How Do You Deal With Slackers In Your Camp?

dav725 · Post by **dav725** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:43 pm

Hey there...5th year Burner, 1st time setting up my own theme camp. There are going to be about 35 of us...and I'm curious how other people have dealt with this situation before....how do you deal with the people who were never really available to prepare for the trip, set up the camp, etc? Or the people that once they are there...slack on their responsibilities, like cleaning and getting ice.

Thx for the advice!

MikeVDS · Post by **MikeVDS** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:37 pm

There is not much you can do except accept that they are lazy bastards or not allow them back. I've seen some camps charge $100 extra deposit and if you don't do scheduled chores you don't get the money back. Some people are willing to pay the extra just to not have to do something but they give back to the camp with the extra $ so everyone is happy.

We do a fairly large camp and live by taking care of your own shit. You want food? Cook it yourself. You want something set up there, bring it yourself. You make a mess, you better clean it up or it'll end up on your face when you fall asleep.

thirt33n · Post by **thirt33n** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:00 pm

I've never been part of a theme camp,.....but I'd say a few things here.

For your own mental health you might want to plan for at least a few "slackers". Let them slack. Try your best to not let it get to you by planning for it. You may know already who they are just like you may know already who the workers are. That being said, structure teams with at least one of each. Let them work it out and relieve yourself of micro-management.

If this is a group/camp that you believe will be a yearly returning group you can also catch your "slacker" on video or camera in the act(or NOT act) whenever you can and when you compile the video/photo history of your camp to send out to all as a gift, make sure to include many photos of your "Slacker" slacking. Maybe your "slackers" will be embarrassed enough by their own non-actions that next year they will do a 180.

Assuming these "slackers" are good people who just haven't had the opportunity to learn the ethics to really pitch in.

also assuming that you don't want to have a meltdown on the playa,...

I've steered clear of being apart of larger camps because I would have a very tough time with this myself. I'm the guy who "slackers" hate and talk shit about because I despise them and ride them. They don't distinguish between respectful work managers and nagging. I'm also the guy that pacifist workers come to when they want the whip cracked on the slackers. Thanks Dad.

get your strong nucleus of "workers" and make sure they all understand what it will take for you all to have a more stress free burn. slackers get one strike and then they get ignored.

...now when it comes to making a mess and not cleaning up after themselves? they would be the butt of all of my jokes and the loser of everyones respect and most likely booted by day two.

ps edit. mike vds. i like the $100 deposit thing. nice.

when i go to brc all i wanna be is in charge of me

Post by **mdmf007** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:33 am

Fuck beating around the bush. a Slacker in camp can suck out a lot more life than you think.

I say speak up at your earliest convenience. make them eat leftovers, and make it clear it is unacceptable. they are also the ones that shower without doing their part.

Best way to avoid it is to make it clear in the beginning, before ever headed to the playa whats expected.

just my 2 cents

capjbadger · Post by **capjbadger** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:44 am

Work weekends before you ever hit the playa. The slackers will show themselves and then you know who to tell to find another camp.

Badger

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:19 am

We've had slackers, none have returned. Some chores are not divided equally, we have several rangers in camp and we never put them on ice and cooler detail. The scheduling never worked out well.

Worse than the Slacker is the Mook. A slacker doesn't pick up their end, a Mook makes anything they touch worse.

We had a Mook at a regional. I will NEVER let her camp with us again. She brought an art project .... rolls of paper and glitter and paints; got bored and left them in the middle of camp. Left open containers and half-eaten food and clothes and shit all over camp. Picked up a metal coffeepot barehanded and dropped it on my stove, then when I handed her paper towels... the only ones we had left ... she bunched up half the roll and started making a bigger mess. Left the coolers open. Dug ice out of the raw meat cooler for her iced coffee, got miffy when instructed don't do that. She treated my personal food box as communal property, got insulted when I told her to get the fuck out of my things. Invited random strangers in at night to drink next to my tent. My booze, yet. The Mook is the only person I have screamed at during an event.

I hate the Mook.

Ron · Post by **Ron** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:17 am

The first step is to reduce their frequency. I've found that making the expectations very clear in the beginning, while looking folk in the eye, cuts down on the slackers dramatically. The next is to have reasonable expectations. Scheduled shifts in camp just don't tend to work well, IME, by way of one example. I prefer to let folk take the task they want, and build a schedule that works for them.

The next step is to confront those who do choose to not live up to the expectations they agreed to. Keep that confrontation professional and centered around the actual actions that were undertook, or not, and stay away from guesses as to motivation, inner character, or whatever. If the slacker takes said confrontation well, and adjusts their behavior, you may very well have a gem. If not, you've got someone who doesn't get the invitation to camp with you again.

In either case the top consideration should be how to still have a good burn yourself, and not how to get the slacker to do what you want them to do. The first is attainable, the second may not be. :)

Ron

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:35 am

You guys are all too kind.

Stake them out on an anthill.

Since anthills are outside the trash fence, remember to get your re-entry wrist bands. When you get back in, search their belongings for cool stuff to take home, anything they stole from you and donate the rest to some Center Camp hippie.

(note: none of this applies to snarky fishes in EPBC.)

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:30 pm

How Do You Deal With Slackers In Your Camp?

Shit in their sleeping bag and hope they get a clue by breakfast?

ragabashpup · Post by **ragabashpup** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:20 pm

FLOG them but make sure they dont like it first.

thirt33n · Post by **thirt33n** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:32 pm

AntiM wrote:We've had slackers, none have returned. Some chores are not divided equally, we have several rangers in camp and we never put them on ice and cooler detail. The scheduling never worked out well.

