Volunteers or Employees?

"Fewer than" not "less than" for the pedants amongst us

Parklife Charities providing a service have to work to a rota of some sort; I work in a charity shop as a team leader one day a week, and I am not allowed to open if there are less than two volunteers. On some days there are only the two, on others three, four or even five. If we didn't have a rota that people committed to, we couldn't operate. Organisations that have an appointment system certainly couldn't.

I used to volunteer with WRVS-did over 20 years-until officialdom made us redundant. We ran meals on wheels in the village with very good fresh cooked meals provided by the primary school (or the local hotel during school hols). None of us claimed our mileage allowance so it was saved throughout the year and we bought small Xmas gifts for the recipients. We saw people regularly, put their lunch out for them, had a little chat, were even able to let district nurse know if someone didn't seem to be doing too well - a proper village community.Then the council in its infinite wisdom decided that the job could be done more cheaply. Result? 14 frozen meals per person delivered fortnightly from a van. It's just not the same, is it?

I volunteered at a library and was hoping to have a varied experience. Nope! Every time I spent the session tidying the shelves and returning books to the shelves, involving lots of bending and stretching. Fine for a while, but really boring for three hours at a time.

I also did the training to volunteer at the CAB, but I was really irritated by the insistence on a commitment to defined sessions each week, with the requirement to book holiday time and no flexibility in the days worked. Cheeky I call it, when it's costing money in fuel etc, to get there in the first place.

I've tried three times to volunteer at a food bank, but been told each time that there are no vacancies and that they'll be in touch when there are. Never happened.

I feel that some volunteer 'opportunities' should not be volunteers. I give anything useful to charity shops, and routinely buy from them too, as do my friends n family. So on what basis do they then need staff volunteers. Charities in my opinion have become the worse example of paying overinflated salaries at the top at the expense of the bottom. The problem is they always believe gravy trains will never run out of steam, but the British (the most generous givers to charity in the world) will not carry on being used and abused in this way.

Oh. It's in America.
The charity I volunteer at has a well organised volunteer Co ordinator and expectations are quite clear. I feel appreciated but left to get on with the job. Suits me!

HillyN, I too have started to help year 2 children with their reading at one of our local schools. Only been with them couple of weeks ago and am loving it. I was put in contact with them via RSVP (government organization) who were looking for volunteers of 55+ years. I strongly recommend to anyone looking to offer a few hours in any one of the fields they offer on their website. www.nationalservice.gov/programs/senior-corps/senior-corps-programs/rsvp

HillyN, I too have started to help year 2 children with their reading at one of our local schools. Only been with them couple of weeks ago and am loving it. I was put in contact with them via RSVP (government organization) who were looking for volunteers of 50+ years. I strongly recommend to anyone looking to offer a few hours in any one of the fields they offer on their website.

We have a lot of students who volunteer for experience but they often disappear again quite quickly!

As a Volunteer Coordinator for a small charity I am appalled at the way some of you have been treated. Volunteering should be a rewarding experience. If you are not happy I suggest you move on to a charity that will appreciate your time and skills.

I think there are different reasons for volunteering. Some people do it to gain experience volunteers.in a particular field. I think it reasonable to ask for a commitment and to do it like paid work. At some point they will be asking for a reference. For others, and probably a lot of Gransnetters, it is about doing somethin useful for others. There are a lot of organisations that have role for volunteers which are specifically designed for volunteers. They do not have the responsibilities of paid employees and are flexible about hour etc

It has occurred to me that one thing that might help is that there should be something like a Volunteer Charter, setting out what a volunteer should do and how they should be treated. Then organisations could be asked to sign up to it and anyone volunteering with them would know they would be treated fairly. Any ideas for what should go in it? I think maybe something about not being replacements for paid staff?

DH is a volunteer driver for the RVS and really enjoys it but they are a tad disorganised.

I volunteered for WRVS when we first got married and came in very useful as I was the only person in the office who could translate pre decimal prices to the new fangled sort. We used to sell baby milk and orange juice from the office which was up 3 flights of narrow, windy stairs - ideal for new mums with babies.

Annsixty, apologies if I read your post wrongly.

I just wanted to say that I volunteer for the WRVS so they are not staffed solely by paid employees. It is now the RVS (the ‘W’ is dropped I think so that men are more inclined to join).

Please do not be put off volunteering for them I know in my area they are always looking out for people to join us.

