Volunteer or not to volunteer - that is the question...

Have you had the chance to volunteer somewhere? Or have you had a volunteer work for you? I have had the opportunity to do both. Both have volunteers who collaborate with me, but I also volunteer in many places. There is always a need for volunteers. Many are eager to volunteer for different causes and give a lot of time, love, and knowledge to volunteer activities.

If I consider myself when volunteering, it felt like I was doing good and giving back. It wasn't about the money. However, it wasn't all goodwill; it was, to some extent, selfish - I felt better about myself when I could help others, and I felt like my skills were appreciated and needed. However, there was a downside. When you do things for free, you are assumed to continue to do so. Further, there are always more things that could and should be done, and therefore, you risk it taking more and more of your time.

You might tell yourself (as I did) that it is all OK. It is for a good cause and is essential. So it is OK that it consumes much energy. It is OK that it is starting to occupy more of my spare time, and it is OK that I have less time for other things. There are many benefits for myself, as I am growing and learning, but also for the people and the planet I am helping. Oh, how wrong one can be.

The trap

The first issue I encountered was that I started to feel tired. As I did not earn anything as a volunteer, I needed to work to have an income. As I have always worked alongside studying to afford studying, I wasn't unfamiliar with doing many things at once. However, it started to impact me when more and more of my spare time was consumed either by the growing amount of work and new skills I needed to learn or by the volunteer work. Balancing work- volunteer- life was becoming very difficult. As I needed the money, I could not reduce work, but at the same time, as I loved the volunteer work and felt I was needed there, I felt reluctant to reduce that as well. So, I kept going, thinking that volunteer work could become my future job. Or at least put me on track for a similar type of job.

This is where the second issue came in: the difference between appreciating work as a profession and volunteer work as "a thing anyone could do." I have been surprised several times with the attitude towards volunteering and the skills and knowledge of people who volunteer. There are highly competent and skillful people who volunteer, not some types of outcasts with nothing to offer. Volunteering should count as a highly appreciated experience in the resume and a sign of commitment towards a skill, job, and/or cause. But it seems that many places do not accept these in the same way as a "real job." I wonder why?

Another thing I find surprising is that volunteering is meant to be something other than employment at any point. In other words, you are supposed to continue unpaid for your volunteer work. And more, if you do it for free, what would be the reason to change that and start getting paid for what you have been doing for free? I have even heard that any self-valuing professional would only offer their knowledge and services for a fee. If you do not value your knowledge, no one else will value it either. I think that is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard! If you have a skill, you should always offer it to those who need it. And despite doing it as a volunteer or pro bono, you can still get paid for those skills in the future. Volunteering should not and can not be the reason for not getting paid. Doing things for free does not mean you always need to do it for free.

The final realization I had as a volunteer was that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find volunteers. This means it is increasingly difficult for you to get out of being a volunteer, as it leaves a void in the organization or cause. So it adds pressure on you to stay.

What is wrong with this picture?

Well, there are several issues with volunteering. As sustory NGO is 100% on volunteer work (we do not even have a bank account as they are so challenging for NGOs to open), I feel the pain of volunteering myself and having people volunteer for us. My first issue is to ensure that all of our volunteers can proudly point to experience and knowlegde gained from real life and the valuable experience they get from volunteering. These are added to the resumes as a real experience, not only as a footnote on their resumes and CVs. The second issue is that the time spent on volunteer work needs to be managed well and, most of the time, restricted. When people are passionate about something, they offer (too much) time at the expense of work-life balance. Some volunteer while looking for a job. Today looking for a job is acutally a full time job in itself, and results are not always encouraging. Therefore, it might be good to have a volunteer job on the side, but it can not occupy too much of your time.

Personally, I need to manage finding and having a paid job, performing that job, ensuring I volunteer for the NGO myself, and supporting the ones that are volunteering. And in the middle of that, still remember to take time off. My biggest failure at Sustory is that we keep volunteering, where we should transform our activities into something we get paid to do. This has brought forward my biggest question - if the work we do as volunteers makes the world better, more sustainable, inspires, and helps people, why do we need to do it for free? Or are we doing the wrong things, assuming we are generating value? If no one values it, naturally, no money can be found for those activities. But how do I know for sure if that is the case?

I often hear that volunteers are told how valuable and important their work is. Well, why can they not get paid for it then? I keep asking myself, why can I not manage to pay my volunteers? I am convinced that my history prevents me from seeing the answer and solution. I hear myself say, "Applying for funds! - No, it takes so much time, it is so complicated, and success rates are low. Look for paying customers! - No, I wouldn't say I like selling things and convincing others they should pay. I trust that if they see value in what we do, they will offer to support us financially". And there are countless more things I tell myself. I sound a bit lazy, but honestly, I find it easier to just get things done than to put my time into considering where to get funding to get the same things done. It is less time-consuming, and we get more results. But that means that things will get done without funds... Which was the original problem.

