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I can understand why an older person might volunteer because they want to socialize (get lonely at home) but these are younger volunteers that I have seen, that do this. One of them even said "they can't fire me because I'm a volunteer".
Lonely middle-aged and even younger folks often volunteer for friendship and/or romance, e.g., at animal rescue shelters and Habitat For Humanity.
I had a volunteer who signed up for work slots and each time she couldn't make it because her mother passed away the first time, and then later, couldn't make it because her mother was sick on two other occasions. PASSED AWAY and then SICK TWICE?
Being a volunteer and signing up means that you are being depended upon. Being a volunteer and signing up is a commitment. Don't be surprised if you are replaced.
I asked a question in another forum that was "If you volunteer, how can you still serve those who spit on you?"
Not meaning they ACTUALLY spit on them, but acted thankless and hostile to those helping them.
The answers were basically along the lines of "I know they're stuck in having to ask for help, but they try to maintain their disassociation of their financial straits by being this way, I keep a level head to serve them well and look to my OWN satisfaction that I did it well"
Where are you hanging out that there are all of these horrible volunteers?
I have never ever seen anyone act anything but extremely professional.
It is a honor to volunteer and most people treat it with respect.
Some volunteer jobs are almost impossible to get they are so coveted.
I volunteered for 2 years at at local charity before I was offered a paid position. I've seen the best and the worst of the volunteers. Because we run a thrift store, some of the volunteers are there to get first dibs on the donations before they hit the store shelves. They work their hours and then come to the register with overloaded carts every single week. A couple of them have booths in area
permanent" flea markets. It's known,and it's tolerated, because the charity doesn't care who is paying for the goods, or what they do with them afterwards, we still get money needed to keep the food pantry and other services going. Sometimes the temptation to slip a few things into pockets happens. And, yes, those volunteers are told not to return.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aery11
Sometimes community service is assigned by the courts as part of recompense for an offense. But, many times the person that is told to go and 'volunteer' doesn't really have their heart in it - and since they usually are immature anyway (or on drugs/alcohol), I have seen them take that very 'loosely'. Some seem to think that just signing up is enough. Others 'forget' but figure they will be 'forgiven' or no one at the parole office (or whoever it is that they have to check in with) will never find out. Saw this very thing happen with my late husband's son.
Yes, they may deserve to be fired if they cause others problems because they didn't show up and weren't considerate enough to call to let someone know they couldn't, even if it is at the last minute. One hopes that being 'fired' will teach them (if the people that count at the parole office find out) a very valuable life lesson. Of course, I also think organizations, no matter how desperate for help they are, should spend a bit of time trying to find out the volunteer's motivation before they 'hire' them. Not worth having to deal with flakes imho if you can help it.
If someone is just incompetent or otherwise can't do the job they are assigned to do, I would probably just try to figure out a way to use them in another capacity. Depending on the situation though, I probably would not 'fire' those people .. but I might gently 'lay them off' if they were absolutely no help at all. I can't understand people who just volunteer as a social outlet. It is fine to 'socialize' a bit I guess with other volunteers, but deliberately being lazy/lax, etc. because they are just there to socialize ... not sure what I would do if I would lose 6 volunteers if I didn't tolerate the one who was the problem.
We have community service workers every single day. They are given distinctive safety vests to wear that denotes them as such, so they aren't confused with volunteers. They are not allowed cell phones, nor are they allowed to purchase anything, even when they sign out for the day. It was becoming a real problem with them rifling through donations and stashing stuff away instead of working.
But, they do run the gamut. Some good ones have even been hired after they've served the court required hours. The bad ones are told to leave and explain to the judge why they haven't completed their time.
The worst volunteers are the groups of school kids who come in (accompanied by adults) to fulfill badge requirements or religious education ones. It's like herding puppies when that happens. They make far more work for everybody else by horsing around, playing with toys, etc.
used to be a volunteer coordinator. I set a record for "firing" volunteers. 6 out of 3000 in one year. The other 2994 were relieved, made for a better experience for all.
Usually, the motivation is "good intentions". We all have them, but sometimes it's hard to follow through on them.
It seems like the people with good intentions would be easier to deal with than the people who are just indifferent or worse, actively trying to derail the work of their predecessors (if there's some political strife that motivates someone to volunteer, for instance).
Maybe they could be redirected to something that fits their talents better. For example, they're volunteering to do outreach but their people skills aren't the sharpest, but they're great with math/business acumen, perhaps they could be steered over to the finance committee instead of the outreach committee, etc.
The idea being to keep the dedicated volunteer, but just gently redirect them to something that better fits their talents, and focus on how great they are at that, and why their expertise would be more valuable in one role versus another. That's not always possible, but it can work out sometimes.
Or volunteers who show up only for special events and then socialize the whole time. Or show up to show off. I have plenty of stories but I don't want to give too much away as to where I work. We have plenty of great ones too of course!
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