then kick them out when they run out of money" sort of thing. People who merely owned property railroaded this significantly decreased cost of labor to babysit, clean their house, clean up their vacation rental, take care of their goats or other pets such as horses or the cattle they used to retain an Agricultural dedication, etc. These land owners sort of "forgot" that the WOOFers involved were supposed to be getting a model of survival strategies toward a lifestyle change. Turns out to be a big advantage to "forget" how a significant part of the arrangement was mentoring the WOOFer in all aspects of their lifestyle.
Once this "mentor" feature of the arrangement was forgotten, no teaching of any business or lifestyle model, just have your "WOOFer" babysit and clean up after your vacation rental business at the pay level of far below whatever you'd need to pay someone who lives there locally.
The first feature of the arrangement to dispense with was feeding the WOOFer. To feed someone is actually quite expensive in Hawaii. Food at the grocery store here costs the same as eating from a convenience store on the mainland, a significant increase of what it costs to eat each month just in the cost of food. Not feeding your farm workers the expensive food, (for instance, just giving your workers what falls off your trees at the farm that they were allowed to pick themselves) was a significant "savings" for the farm owner.
At one point I lived under a roof in an open industrial bay in my own tent as a "night guard" for a tropical fish business. The arrangement with my significant other was him working at minimum wage with the promise of a long-term investment in the business the fish farm never had to deliver on - because who could live for that long on minimum wage in Hawaii? It's impossible to have a car under those circumstances, unless you're also able to fix the car yourself. Plus I had to walk about two miles from where the bus dropped me off to get home or to get to the bus stop.
For example, in Hawaii, it takes a full time job paying $38.00 an hour to pay a mortgage or rent, health care, schools, car and food.
Other strategies that alter the original arrangement that I've heard about is to shut off the worker's electrical connection after 7pm, make them live in their tents outside instead of providing a roof.
Essentially, your workers might leave if they realize they should be making at least $15. per hour and the housing of a place to pitch a tent that the farm is providing them is really worth $250 a month, not the $1000. a month the worker appears to be charged. Doesn't matter if they get Federal Food Stamps of $200 a month, (which not all of them will be able to get because some travelers do not have immigrant status.)
Whatever your situation as a WOOFer, (even if the arrangement is quite generous) there will eventually come a time when you cannot afford to "donate" your time to the farm after all your money has been spent paying for essentials not covered by your farmer. The point of view of the farm owner is they can always find someone else who will take your place, so why pay you anything more? Even if they really are impressed with the qualities of the work you provide.
So if you consider "WOOFING," you'd better have a plan of when leave before you cannot afford to travel to and situate yourself at the next place you land.
There are some worldwide hospitality membership clubs that seem to work to forge some interesting scenes. But watch out for the model of accepting temporary work using the "WOOFer" model!
WOOF stands for "Workers On Organic Farms". It evolved because farmers couldn't pay the prevailing wage to keep its workers there to do the farm work required. So under the promise of teaching people everything they needed to know about how to have their own farm, farmers evolved a sort of "sponsorship" of a time investment for temporary stays in exchange for mentoring people who were considering getting their own farm later in their lives. Essentially, the farmers were supposed to house AND feed their temporary workers, who donated 5-6 hours of work, four or five days a week in exchange for learning how the farm business functioned.
BUT - this quickly became twisted into "let's exploit travelers and then kick them out when they run out of money" sort of thing. People who merely owned property railroaded this significantly decreased cost of labor to babysit, clean their house, clean up their vacation rental, take care of their goats or other pets such as horses or the cattle they used to retain an Agricultural dedication, etc. These land owners sort of "forgot" that the WOOFers involved were supposed to be getting a model of survival strategies toward a lifestyle change. Turns out to be a big advantage to "forget" how a significant part of the arrangement was mentoring the WOOFer in all aspects of their lifestyle.
Once this "mentor" feature of the arrangement was forgotten, no teaching of any business or lifestyle model, just have your "WOOFer" babysit and clean up after your vacation rental business at the pay level of far below whatever you'd need to pay someone who lives there locally.
The first feature of the arrangement to dispense with was feeding the WOOFer. To feed someone is actually quite expensive in Hawaii. Food at the grocery store here costs the same as eating from a convenience store on the mainland, a significant increase of what it costs to eat each month just in the cost of food. Not feeding your farm workers the expensive food, (for instance, just giving your workers what falls off your trees at the farm that they were allowed to pick themselves) was a significant "savings" for the farm owner.
At one point I lived under a roof in an open industrial bay in my own tent as a "night guard" for a tropical fish business. The arrangement with my significant other was him working at minimum wage with the promise of a long-term investment in the business the fish farm never had to deliver on - because who could live for that long on minimum wage in Hawaii? It's impossible to have a car under those circumstances, unless you're also able to fix the car yourself. Plus I had to walk about two miles from where the bus dropped me off to get home or to get to the bus stop.
For example, in Hawaii, it takes a full time job paying $38.00 an hour to pay a mortgage or rent, health care, schools, car and food.
Other strategies that alter the original arrangement that I've heard about is to shut off the worker's electrical connection after 7pm, make them live in their tents outside instead of providing a roof.
Essentially, your workers might leave if they realize they should be making at least $15. per hour and the housing of a place to pitch a tent that the farm is providing them is really worth $250 a month, not the $1000. a month the worker appears to be charged. Doesn't matter if they get Federal Food Stamps of $200 a month, (which not all of them will be able to get because some travelers do not have immigrant status.)
Whatever your situation as a WOOFer, (even if the arrangement is quite generous) there will eventually come a time when you cannot afford to "donate" your time to the farm after all your money has been spent paying for essentials not covered by your farmer. The point of view of the farm owner is they can always find someone else who will take your place, so why pay you anything more? Even if they really are impressed with the qualities of the work you provide.
So if you consider "WOOFING," you'd better have a plan of when leave before you cannot afford to travel to and situate yourself at the next place you land.
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