My Workaway Experience And What It Taught Me

The biggest lesson being that working for free kinda sucks.

For those who never heard about Workaway, workaway.info is currently the biggest internet platform offering volunteer jobs to travelers all over the world. From working hostels to farming, teaching or doing some really weird obscure hippie stuff, anyone can create a profile on there and request or offer help. You work a couple hours a day in exchange for accommodation and sometimes food or other benefits.

I want to be very clear that it is NOT the kind of volunteering that is based in helping a cause. You are not saving the elephants, helping to build a school or teaching orphans how to play football. No. This is you, helping run someone else’s business or passion project in exchange for a roof over your head.

The main point of Workaway, as the website states, is cultural exchange. And it might be the case in some instances but my experience was a little different. It is an amazing means of travel when you wanna take it slow and get to know a place better (or if you’re on a very tight budget) and I know people who have had AMAZING workaway experiences who will tell you that it literally changed their lives for better. But, you know, I am not that lucky otherwise this post wouldn’t exist.

First, let me say that i only have experience in the hospitality field of voluntary work. I am probably the least suitable person for farm work ever, with my disgust towards animals and lack of any physical strength whatsoever, plus I’m an overall city person who doesn't have a drivers license and completely hates the idea of being stuck in the middle of nowhere so i didn’t even try that but I acknowledge that it might fit the “cultural exchange” description much more than the hostels. I have volunteered in hostels in New Zealand and Portugal, a surf lodge and hosted an airbnb apartment. Everything I’m going to say is based on my own anecdotal experience or experience of people I’ve met only.

The biggest issue I have with platforms like Workaway is their very nature. It’s an overall bad deal for everyone involved and in the end of the day, it is what it is — free labor. It’s a good idea that has great potential to be executed very poorly.

So as i said, when you do the math, doing Workaway is a bad deal financially for you as the volunteer. Sure, most people are not doing it just to save money but rather for the experience, but when the experience turns out to not be that great and you miss out on the cultural part, it is, in most cases, a bad deal.

Your work is more valuable than a bed in the basement and bread, butter & jam for breakfast. Don’t sell yourself short just because it sounds fun on paper.

If you, whoever is currently reading this, are thinking about doing Workaway, I would strongly advise not to take any “job” that makes you work more than the standard that is 5 hours a day 5 days a week, preferably even less. Before I even arrived to Portugal and was applying to places, a hostel in Lisbon got back to me and wanted to INTERVIEW ME for what would be basically same hours as a regular ass job except I would be working for free. No thanks. Please don’t fall for this crap. You are not a slave so don't work for nothing in return like one.

But sadly, even if the place promises fair hours, there might be another catch, which, in my experience, there often was.

In Lisbon, I was working as a live-in Airbnb host for a company that did Airbnb professionally for profit (which is, mind you, very unethical and ruins local people’s lives in Lisbon as well as in Prague and other places). I was promised to be working 5 hours a day 5 days a week and in total that might have been true, but I didn’t know the exact details of the kind of work I was going to do until after I got there. Being the host, my working hours were flexible, some cleaning and making beds in the morning after checkouts and then doing check ins whenever there were guests arriving. Meaning I would have to be available whenever there was a check-in. The apartment had 4 bedrooms and there were one to four checkins every. single. day. At different times of the day. Meaning I only got to have one or two actually free days (but not really because I still had to clean) in a whole month.

And when there were more checkins, of course the guests arrive at different times, so sometimes I would have whole days of sitting around the apartment, doing nothing, waiting for people to arrive.

Mostly thanks to that fact, my whole Lisbon experience was, to put it lightly, awful. I should have left. I know that. But I was still hoping that things would turn out ok in the end.

Which leads me to another point and that is:

the host you are working for often feels like they’re doing you a favor by letting you work for them for free

Very often, the person you agreed to volunteer for doesn’t even appreciate your work at all - they know very well that there are many people on the Workaway site waiting to jump on that job as soon as you leave.

I guess the best way to describe my whole Workaway experience in one word is “exploitative”.

Often the business owners take in people who are either 1) broke or 2) very young. Often first time travelers, first time out of their country or even first time out of their parents' house. 1st world country kids that just graduated from high school and took a gap year. For these people, workaway seems like a great opportunity so they keep their mouths shut and actually feel grateful for that experience, or worse, they feel like it’s some kind of a summer camp and their “boss” kind of represents the parent or teacher in their life now.

Was I kind of like that at first? Kind of. My first time hostel volunteer job was in New Zealand, which was also my first solo adventure. But as I got older and more experienced, I also became more resilient over time, less prone to taking bullshit or feeling like I owe someone and less hesitant to speak up for myself when I am not the one in the wrong.

From what I saw, more often than not people take in volunteers because they wanna cut those business expenses, not because they wanna meet and get to know someone from a different culture. Never have I been asked about my country by a host, never have I been practicing Portuguese with them. It’s simply much cheaper to have foreign volunteers come and go instead of actually having local employees that need to be paid.

In Porto, I was actually fired from a hostel as a volunteer after only 2 days of me being there. The place I’m talking about was disgusting - cold as hell, the volunteers slept in a basement with a moldy bathroom and a toilet that didn’t work, within my two days there i witnessed a guest being robbed and yet they were the ones who basically fired me. My mistake? No, I didn’t steal anything. I just didn’t look excited enough to be there. Yet there were still people ready to replace me and work in that horrible place for free.

In my last placement, which was a surf lodge on the other side of the Douro river, when I was very much over it and was just counting days until I quit, I was scolded by the owner and accused of “not having the workaway spirit” because I wasn’t doing any extra work from my own initiative and was eating breakfast cereal at other times than breakfast. If having the workaway spirit means caring about a business of someone who doesn’t even care about you, then yeah, I really don’t have it. That was the last straw. I snapped, packed my bags, left and vowed that I won’t ever do this to myself again.

Well, that was back in 2017. Now is 2020 and I am moving countries again in a couple weeks. I might actually do it again at some point. But at least I am equipped with experience and knowing better.

Lastly, I would like to add some tips for anyone who is thinking about trying any kind of volunteer gig.

Consider trying other websites like worldpackers or helpx instead. These sites are less popular and possibly with lower concentration of shady places.

Make sure you’re working 5 hours a day 5 days a week MAXIMUM with enough free time to explore and travel around, which is what you do it for anyways.

Also check if the place provides food — basic breakfast does not count — or any other benefits such as allowance, free surf lessons or any other perks that might make it worth it for you.

Always learn the details about your job, your exact hours, what you will exactly be doing and what are you exactly getting in return BEFORE you arrive at the place.

I would advise against staying in one place as a volunteer long term. Definitely not more than a month and even a month is too much imho. I’ve only done long term and wouldn’t do it again, as it kind of traps you in one place and puts you into a stereotype. If you end up loving a place, you can always extend, but don’t sign up for long term right away. The only exception is if you are planning to stay at that place and are looking for an actual job and actual accommodation while volunteering to save bucks.

If something goes wrong or you realize it’s not really for you, don’t hesitate and just leave. You’re not obliged to sit through shit times. It’s really not a big deal, if you don’t like it, just peace out. I learnt this the hard way so you don’t have to.

If you’re browsing workaway and the place you are interested in has some bad reviews, they won’t be published in detail. Message the people who left them and find out what was up or avoid these places completely.

That’s it from me now! Do I regret my workaway times? No. Do I particularly enjoy not getting paid for my work? Also no. But hopefully my experience will help someone to be better informed and make the most of this opportunity.