Following is a general discription of the guides- and salesteam work and responsibilities.... Driving to and from work.

You are responsible to get to and from work at your own cost just as if you had signed up to work with a company in your home town Glacier Guides offers bus rides with the Vatnajkull Voyager to save you money and we try to always set the schedule so that it fits with rides. If you choose to not take the ride provided you are on your own. Traffic fines collected along the way to and from work are also on your own cost. It is up to you to contact the roster manager 2 days before your shift starts to arrange a ride or notify them of your plan.

Salaries
Salaries will be decided on and explained to everyone before the 2012 season begins. If at this time you have any questions or concerns regarding the salary you should discuss them with us before we get too far into the season. Things that will be taken into consideration for this are Meiraprof, training courses and past experiences.

The Guides Schedule

In your first year or two of employment you should not expect to start work until June 15th and should assume work will end around August 20th. The summer guiding season goes from the first weeks in May to the end of September however the shoulder season dates are reserved by our most senior guides. Your dates on the Roster will be sorted out at the beginning of April and we will do our best to stick with this schedule throughout the summer The schedule will be set up with pre-set dates and according to seniority you will be allowed to select the shift that best fits your needs. After the schedule has been made and you would like additional time off you can arrange it with another guide with the same qualifications or in agreement with the schedule manager if the guide has less qualifications. Of course we understand that emergencies come up and we will deal with these things as they arise.

Staying in Fagurhlsmri (the swamp)

We usually have a cook at the swamp to make dinners, he/she is not a house keeper. If the cook is not present it is your responsibility to make dinner, we can ususally arrange someone heading home early to start this project. You are to find out your responsibilities during your shift as you arrive if one is not given to you. You need to find out your cleaning schedule. (All of the above is posted on the Whiteboard ) If your responsibilities are other than cleaning you need to keep those up. You are responsible for leaving your room clean when you depart. You are responsible for putting your work clothes in the wash before you depart. Working employees have priority to beds in the house Dishwasher- still working on it!- the Brazilian intern was held up at immigration

If you are part of a couple that shares a bed do not count on that luxury, you are at the mercy of your fellow guides and if they are willing to be nice to you. General food is provided by Glacier Guides. Only items on food list can be ordered, all things off the list you are responsible for purchasing. It is strongly reccomended that you mark every item of food you have. The rule of the swamp is If its not marked I can eat it If you are expecting friends or family please make arrangements with us first to check if there is room. There may be times when there is too much staff for this to be possible.

Sickness and injury insurance / Gear

If you are sick at Fagurhlsmri you are to try and stay isolated from everyone as much as possible so as not to spread your illness. If you are unable to work you need to let us know as soon as possible so that we can make arrangements to replace you and also to get you home if needed. Employees collect 2 sickdays per month for every month worked in the summer. Parents recieve 1 extra day per month for taking care of children while sick. If you get injured at work Glacier Guides will pay 3 months of pay at 100% estimated salery, after that time your union (Most of you are paying to VR) will take over and pay 80% salary for up to 9 months. You will be assessed by an independant doctor who will determine if you are unable to perform your work . The percentage of your income paid by your union will depend on that examination. If your personal gear is destroyed on the job, unfortunately it is only covered under water (flooding), fire damage and theft. We will evaluate compensation for destruction of personal property on the job on an individual basis. In many cases your personal equipment will be insured under your home insurance. Glacier Guides are given a great discount at Fjallakofinn.

Training
If you are receiving training to further your education as a guide provided by Glacier Guides then you will not always be paid for the duration of the training, make sure you ask. Courses offered or encouraged by Glacier Guides are generally paid by or supported financially by the company. Try and get funding from your rescue teams, Landsbjrg and Unions as well as they are easily obtainable. In general, training will automaticly result in higher wages but this is not immediate. Training will make you a more valuable employee for the company and therefore you will get more work in the long run resulting in more money. If it is possible to combine training with the need for another guide you might receive partial payment according to agreement settled before a trip departs.