This has made me wonder, what if all volunteers would stop doing volunteer work tomorrow? What would happen if all of them would refuse to work without getting paid? Would we eliminate many things that do not generate value, or would we lose many essential things that we value and need? I think it would be both of those, but knowing how that would play out would be interesting. One thing is for sure: there is one volunteer we can not afford to lose: our Planet Earth.

The biggest volunteer of them all - Earth

Now, my dearest friends, consider this - our planet Earth decides to refuse to do anything for free. Despite it being hard to grasp all the fantastic things Earth does for us (a bit, as I actually have no idea how much volunteer work I am using in all the things I cross paths with), some things are clear. Earth acts as our resource and waste management system. And we treat this quite outstanding volunteer as we treat many others - if it has been free all this time, it should remain free in the future.

But here is the issue - we do not seem to appreciate volunteer work. Our relationship with volunteer work needs to be fixed. We treat it as a nice-to-have thing rather than something so valuable that we would be ready to pay for it. We often use it to generate more profit, as we can reduce some expenses. And don't get me wrong, some things are non-value-creating work that we feel is nice to have but might not be willing to pay for. But is paying the same as generating value? And if we generate value, isn't that worth something?

Coming back to earth - what would happen if all of the waste management of earth would have a price tag? What if Earth refused to do any of that for free, as our volunteer, but demanded to get paid or stop doing it? And the same thing applies to resources - what if Earth demands to get paid for all the resources it provides and refuses to give any if not paid for? We would have chaos on our hands right away. It feels even absurd to consider that Earth would just one day decide, "Nope - I am done volunteering. Either you pay me, or no deal".

But isn't that, in one way, what our earth is doing? The worrying reports on climate change, loss of biodiversity, and many other hugely complex issues that the Earth has been dealing with all this time are now threatened. Instead of appreciating our volunteers and showing kindness and love for them, we are forced to put a price tag on them. And when putting a price on what has been free or volunteer work, we manage to set that price tag way to low. We still treat all of it as a handout and get annoyed that we need to pay for the value generated for free so far. So we downplay it, and even give it our as a charitable act, and make ourselves seem as gracious people for agreeing to pay for things that actually should be free.

But what if we are the ones who got it wrong in the first place? What if we assumed the volunteers would be able to do more and more and always feel eager to be volunteers? We have a severely twisted way of relating and viewing a volunteer and a wildly incorrect one. We got lost in idiotic rhetoric like "If you do not put a price on your work, then it is not of any value" or "If no one wants to pay for it, it is not adding value". I haven't heard anyone who WANTS to pay for all the work earth is doing. However, I would not say it is not adding value. It is an absurd idea! Well, if that is how you want it, I have good news for you. The day when Earth demands a t price on its work is very close, my friend. And I see no reason for why that wouldn't be an inspiring example for the rest of the volunteers as well.

Change the narrative - change the story.

But there are alternatives. What if we would find our way back to appreciating volunteer work? Despite my deep concerns with all of the wonderful people who have volunteered for Sustory, as well as my own time offered, I feel some comfort in receiving and appreciating it all with deep gratitude. I also work hard to limit the volunteer work for myself and others to ensure we stay within the thresholds of what we can offer sustainably. And yes, I walk that fine line like a drunk clown at the circus. :) But we are all learning and growing together.

But will it be enough? I think we can and need to change our approach to volunteering. We need to start considering whether we are volunteering where we should actually get paid for what we do. We also need to recognize the value volunteering adds and show deep appreciation for it. We need to set limits on how much volunteers actually have to offer and how we can work wonders and magic with that. But also, we as volunteers need to sometimes refuse to do things for free.

The situation with our home, earth, is leading the way to a healthier relationship with volunteering. But it is also teaching us to push back. I know that when developing a relationship with a volunteer - no matter how big (earth) or small, we can establish a value-adding relationship for all involved. Most of the time, we need and desire an appreciation for the value we add. That appreciation can take many forms, monetary being one of them. But I think we lose our way if we make it all about money and financial transactions.

I am convinced we can find a better balance if we develop a healthier, more caring relationship with money and the value generated around us in multiple ways. We can have value-adding work where the value tradeoff is not monetary, but it is not volunteering in terms of one part giving and others taking. If we get the bigger picture right, I am convinced the whole thing would transform from having a lack of volunteers to an abundance of volunteers.

Suppose we can transform our way of recognizing value and, therefore, our relationship with volunteering. In that case, we can prosper much more as ecosystems than reliant on monetary transactions as the only way of knowing, showing, and recognizing value.

Money is our blood - if there isn't enough, we aren't doing well. But if we think all we need is blood... well, then I think you are a vampire.

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