Cohousing-L Mailing List: hiring community workers

[don i arkin (shardon5]

Hi,  The statement "Hiring community members does not work." is
completely wrong as most conclusive statements are.  As witnessed by the
numerous posts on this subject, hiring community members is sometimes
very beneficial, both in cost and quality of work.  Although work not
performed as expected by a community member can lead to awkward times, my
experience is that it is less likely to occur than when you hire real
world contractors.  Sure, with outsiders you have real world legal
recourses, but, unless the projects are large it is usually not worth
pursuing them or they turn out to be futile.  True, you do have the
luxury of cursing those bad workers at public functions which you are
inhibited from doing with community members, but to my mind that is
insufficient compensation.  
        As someone who has both hired and been hired to do community
work, I strongly believe that it has been a significant net benefit to
our community.  I don't recommend it to others without reservations. 
Everyone must evaluate their own situation.
        Don Arkin,  Sonora cohousing