Lessons from Unpaid Labor Down Under
Or when WWOOF turns to "oof"
Hello from Nelson, where we’ve just returned after a 4-night backpacking trip of one of New Zealand’s Great Walks, the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. It was such a stunning hike that deserves a post of its own, so more to come on that soon!
How we ended up on this hike is a larger story. We arrived at the “top of the South” almost two weeks ago, with plans to WWOOF for a few weeks with a family who own a bed and breakfast and a farm. I had hoped it would confirm my interest in working at a B&B and potentially even connect us to job opportunities. We’ve spent the last few weeks extolling the joys of WWOOFing, largely focused on themes of reciprocity. After working at several home gardens/farms, we were excited to learn skills from people who run a business.
Arrival
From the very beginning, the vibes were off. We were being trained to take over the jobs of paid staff, a couple who had originally started as WWOOFers. Given that the paid staff were still staying there, our hosts initially said they didn’t have a room for us and asked us to sleep in our car. While we were willing to be flexible for a few days, it sort of called into question the basic nature of the agreement. It also wasn’t clear how much of the work of the paid staff we would be taking on. Although the paid staff technically worked 40 hours a week, there seemed to be no boundary between when they were working and not. Given that running a B&B involves a lot of waiting (for guests to arrive, to wake up for breakfast, to check out, etc.), the couple essentially never left the lodge. They seemed to have taken on the role of quasi personal assistants, and even performed tasks for the family’s other business. Involving a business, and an upscale B&B at that, really did not align with the WWOOFing principles we had previously enjoyed.
A core tenet of WWOOFing we have really valued is the cultural exchange and relationship-building that makes the work feel more meaningful. Chris and I had developed a phrase that described our other WWOOFing experiences well: gracious guests, gracious hosts. Each party started from a baseline agreement of the relationship, and each party was willing to give a little more as the exchange went well. In this case, we found ourselves not eager to give any more of our time and energy to help, because there weren’t clear boundaries on the work we were doing, clear expectations on what work was for the family or for the business, or much effort to build a positive connection with us. Being at a B&B changed the experience of feeling like guests in someone’s home to feeling like staff (which we weren’t!) for their actual paying guests. Their paid staff were the ones who cooked us dinner and spent more time getting to know us. When the family was around, they would mostly just ask us to do additional random household tasks beyond our agreed hours. The experience didn’t really feel like WWOOFing at all, but more like unpaid labor disguised as an exchange.
Another core tenet of WWOOFing is the learning experience on an organic farm. While our other hosts would be the first to admit they had more of a home garden or hobby farm, they very much operated in the spirit of sustainable practices, from reusing materials to reintroducing native plants to protecting caterpillar eggs from invasive wasps. While this host had a farm, it was a completely separate operation an hour away from the lodge, reinforcing that we were not really there to WWOOF. Once we began to draw boundaries and ask questions about the appropriateness of our help on certain tasks, we were moved off of the tasks we had shown interest in learning (cooking for guests, operations of a bed and breakfast) to cleaning the lodge and the family’s home. We didn’t really see what we were learning beyond this host’s particular method for folding sheets.
We tried to have a generous read that the family was operating under the stresses of running a reputable lodge during busy season. They might not have had time to go above and beyond in hosting WWOOFers, and we didn’t want to set the bar unfairly high just because our other experiences had been so exceptional. However, our past hosts had mentioned something valuable: WWOOFing works best when the host has the capacity to fulfill their end of the WWOOFing relationship. Our other hosts mentioned they intentionally did not take WWOOFers when they were especially busy, as they would not have time to build the relationship and help us learn. The family and the couple before us had developed their own norms, regardless of whether we might think they were fair. We felt thrown into a dynamic where we were expected to fill their shoes in a way we hadn’t signed up for.
Re-evaluating WWOOFing
Chris and I went back and forth for a few days on how we should proceed. We agreed we would stay no longer than the two weeks we had originally agreed upon but would leave earlier if things continued to feel off. Knowing we might be leaving sooner, we started to research what to do next. We had come across a few other hostels/lodges that mentioned they could not legally provide free accommodation in exchange for work. Since we hadn’t previously WWOOFed for a business, this hadn’t really been a concern for us. A little research revealed that the New Zealand government had begun cracking down on “accommodation-as-pay” arrangements, both to avoid worker exploitation and to prevent paid jobs being taken from locals. As soon as I read this, everything clicked into place. It felt so obvious that our arrangement was wrong, and I felt frustrated that our hosts had been at best, negligent, and at worst, willfully taking advantage of us.
