My experience of the recruitment process was very poor. The interview was not thorough so I didn’t believe that recruiting staff with the correct credentials was a priority for Pebetero, and the information offered during the whole process was vague. As the company was the only one offering two months work I felt I had no choice but to continue, although I would have removed my application at this stage had I had other options.

On arrival on my first day I met with my co-ordinators (also employed temporarily) who were terrific people but the schedule was not as described. I had been told over the phone that each monitor would work a half day but the schedule I was given left very little free time. Despite a 40 hour per week contract, I counted 72 hours in my first week. I was told there would be one full day off each fortnight but I had to work 16 days in a row before I got this, and I had to renegotiate it several times despite it being part of the employment terms. Due to the poor recruitment process, not all my colleagues were suitable for the position and this left most of us to do the work without their help. On the plus side, with regards to colleagues, I met with some great people and shared lots of ideas, which was a perk of the job but really it was the luck of the draw that introduced me to these people, and not the recruitment process carried out by Pebetero or their recruiters.

After 2 weeks I was moved to another location where I was to work for the remainder of my 8 week employment. Unfortunately, again due to Pebetero’s lazy recruitment process, I ended up working with some team mates who showed no initiative or motivation to carry out their duties and co-ordinators who made their lack of management skills very apparent. The team was led by a co-ordinator who lacked the ability to motivate the team, and instead made banal complaints and proved herself to be unsupportive and unprofessional through various incidents where she demotivated and undermined staff daily. The only redeeming factor of this camp was that the schedule was as described in the recruitment process but I was reminded on several occasions that this was a privilege, as not all Pebetero camps are run this way, despite how they are being sold to candidates.

To add to this the food was lacking in nutrition, leaving all staff lethargic and regularly ill with stomach problems. Despite much feedback from staff, the catering menu remained the same, resulting in staff having to buy their own food on some occasions, even though meals were part of the employment terms.

If I was in the position of advising a friend of what to do with a job offer from Pebetero, I would say that some of the colleagues will be an inspiration to meet and work with due to the fact that there will be a lot of people you will meet, the kids will be a joy as they always are, and if an unprofessional and unsupportive living and working environment does not pose a problem then I would advise to go in with your eyes open and enjoy the experience as much as possible. However if the problems I mention are not possible to ignore then I would advise against working on summer camps with this company.