Work & Live in Nature: Eco Lodge close to Byron Bay & Gold Coast

Iya Roxanne replied

we provide beautiful accommodation in a stunning rainforest environment with spectacular views , organic produce and our commercial kitchen to prepare meals together with other volunteers and rainwater showers and bath tub . A very beautiful win win opportunity for sincere helpers that can truely support us. Which Maddie said is what she is looking for.

Our Accommodation business must meet the expectations of our guests. She had no experience or skills, but she said she had a great attitude and willingness to learn and work hard . our previous staff was in their 20s with no experience and so we were prepared to give Maddie an opportunity.

By the time her stay arrived, we agreed to 2 other girls to come so they could all work together. Our workers cottage accommodation is just one bed, so we put up our Glamping tent that we hire to Guest $45 a night per person with one of the most spectacular views in Australia looking at Mt Wollumbin. Providing firewood and nightly campfires in conjunction with the cottage facilities.

We informed Maddie before arriving that the accommodation would now be in Glamping tent.
And she said she was excited for the opportunity. We also say to all of our volunteers that we like you to give a few days Grace to see if you truly like our place and the exchange. She had the option to leave it any time. we communicated this before arriving and during her first few days.. she declared she was loving it so much that she’d like to stay longer.

We had three girls volunteering , and we gave them the tasks that we typically one girl does.

After the first day, the three girls together took 12 hours to do what one person does in 4 hours.

We provided training both in the form of our manual and demonstration. Our products are premium organic and they get a buggy to drive around in the rainforest. It’s a very fun and beautiful job to do.

We believe in sovereignty agreements, so we communicated the outcome of their tasks rather than the time in which it took them to do it.

We were preparing for an event , a task that normally takes one person 20 hours in a week was not completed by Three girls in a combined 75 hrs / week.
We gave a lot more than we bargain for including driving them around when we had said we don’t provide Transport, Tea ceremony and a bunch of extras.
We ask questions about how they were doing on a personal level , if they were enjoying this day and are comfortable and about the work and any questions. they smiled and said they were having a great time. We realise now this was a lie potentially because they had nowhere else to go and didn’t want to pay for accommodation or any other personal expense.

We learn a lot from this experience and honesty is a very important Quality. I’ve also realised from now on - people must come with experience, And respect for the Business they are coming to give to And understand how important their contribution is.
And how much it requires us to give this opportunity. I have a young baby and we live in work from home and letting people into our sanctuary is a big deal for us.

on the final day the girls promised me they had completed the tasks.

one hour before our guest arrivedI inspected their work to discover that it was devastatingly atrocious.
tampons in the guest bins, toilets were dirty, mould on the walls behind the beds that they had made . The floor has not even been vacuumed or mopped very basic things.

I had one hour to rectify the situation before our guest arrived, putting enourmous stress and jeopardy on us and our business which was extremely disappointing after all that had been given.

The most saddest thing is that they knew what was required of their task and they point blank lied to me about completing it.

My recommendation is that if you are running a business, make sure your volunteers understand the importance of their contribution. Having volunteers assisting in a more domestic situation with no outcome required may be more suitable as they also very much like to be entertained which we did not have time for.
We had promised them a ride to the station but on discovering how they had lied to us and the Crisis that we were now in and had to remedy we firmly asked them to make to find their own transport.

Maybe a young person just has no understanding as to the level of detriment that is created when an agreement is broken in the case of being a young mother and carrying a lot of responsibility. Honesty is a very important Quality.

We will be much more discerning of who we agreed to moving forward.