GUIDES GENERAL JOB DESCRIPTION

There are two managers in the Glacier Guides team that exchange shifts. Its your job to do what they ask you to (within reason :0). It makes life a lot better for everyone if you take your own initiative and do what needs to be done without asking or being asked. The guide starts work in the morning as the sales office opens. The workday is 10 hours (average day goes from 0830 to 1830) This is a physical job so you need to take care of yourself and stay in good physical shape so that you can do the work that is required of you. The guides day to day work responsibilitys are (but not limited to): Greeting client, helping sales crew, caring for gear, gearing up client, arranging drivers (in co-operation with sales), driving if licensed to, guiding, communication at base (in co-operation with sales), keeping access open and safe, general safety, keeping up standard of care, keeping cars clean and running. keeping access open and safe- this is a very important part of the job because if the access of to the glacier is not safe the responsibility is ultimately yours if anything happens. If you cannot access the glacier safely then we cannot run trips which means there is no work. Unfortunately this may require some after hours work at times. What constitudes as work in the guiding industry is: Anything mentioned above, while you are on trips, while you are doing tasks including helping out at the cave (Skaftafell sales office), while you are driving or while you are at the salesdesk. The following DO NOT constitude as work: o Time between trips not spent on doing things mentioned above. o Your tasks with keeping Fagurhlsmri in order o Cooking, o preperation for the coming day and guides meetings. An average day for a guide o 2 trips a day o help out fellow guides with cramponing and getting people ready for departures o chop steps and work on access routes to glacier, o help with sales between trips and drive groups to and from glacier. o A guide will on average once a week go home early to start preparing dinner if chef is absent. If you cannot cook then you will work in Skaftafell instead or take care of other things skill dependant.

Other:
If a guide is asked to take on extra responsibilities or has had longer days without the occasional shorter days between to balance out the work he or she should keep a log with explanations showing tasks done for overtime payment. This overtime payment will be decided on before the 2011 season begins Alpine trips: the scheduler will try their best to keep you on a later departure the following day, this is done so that you can rest but it is in no way a rule that you can count on during busy times. Leaving Skaftafell; If you are on the last day of your shift your workday still ends at 1830. You can and should not count on leaving earlier than that although it is up to the scheduler to line up the day to fit so you can leave early if it is possible. If you request to arrive late or leave early from your shift then you can look at that as time off or half day and this should be discussed the day before if possible. If you take 2 trips and happen to finish before 5 or 6 then of course you can go and will still be paid for a full day. When someone new is brought to the team they will be properly introduced so that everyone is clear on what their role is.

Sales & Marketing (SM Booking Person)- Job Description

SM work starts in the AM as the sales office opens. The workday is 10 hours. The avarage day goes from 0830 to 1830 along with one half hour to finish accounting in the end of day SM is in charge of every day running in Skaftafell: Trip Sales, Daily guide schedule / driving schedule (in cooperation with the lead guide), recruiting travel agencies & groups, communication with guides (in co-operation with guides inhouse)

Guides and booking desk person should work together on:

Kids: the age limit for GW is 10 and 15 for GGS/ GE. This is flexible but ultimately the choice is the guides so the sales desk and guide should discuss this before the customer is told that their 10 year old can go. Guides should evaluate their group and the child on an individual basis for each trip - be open to taking children instead of saying NO only because the child is not 10. The booking person should talk to guides first about taking an extra trip if it will make their day an unusually late one. Guides, if you work overtime on trips (example; an ice climbing trip starting at 15:00 and ending at 19:00) please keep a log of this so that you can be compensated at the end of the month. Try to accommodate the requests of guests but do not promise things, kindly ask them to wait a moment while you check to make sure that whatever they are requesting is possible. Make sure that you are selling the right trip to the client (where are they from, look at their clothing, look at their shoes) Family members of Glacier Guide employees are welcome on trips at no cost, however advance notice is necessary. Friends receive a 20% discount (this is situational dependant). Group Size: We will set a number at the beginning of the season, however please note that this number may change throughout the season as conditions change. Everyone will be made aware of this number. You as the guide reserve the right to lower this number to what you are comfortable with and we will keep that in mind when you are the guiding that trip.

The dos and donts

Things that will very quickly get you freedom from working for Glacier Guides
Irresponsible/ dangerous guiding Unprofessional behaviour in front of clients Being drunk on the job, also includes to hung over to make rational and safety decisions. Smoking or doing drugs while at work Constant complaining and general unhappiness Not liking the work and spreading general dislike Being a pain in the ass that no one likes

Things that will quickly give you added responsibility and pay at Glacier guides
Not showing or doing any of the things mentioned above Being professional at all times Taking responsibility for your actions, making good of situations and learning from them Showing integrity, fairness and hard work at all times during workhours. Having a skillset on top of being an excellent guide or sales and marketing person. Showing leadership and mentoring potential Positive behavior Being generally liked by your fellow man

In short this is all we ask: Take ownership in what you do, take initiative, do your job with passion.