As we processed this new information, we began to re-evaluate our past experiences. After debriefing, we still feel like our past WWOOFing experiences were in line with not only the word of the law (given that we weren’t taking on responsibilities normally done by employees or making a profit for our hosts) but also the spirit of the law. It feels very different to help someone DIY-build their own shed for personal use (and not be expected to meet the same level of quality as an actual builder) than to be expected to fold the sheets exactly right for people paying your host $300 a night to stay there.
And yet we can think of plenty of scenarios where it’s more nuanced! A lot of organic farms around the world that host WWOOFers are of course trying to be profitable! It brings up a lot of complicated questions like: “What is the willful exchange of volunteering vs. unpaid labor?” “How much money is too much for a business to be making before my labor begins to feel exploited?” “Is it exploitative if both parties have clear expectations and boundaries in an exchange?”
Before I go any further, it’s important to acknowledge that Chris and I are far from being vulnerable laborers. Ultimately, what we experienced were a few unpleasant days where we were trained to work at a B&B before realizing the arrangement wasn’t fair (or legal). We had an easy way to safely exit the situation and zero long-term consequences. There are real challenges of truly harmful worker exploitation in New Zealand, like recent examples of migrants from Southeast Asia spending thousands of dollars to come to New Zealand for non-existent jobs and substandard housing conditions. While WWOOFing may be a great way for people to travel around the world, we also see how allowing accommodation-as-pay creates a gray area that can allow others to be exploited.
Departure and Reflections on Unpaid Labor
As we were deciding how to make our exit, I felt a little embarrassed that I had even agreed to the arrangement in the first place. I wondered why I had been so eager to “volunteer” to make a profit for someone else. At best, it came from an eagerness to learn. However, it also stemmed from an internalized belief that I didn’t deserve to be paid until I had gained experience and skills in an industry.
There are so many ways that institutions justify unpaid or underpaid labor, and so many different policies and schemes that somehow make it legal. Unpaid internships (including at powerful, moneyed organizations like the United Nations and, until recently, the White House) determine that interns, often students, are the “primary beneficiaries” of their labor given that they gain experience and a “foot in the door” to future job opportunities. Prison labor schemes determine that incarcerated people receive pennies per hour (or no compensation, in at least nine U.S. states) while generating $11 billion in value for American companies and the prison system itself. The use of temp and contract labor to not just fill in for employee vacancies but replace employees means that this increasingly large contingent of workers are guaranteed neither consistent income nor the benefits or rights that employers typically provide. The myth of unskilled labor frames certain jobs as worthy of a livable wage and others not, and devalues the incredibly hard, often physically demanding, work that goes into labor that is vital to our collective existence (e.g. making our food, building our infrastructure, etc.) I fall into none of these categories and am extremely privileged in the labor market as a college graduate. And yet, the idea that the opportunity to work is somehow itself a form of payment in the absence of actual pay is still ingrained.
Despite all of this, I still felt anxious about leaving early. While I never asked to be in a boss-employee relationship with this person I had met a few days prior who was, again, not paying me, I felt uncomfortably familiar feelings of wanting to be perceived as a good and compliant worker. It was unsettling to confront this persistent need to please, even in a setting where I was genuinely gaining nothing and actively wanted to leave. While I give all the credit to Chris for being the one to have the awkward conversation with our host, it still felt like a personal growth moment when we made the decision to call it. While my actual work experiences have never been so clean-cut, I have struggled to set boundaries and be honest with myself when a work situation is taking more than it is giving me. I think this unusual experience will give me a stronger backbone, and a reinforced commitment to advocate not only for myself, but for better labor laws, stronger labor unions, and more workplace protections for those most negatively impacted by these systems.
Moving On
Well, oof. We packed our bags quickly, though did not exit so smoothly given that we forgot about our emergency brake in the heat of the moment. Once we were back living in our van, we had a few car repairs to make (oops) and an open schedule for the week. We managed a last minute booking for our Great Walk and were off by the end of the weekend! Back from our hike, we’re continuing to take it one day at a time as we figure out our next steps. More soon!
