Cleaning days, cooking food, bar work, late nights, serving dishes, washing up. All unpaid, all mandatory, altogether. The life of a clubworker is not glamorous, it’s not flashy or prestigious, it’s not for everyone. But what it is – is a rewarding and incredibly fun collective experience. The people you work with become your best friends, the people you serve are your nation’s members, your course friends, your co-workers.

Like the minions in ‘Despicable Me’ they are the hard-working cogs in the system that help the nation run the way it does. They are the ones that contribute to the successes of gasques and other formal nation events, they train to be bartenders, pub managers and cooks and go on to be active members and full-timers at the nation. You’d be hard-pressed to find a curator or full-timer at a nation who didn’t initially start as a club worker…  it’s almost a rite of passage.

In my first few weeks at my nation I had no idea what a club worker was – I had some idea that they were the people that ran the events at the nation. It was only when senior members started to tell me stories about how they made their best friends at the nation through the club work. Adventures involving workers weekends, New Years parties, after-gasque parties, sexas. You put in long hours and work very hard, you give the nation your all for one, two or even three semesters, depending how involved you get.

The team working a gasque

We had keys to the house, locked up at the end of the night. I was a part of a select group of people who understood so much more about each other, I knew what their work ethic was like, what their dreams were, what their approach to their studies were. When you work alongside someone in this setting it’s very easy to really know a person. They’ll be some of my closest friends for a long while to come. There are many after cleaning day Sexas that I’ll remember for a long time to come (the bits I can remember at least!).

Work hard – play hard. That should be the motto of the club worker. We work, but in return we can attend the KMK Sexa and the KMK Ball – these are collective nation experiences and heaps of fun. Also, although every nation is different, almost all clubworkers receive a ‘KK card’ – the elusive, all access, never paying card that lets you skip the queue of most clubs, 04s or other evening nation events with a guest. If you manage to find time when not working, it’s the best benefit to utilise. We worked together to organise great nights out with a large group and a guest each.

The team I shared my time with was fantastic, and I’ll miss working with them a great deal.

/Rhianna