Author: Guest
“A bad day camping is still better than a good day working.”
Waking up in the morning, going to the workplace, doing your job, and coming back by evening (or night). And it’s the same old story the next day. You are fed up with a repetitive routine that you’ve been following day in, day out, for years.
You have been restricted to the confinement of four walls of your office space for a long time, doing your job to make ends meet. You want to bring a change but can’t seem to find a way out. Frustration is building, but don’t feel bad about your situation because you’re not the only one going through it.
The good news is that not you don’t have to work from a regular office space and feel jealous of people who travel places in an RV, explore exotic locations, and still make a decent living!
Guess what!
You can join the growing list of “workampers” easily and live life to the fullest, just the way you’ve been wanting to for all these years. Meet wonderful people, explore your beautiful country and its fascinating sites, and earn while you do all this.
Sounds too good to be true, right? This stuff happens in movies, you may as well say, but the fact is that you can enjoy such a lifestyle. Workamping makes it possible for you and others who want to “drop out” and bring the change to their lives without compromising on their productivity. The best part is that you can now stay connected with work, from wherever you are, with the help of advanced technology, project management and team collaboration tools.
Wondering how is that possible? Well, here’s everything you need to know to get started with it -
What Is Workamping?
The term workamping is a combination of words - work and camping, which simply means you can work while you camp, exactly what it sounds like. Workampers trade their labor for a campsite, generally with free-of-cost utilities and additional wages (depending on the agreement you have).
Workamping is best described as an activity that involves an exchange of labor hours for valuable utilities, like RV spaces, propane, electricity, water, and sometimes laundry facilities, wifi, and cable.
What Types Of Jobs Do Workampers Get?
Workamping could potentially be anything! Yes, that’s right. Workamping jobs can excite nomads and adventure lovers, the kind of people who are flexible and open-minded. All you have to do is do work to get any form of compensation.
Some common workamping jobs are listed below.
General maintenance (usually minor repairs and projects related to campsites, office, bathhouses, and campground appearance)
Landscaping (meaning grass cutting, weed-eating, etc.)
Cleaning (bathhouses, bathrooms, cabins, rental units, etc.)
Activities Director
RV park host, maintenance man, retail clerk, or manager
The salesman for an RV dealership
RV show booth tender
Just think, you’ll get to explore a whole lot of the country and meet so many new people who are travelers just like you.
How Do I Get Started On Workamping?
By now, many of you wanna-be workampers must have found this concept amazingly exciting and pretty darn awesome. I know what’s the question that’s flashing in your minds now - how can I become a workamper?
To help you embark on an alternative lifestyle, I have put together a step-by-step guide to ensure you have all the vital information you need about the workamping lifestyle and how to get started on it easily.
Step 1. To Begin With: Gauge Your Relationship with Your Partner
Workamping is not for the faint-hearted. Why? Because it’s all about adapting to new situations, which many people are not very good at. You’ll have to live in confined spaces for a long period with your partner and that can be quite a challenge in itself.
That partner could be your wife, a good friend, or a stranger you’ll be putting up with for the first time. The question is are you and your partner on the same page to share a motorhome, trailer, truck camper, or even tent space?
If you have doubts then workamping is probably not for you.
Step 2. Do You Love RVing?
Have you always loved the idea of working while you travel? Are you flexible to share a confined space with your partner, and most importantly - are you willing to make a change to your customary routine?
You see, you don’t have to workamp for the sake of it. You should have a deep interest in exploring beautiful locations across the country, open to meet new people and be able to live a minimalist life.
Step 3. Grasp Information
When you’ve made up your mind to change your sedentary lifestyle to the one that’s regularly on-the-move, you’ll have to consider many things before you hit the road.
You’ll need to find out how you are going to communicate with your family and friends, what to do with your medical insurance, and who’s going to collect mail when you’re not at home?
To get the most accurate and insightful answers to such questions, the best thing would be to talk to people who are workampers themselves. Browse workamping websites, such as livecampwork.com, makingmoneyandtraveling.com, and workamper.com.
You can also read books related to workamping. Some interesting reads are - Live Your RV Dreams: The Beginners Guide to Workamping For the Part-Time or Full-Time RVer, Live Camp Work: How to Make Money While Living in an RV & Travel Full-time and Plus 1000+ Employers Who Hire RVers (A Beginner's Guide to Workamping Book 1).
Step 4. Do Not Set “High” Financial Expectations
Keep in mind that there’s little glamour in most of the workamping jobs. While they vary, you can earn between $7 to $12 per hour from typical workamping jobs.
If you’re a frugal traveler, this amount can be more than enough to get by on. Even better is if you have a supplemental source of income, your life would be easier and you might not need to workamp at all.
Some workamping compensation arrangements provide sites free of charge and workampers are paid for all hours worked, while in other cases workampers have to pay for their site.
Before you agree to the terms and conditions of the arrangement, you need to determine the campsite’s worth, and if your hourly wages plus site is a fair exchange or not.
Step 5. Decide Your Desired Location
Before you go about looking for a workamping job, you need to decide what is your desired location where you’d like to camp and work. This will help you narrow down your options to specific locations.
Determining the desired location also becomes important because most workamping jobs are seasonal and last from 3 to 6 months. Of course, you would be wanting to work in a location where you would enjoy your stay. A stint in a hot location in the middle of the summer may be hell for some, but heaven for others!
Step 6. Apply To Workamping Positions
There are different channels through which you can discover new workamping positions in your desired location. Some great resources for temporary, seasonal job opportunities are CoolWorks and FlexJobs. You can also look for classified ads in camping-related newspapers.
You can visit the desired campsite and check with the front desk if they have any available positions. Create a professional resume and apply for suitable positions on workamping-focused websites.
Summing It Up
Workamping jobs is the best way you can realize your dream of camping at exotic locations across your country as well as making enough money to pay for the basic necessities of life. Depending on the type of workamping job, you can earn more.
If you’re maintaining a remote job with a regular employer and plan to go camping, you can use a top-rated team collaboration and project management software to streamline workflow and share a common single platform with other team members, clients, and stakeholders. In fact, there are some amazing online to-do list apps, virtual collaboration platforms and project management systems that make life easy for workampers.
Although becoming a workamper is not as easy as it seems, it’s still worth it if you are looking for a life full of adventure and fun. All you need to have is a rigid plan, commitment, and great chemistry with your partner.
Once you do that, rewards are fulfilling and endless!
Author Bio:
Nandini Sharma is the Assistant Marketing Manager at ProofHub - a powerful project management software loved by more than 85000+ teams and businesses worldwide. She brings unparalleled expertise in digital marketing through her years of experience in the field; especially when in the area of brand building, targeting a large audience and building strong connections with them. When not busy in creating winning marketing strategies, she can be found involved in art and craft activities.
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