What I wish was different
So much. It took me an hour and a half to complete an exit survey that I was told would take only 5-10 minutes. The upper upper management was great, but because of everything he had to do, he ended up being quite detached from the rest of the team. The senior staff below him, for the most part, was incredibly misogynistic. I was also racially profiled by a coworker (and roommate for one day before I moved out due to her comments), who they kept on for the rest of the summer. I think that many of the staff members were either misogynistic, racist, or both, which is especially awful when we're working with a population that is 2/3 girls and is partly from Asia. I am confident, however, that many of these employees will not be returning next summer, and I assume the work environment will be better, but if there is a hiring crunch like there was this year, there's no guarantees that the new people won't also be terrible. Additionally, when they say in the interview that you will be working long hours, they REALLY mean it. I averaged 60 hours a week, which added up to be a decent amount of money, but we were not paid nearly enough for the things they had us do. Waking up at 3 am to go to the airport, being emotional support for teens who are an ocean away from home, and making sure they don't get lost in New York City is worth way more than minimum wage, in my opinion.
