Yelling

It's possible I jinxed myself in that last blog post, because a cloud of craziness has descended over camp. The teens? Nope- they are still as laid back, easy going and wonderful as ever. They aren't competitive, haven't really been interested in all camp games, but are very content to just hang out with each other. They are well behaved, hilarious and I think if all the staff left, they would just carry on like normal.

No, the craziness has hit the staff and I am ready to look at about half of them and say, "GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER OR GET OUT!!" Okay, that's me venting, but I did yell at two counselors yesterday. It is RARE for me to yell. I'm more of a quiet, "I'm disappointed in you" kinda boss. But today I yelled.

This week we scheduled an optional camping trip that kids could sign up for. Usually this age group is automatically sent on the trip, but with all of them in the same age group and the theme of our week being "teens love choices", this time around it was optional. We only have one cabin of boys this week and all of them signed up for the trip. And yet, their counselors didn't think to plan, prepare for or acknowledge the trip, other than to tell the boys to pack right before they left.

They were getting ready to board the pontoon to be dropped off at the campsite (which is literally in the middle of the forest), all wearing shorts and tee shirts. I asked if they had packed long pants and long sleeved shirts and all of them said no. I sent them back to their cabins to change their clothes because the bugs are OUT OF CONTROL and they would have been eaten alive and absolutely miserable if they weren't covered.

That was the final straw after a lot of small things I'd overlooked all week and I called them over and yelled, actually yelled at them for not preparing their boys. What were they thinking? Even if they didn't care about the kids, wouldn't you think from a self-preservation standpoint that they wouldn't have wanted to go into the woods with 12 unprepared boys who would surely complain the whole time?

I warned all of the staff that our fun weekend should not come at the expense of camp. They knew that in order to be able to do their jobs, they need to be rested and prepared to be with kids. I'm not sympathetic to their "off" week. If they don't get their acts together, they are not going to have jobs soon...