Not too sure what to do with my Workday experience.
Edit: sorry the title should say Workaway
I want to preface this post by saying that this is my first Workday experience.
So right now I’ve finished the workaway, and I’m not sure if I want to leave a review.
The host seems to have hosted a fair share of people, but from what I can tell, only handful of people have left a review on the website, and they were mostly 4 star reviews. As many have pointed out, 4 stars seems like a scenario where it’s rather ambiguous what you might say. I’ve seen 3 star reviews where the host isn’t feeding people enough, and 5 star reviews where everything is great. Given the nature of Workaway’s website, it sometimes feels like reviews under 4 stars are malicious.
I’m conflicted because I want to leave a review because of certain bad experiences that I think I myself would have wanted to know before coming to the place.
To begin with, the host’s profile has not been updated for 6 years. The post shows his wife and daughter, but when I showed up, it was only him and his adult son (who was not on the profile). The place is 90 mins from the nearby city and 20 minutes to a nearby train station. The host was rather ambiguous about whether other family members will be staying with us. I don’t feel too unsafe on the, but I feel like the lack of accuracy from the profile can cause other people alarm or feel misled at the very least. No other people have shown up.
What made me uncomfortable are certain hygiene practices in the house. The host doesn’t really cook as much as he just heats canned foods. The rags in the kitchen have a bad stench, the toilet bowls and cooking pots have algae growing in them, dirty dishes are piled up for a week (they are picked out from the sink and wiped with said rags), the floor in the house sometimes has imprints of animal excrements (this is not a farm). The kitchen is ridden with flies because of the foods the host leaves out and refuses to refrigerate. When I asked if I might be able to help clean up any part of it, he insists that I didn’t and that he will clean it. He has not throughout my entire time there. (There is more to it but I hope this paints the picture.)
The work, on the other hand, is not too crazy. I’m averaging 3-4 hours of work a day, and these work differ from day to day. Some days I just have to move stuff, and it’s really not very taxing. However, I’ve had to operate certain machineries without the necessary safety precautions, or sometimes these power tools are in need of repair that not only make the work less efficient but potentially unsafe. Often I am asked to push on when I vocalized the concerns with the equipment. Still, I think the host is fair as far as he ask me to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself. It’s more of an attitude towards safety. Sometimes the tasks are not communicated very clearly but that’s really manageable.
The subjective side that I find difficult to say. He makes misogynistic comments, imposes on me his political views (it’s not that we don’t agree politically but he is aggressively political), and is, I think, not open to new cultures and experiences. He asks me to prepare his food but fails to communicate how he wants it. When I suggest how I would prepare it, he vehemently protests it. But when asked for an alternative, he doesn’t know how to do it.
You see feedbacks on the website that describe the host as a very welcoming and open person, or someone who is attentive and caring. However, it’s hard to leave a comment when some of these “soft” attributes are missing. At the most basic the host is hospitable, but that has varying degrees. Ultimately, the host is feeding me and not asking for blue-collar, 8 hour workdays. At Workaway’s basis is work in exchange for room and board. I’m fed, and I’m doing the work I’m being asked. The host isn’t super stingy about food. So as far as that’s concerned, we both hold up our ends of the bargain. But of course, Workaway is marketed to be more than that, and the way that it is set up seems to discourage me from saying what I’ve described here. It seems to be bad faith to insult the man who has just fed you for 2 weeks. But ultimately what makes or break a Workaway is often not the work but living there in a different environment.
What I wish to know is how to communicate these “conditions” of living as opposed to the more general stuff that people would write about in feedbacks. I think personally I would like to know about these things before coming in to the experience. I’d like to think that I’m coming into this with an open mind, but perhaps I am not open enough. What is the best practice in terms of leaving a feedback? Or is it best to overlook this?
I hope I’m not being too vindictive with my post and that the things that I’m asking for aren’t too unreasonable. Let me know if I should perhaps change my expectations.
Thanks.