WORKING HOURS

It varies - the best approach is to ask about this when you arrange a place, so you know what to expect. My personal opinion is that 9-5, six days a week is too much - but on a busy farm it may be a lot less than the host is working.

It would be useful to hear what others think about this.

We have found that it is not the number of work hours that is important to the volunteer but rather the type of work. We try to involve our volunteers as much as possible in the running of the farm and make them feel at home. We try to teach them as many new skills as possible and of course help them with learning English if necessary. Our volunteers see their stay with us as an oppurtunity to learn something new everyday. As a result our biggest problem is getting them to take their days off!!
Our volunteers start work at 8am and finish at 7-8pm, 5 days......no complaints!
Loads of tea breaks and always time to chat and have fun while working. Work should always be fun, eventhough it might be difficult at times.
We appreciate the help given by our volunteers and they know it.

For me the amount of time I ask wwoofers to work is directly linked to my own time management. When my daughter started school last September I would ask them to work from breakfast (9-ish) till three only as that was when my daughter needed my full attention.

Since then she has settled into school and I have had more wwoofers I did not have to check on all the time so I wouldn't stop them if they were still happy to work till six. But it is more a question of whether they want to continue after the required 5 hours five days a week.

As I will be out at daytime a lot over the summer I will not be able to ask for specific hours any more but will rather ask for specific jobs that need doing- when the wwoofers want to do them will be up to themselves, as long as they get done.

In the autumn when my boy will start pre-school and I will be out in the mornings it will be another story all together.

It would be very helpful for me to hear from other hosts who are not at home all the time but go out working to see how they arrange work with their wwofers in their absence.