Seacamp Association Reviews

Work hours and expectations are alot

They are masters at gaslighting and mental abuse. I was slowly but surely worn down until I was a shell of myself. They also regularly had us break the rules of the collection permits we were required to hold on an individual level as well as other environmental regulations. When I worked there, staff regularly left in the middle of the night. Staff who tried to give two weeks notice were told that they had a couple of hours to pack their things before being escorted off of campus. I am not prone to anxiety but the mental abuse of the staff led me to have such a horrible anxiety attack that my arms and legs went numb. Judy brushed it off and then months later the incident was held against me. I was asked to use chemicals in a confined space that required wearing a ventilator and when I asked for one was given a dust mask. When I kindly notified my supervisor who was younger than a majority of the staff and had something to prove that the incorrect mask was provided I was told that I was being insubordinate and there would be consequences for not completing the task. I reiterated that I was not refusing to complete the task but simply requesting the proper safety equipment and he stormed off. This incident was again later held against me. I’m not going to say much more except that although I no longer have nightmares about working at Seacamp/NHMI, but I have friends who still do more than ten years later. I worked in outdoor education for over six years and never experienced mental abuse like this anywhere else. They would not allow their “interns” or employees to physically see their contracts, even when asked to see them and sign them on multiple occasions over the course of months. They would conveniently shorten people contracts compared to what was verbally offered and deliver them to be signed months earlier, only when they wanted to get rid of them. Sometimes giving them only a couple of days notice that they no longer had a home or job. The only time employees signed their contracts is when they left- that was their “policy”, but if you asked about it they would gaslight you and come up with a million reasons why they couldn’t let you see it. I see advertisement posts for their programs and open positions and it makes me angry and sick to my stomach. They prey on young college graduates and pay them next to nothing as “interns” so that they don’t have money to leave if they would like to. They hold references over their employees heads and tell them that if they “break” their “contract”, which they never even signed, that they would not provide them a reference. Their gaslighting extended to health issues- they would heavily resist allowing someone to go to urgent care for both simple and urgent things from ear infections to possible broken ribs, most likely because they didn’t want to deal with the insurance claims. They would instead insist on calling up nurses that they knew personally to get information and then tell you if you went to urgent care that they wouldn’t give you the time off and would dock your pay because they didn’t “authorize” the sick leave. Staff was almost struck by lightening once in the swim canal because the haughty supervisor insisted he had his eye on the approaching thunder storm and even though it was approaching, that it was going to miss us by a couple of miles. As the lightning strikes got closer and closer staff got out of the water after being told not to because they didn’t feel safe. 30 seconds later, right after being told they were required to get back into the water, a strike hit on site and everyone scrambled to get out of the water, out of their gear, and sprinted in whatever buildings were closest to them. It should have NEVER gotten to that point. The arrogance of the leadership staff was unmatched. I could literally go on and on but I’m fuming remembering what they did to us and I would prefer to have a clear headspace. Don’t work here. Even though a majority of that staff is not there and Grace has died, Judy is still there and she was the worst of them all because she would play “good cop” while still gaslighting you. One day when I had 6 hours off from working summer camp I got in my car and drove for three hours and then turned right around and drove three hours back just because I wanted to see how far away I could get from the place. Oh, and we called and reported them to multiple environmental agencies for the things that they were doing but it was always a he-said-she-said situation because we didn’t have enough evidence. They treat you like children and even though their motto to the staff was that we were in charge of “other people’s children”, they never once treated their staff as if they were “other people’s children”. The abuse was literally endless and the absolute most brazen gaslighting I’ve ever seen in my entire life. They could have people second guessing whether or not the sky was green and never crack. They regularly put me in charge of managing other people’s personal lives. If my roommate didn’t get up for breakfast I was required to go and get her and wake her up and make her go because meals didn’t start until everyone was present. It completely degraded the relationship between my roommate/coworker and I should never have been required day after day to deal with her not arriving to work on time because I was NOT her supervisor- she was an adult just as I was and we were both interns. What they considered to be appropriate and professional is LUDICROUS. I was supposed to work there for a year, however the morale of the staff was so bad that they led an inquisition and forced all staff to essentially reinterview for their positions in front of the entire leadership staff and board members while having every little tiny piece of information about them that could possibly be given a negative twist to gaslight you into believing that you were a poor worker. I agreed to disagree with their thoughts about my work, especially since I was regularly told previously to that that I had been their best employee and that I had to do special extra above and beyond things because they couldn’t trust that anyone else could do them. We all “agreed” to shorten my “contract”, which I still hadn’t seen, to 9 months instead of 12. At this point they also had no work for anyone and we had been working on maintenance crews for about two months because so many schools had pulled out and canceled on them that we weren’t even teaching at that point. They were trying to validate firing people at the expense of their mental health. And the crazy thing is I had known people who had worked there previously and they told me that it was a crummy place to work but that they would train you for several great certifications for free. So I even knew that it wasn’t the best place when I started there. I had no idea it could even be that bad. And I wasn’t as naive as others- I wasn’t right out of school- I had worked at two other environmental education nonprofits before this one for multiple years. And since most of the people reading this don’t know me, please know that I am the kindest, most reasonable person you will ever meet. I’m leaving out some of the most personal things in order to not be dismissed as being petty because I want to be sure that people actually read this and take it seriously. I’m not simply a disgruntled former employee. I am someone who has a much better understanding of mental abuse and how it effects a person and would not wish it on anyone. It was SO engrained in this place and the leadership team that it’s not possible for them to still work there and for those types of interactions to not happen any longer. I wish that I had heard about glass door sooner so that I could post here earlier in hopes of keeping other people from having a similar experience to myself. Also for the record, this is my first ever post and I haven’t even read what anyone else has had to say about Seacamp/NHMI. If I could give everything but the career opportunities zero stars then I would, but it requires at least one star. Their certifications can open up other doors for you but you have to gauge if supporting this organization is worth it.