By strange coincidence I was having the same conversation with a retired professional gardener friend. I was telling him that I'd just volunteered to help with a community gardening project and he said that in his experience (which may have been the National Trust) volunteers were replacing professional gardeners. However, they needed a trainer to show them how to do the work properly and then you ended up with 2 volunteers working slowly and needing supervision instead of employing a professional who would do the job properly in half the time. He was very fed up with it.

I volunteer at a charity shop for a local hospice which has a number of branches across the area. If we didn't volunteer the organisation could not function. I often find myself doing the job of the paid Manager, opening up the shop, cashing and up and closing the shop. Sometimes I feel it is not right that the organisation relies solely on volunteers for it to function as we do not enjoy the benefits of paid staff but do the same job and more! I feel sorry for my Manager as she has to rely on us volunteers to be able to take leave! I have to do an extra day next week as the Manager wants to take a day's leave. The upside is that I take time off when I chose (giving them notice of course). I'm lucky that my Manager is a good person and is very conscious of what we volunteers do. However, when my son started out in the Media Industry, the only way in was to do work experience, no pay, but doing the same job as his fully paid colleagues. He had to go through this for almost two years. It is so wrong that :businesses as opposed to charities can afford to pay people. It used to make me so angry for him. I think the rules have changed now and there is a fine line between work experience recruitment and minimum wage recruitment. Thank goodness.

I’m sure most volunteers are treated well, and so they should be. But every time I go into one of our local charity shops I cringe at the way the manager (I assume) bosses the other staff/volunteers about. She’s very loud and abrasive and has very precise ideas about how things should be displayed (after the display’s been done, so it has to be done again). The customers aren’t spoken too much better. I wouldn’t last two minutes.

I was shocked when a local charity shop looking for volunteers told folk to apply for an application form! I always assumed volunteers would contact the shop, or whatever, go in for a chat and a decision would be made accommodating both parties. Unless of course, it was for something like The Samaritans or other organisations that needed to provide specific training, police checks and so on. I find it disgusting the amount of pay the top people get in some of these structures and the paltry amount that actually goes to the charity, that it definitely puts me off supporting them. I prefer now to support small local charities.

I think there is an inclination for those who have had bad experiences to post more than those who have been happy volunteering.

Over 20 years I have volunteered with three charities and, while none of them were perfect most of the little niggles arose from paid employees being overworked and being expected to do too much.

I cannot work regular hours or days and I have had no difficulty finding voluntary work that can accommodate this. Most of the time I have worked as a home visiting caseworker because I can make decisions about how many clients I take on and when I can visit them, providing I make the first visit within a fortnight of taking the case on.

Edits not all bad, there are some decent people who value their staff. When looking for a volunteer job I went for an interview and was told I would be doing certain days and times and that she expected me to be on time, well dressed and keep to my days. I didn't stay for the full interview I just picked up my bag and said no thanks and walked out.

Thanks for all the comments. It does seem that the world of volunteering is much more complicated than I realised and some people seem to have had awful experiences. Small charities seem to be theist at looking after volunteers so I think I may look at them.

A lot of volunteers were actually very vulnerable people with a lot of special needs or very physically disabled. I was always to be kind tolerant and patient. however I also question the ethics behind using such vulnerable people because they weren't being supported or encouraged or trained. I was ashamed of the way they were treated and raised this more than once with head office. They were not tolerated and the manageress would call them names and say I want to rota them on on my days off. I would point out her name calling was against the law but she just laugh at me. I wasn't the typical volunteer and while they were happy to use that and leave me to it they hated that I knew about policy's. and I had no problems with articulating my feelings, and standing up for others.

After I retired, I volunteered at a busy high street charity shop. They had one paid employee. When she discovered that I was a capable person, she began off loading her duties onto me so she could go off and play golf. I left. I now volunteer at our local hospital's coffee shop with a brilliant and committed bunch of people.

pinkjj27 It is not just you it happens so often I found it within the ranks of senior management when I ran a shop until the beginning of this year vols where bullied and spoken to as if they didn't know what they where doing,disgraceful.

I was once In town late night shopping at Christmas. |I got a text form the manageress it said i want a word with you ASAP. When I went to see her she told me off because I had told her i was unable to do the late opening for Christmas due to night classes ( I do teach evening classes but not every eve.) She said i was required to do at least two evenings and I had signed that in my contract.I knew i had not and I didn't let her push me around but a lot of the polish and Thai girls were very passive and used to do it despite having kids. The paid employers never did those hours. The area manger wore designer clothes had flash gadgets and drove a flash sports car and all he ever did was drink coffee and make sexist comment . However as I have said the other two organisations treat me like gold.