No more warm, fuzzy language to talk about volunteers!
07:58, 30 November 2009
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One of the many days and weeks to honor volunteers is December 5: International Volunteer Day. It's not a day to recognize only international volunteers -- it's an international day to recognize any volunteers.I got this note in a mass email sent out from United Nations Volunteers:
This is the time to recognize the hard work and achievements of volunteers everywhere who work selflessly for the greater good.
Selflessly?
Volunteers are not all selfless! Volunteers are not all donating unpaid service to be nice, to help the world, or to make a difference for a greater good. Volunteers also donate unpaid service:
- to gain certain kinds of experience
- for a sense of adventure
- to gain skills and contacts for paid employment
- for fun
- to meet people in the hopes of making friends or even get dates
- because they are angry and want to see first hand what's going on at an organization or within a cause, or to contribute to a cause they feel passionate about
- to feel important
None of those reasons to volunteer are selfless -- and all of them are excellent reasons to volunteer, nonetheless (and excellent reasons for an organization to involve a volunteer). These not-so-selfless volunteers are not less committed, less trustworthy or less worth celebrating than the supposed "selfless" volunteers.
Let's quit talking about volunteers with words like "nice" and "selfless." Volunteers are neither saints nor teddy bears. Let's drop the fuzzy language and start using more modern and appropriate language to talk about volunteers that recognizes their importance, like "powerful" and "intrepid" and "audacious" and "determined." Let's even call them "mettlesome" and "confrontational" and "demanding." That's what makes volunteers necessary, not just nice.
In short, let's give volunteers their due with the words we use to describe them.
Also see Learning From The “Not-So-Nice” Volunteers, which I wrote back in 2004.