Worse than the Slacker is the Mook. A slacker doesn't pick up their end, a Mook makes anything they touch worse.

We had a Mook at a regional. I will NEVER let her camp with us again. She brought an art project .... rolls of paper and glitter and paints; got bored and left them in the middle of camp. Left open containers and half-eaten food and clothes and shit all over camp. Picked up a metal coffeepot barehanded and dropped it on my stove, then when I handed her paper towels... the only ones we had left ... she bunched up half the roll and started making a bigger mess. Left the coolers open. Dug ice out of the raw meat cooler for her iced coffee, got miffy when instructed don't do that. She treated my personal food box as communal property, got insulted when I told her to get the fuck out of my things. Invited random strangers in at night to drink next to my tent. My booze, yet. The Mook is the only person I have screamed at during an event.

I hate the Mook.

I also hate the Mook. Let's not capitalize mook. mook is not proper. mooks are created by mooks. beware the mook.

you're mooking me crazy.
mooks have multiple car accident per year.
mooks burn toast at least bi-weekly.
mooks are pitiful.
mooks are not bad people.
mook=walk the other way and hope they don't see you.
mook=doesn't usually see you because they're never paying attention.
good bye mook.

mojo · Post by **mojo** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:44 pm

A few years ago the mook in my camp forgot his tent poles and then expected to sleep in my RV (a very small RV). He was bitchy the whole trip and kept repeating the sentence I hate most, "Burn Baby, Burn". He drank up nearly all the beer and was snotty when we ran out on Friday.

I hate the mook.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:21 pm

Remedies?

.223, .308, 00, 000, 0000, .40, .45, .38, .50

don't worry, just havin fun. I had a slacker last year. Shit. Will avoid that again like the plague.

Post by **AntiM** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:55 am

Ah, but if one has their own personal mook in their life, then that mook may be called The Mook.

Don't mook me pull this bus over.

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:03 am

we do not tolerate slacking in our camp....

any offenders get a meth enema stat, and then they dont slack no mo'.

what the fuck do you think this is, a VACATION?

NOW GET BACK OUT THERE AND START TAGGING THAT REBAR WITH BRIGHTLY COLORED TAPE and Plastic Bottles!

while i sit here and do a bong hit

Rabbi Dali Rick · Post by **Rabbi Dali Rick** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:14 am

Don't get me started about Mooks and Slackers....

We had a Mook one year and it made it almost unbearable to be in camp. He owns a very lucretive business and he makes his employees jump through hoops and put up with his childish pranks and he had just broke up with his s.o. (she cheated on him. oh woe is him) so he wanted everyone to talk exclusively about that. But the part that got to me is he always feels so self entitled, he acted like we were at his business and we were his employees. As we were putting up camp he just bullshitted around with his bags, and when asked to help he held one rope for about 3 mins then dissappeared the rest of the day out on the playa, leaving his buddy to set up his tent, which he had loaned to him, he left the coolers wide open all the time making most of the perishable stuff go bad quickly, and triple the number of ice runs per day, when ever he ate he complained about it and then would leave everything he used, right where he used it, left meat, bread, pots, open and out on the table especially the mayo and mustard, which of course our campmate would promptly clean up behind him. I just refused to be in camp when he was there.

the rebbi

JezebelinHell · Post by **JezebelinHell** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:15 am

We had a mook one year who, for no reason at all, refused to haul any garbage out while he was leaving on Sunday. The campmates all parked their cars around his and refused to move until he was properly loaded with waste. That was a weird year. Said mook had been camping with us for six years without incident and then that year he just decided to randomly be a twat. We also had one of our veterans throw hissy fits all week and make no one want to be at camp, and then leave one of our camp mates out in BRC because he didn't feel like waking him up to tell him it was time to leave. Ya just never know...

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:19 pm

Establish a pecking order, no lie. "These guys are in charge of what goes on in camp." The airy-fairy koombayah crap will just get you in trouble.

Soon as you think one of the members is a liability, mention it to "one of the guys", or if you are "one of the guys" then call a meeting and get everyone's buy-in. It does no good for one member of a camp to take unilateral action. This is how wars start.

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:41 pm

i agree wholeheartedly with dougly.

you have to realize, that the playa is a HARSH enviornment and SHIT HAPPENS.

and the old-timers, as crotchety as we are, only want you to have a fantastic time and come back and introduce others to our community.

we tell you these bits o' advice for a reason....chances are we did the same stupid thing, and paid for it....learn from our mistakes.

The 'Pecking Order' works well with an organized TEAM...not a group of individuals...

im not saying militarize your camp, but there is something to be learned as to how institutions handle logistics and the like.

work hard, play hard, clean up harder.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:57 pm

There was one boy one year, forgot his ticket at home, I had to buy him one at the gate (he never paid me back of course). Hey I didn't invite this slacker! That was back when tickets were still "cheap", yeh right. Then he lays his bike in everyone's way, loses my canteen, refuses to put away his sleeping bag in the morning.

Yeah, lessons learned.

Post by **mdmf007** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:08 pm

All these stories blow - I have been lucky I guess. Of course there are disagreements in our camp, but nothing like has been described so far.

whew -

CLARKcon · Post by **CLARKcon** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:49 am

Last couple years out with campmates have been awsome

All very respectful/foresightful of stuff that needs to get done. Note: Getting stuff done= more time to play

Whatever cleaning I do up behind someone is because I wanted to to create my space. I'm also really critical about a good final clean-up before we leave. I was astounded/proud of my buddies this year: A 20 foot square toothbrush comb of camp and all the MOOP fit in my hand like a 50 cent piece. Word.

How Do You Deal With Slackers In Your Camp?

How Do You Deal With Slackers In Your Camp?

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