A recourse for poorly-treated volunteers?
13:51, 25 August 2010
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Sometimes, volunteers get treated poorly. Sometimes, they even get exploited. Often, volunteers get taken for granted. And as a volunteer, as a person who frequently supports and manages volunteers, and as a trainer regarding volunteer management, I don't like that.
What does "poor" or "unfair" treatment of a volunteer look like? That's where a debate can break out. It's easy to define if the treatment goes against written policies: a volunteer who is being sexually harassed or personally insulted by a staff member, a volunteer or a client is most certainly being treated poorly, maybe even criminally. The organization's policies and procedures would explicitly state that such was unacceptable behavior and exactly what the organization's response should be when such a violation of written policies occur.
But what about the following scenarios that probably don't violate your organization's policies and procedures, but are perceived by many to be unfair treatment?:
- A volunteer is doing great work but gets replaced in an assignment by a board member's niece.
- A volunteer is excluded from meetings because the volunteer manager doesn't like the questions he or she asks.
- A volunteer is asked to perform tasks above and beyond what he or she agreed to, or what he or she feels prepared to do.
- A volunteer stops being scheduled for regular shifts because he or she frequently criticizes the changes the new volunteer manager is employing regarding volunteer recruitment and involvement.
- A long-term volunteer saves the most popular assignments for his or her friends, letting them know about such so that they can apply before other volunteers.
- A volunteer submits a written complaint about something regarding the organization. No response is ever made to the complaint, but the volunteer receives fewer and fewer invitations to participate in new volunteering activities or to work regular shifts.
- A volunteer is never thanked for his or her service.
- A volunteer manager learns while perusing the web that one of the long-term volunteers is an avowed racist. This volunteer has never expressed these views during assignments but, even so, the volunteer manager starts scaling back opportunities for this person to volunteer, particularly in roles interacting with clients or the public.
Do you think there should be a formal, required recourse established by the government that volunteers in the above scenarios should be able to pursue? I'm talking about scenarios where there has been no violation of written policy and nothing that's against the law, but where the volunteer feels he or she has been treated unfairly.
And if we create a formal recourse system for volunteers who feel they have been treated poorly, will the bureaucracy and threat of sanctions or bad PR discourage even more organizations from involving volunteers?
I've blogged on this subject before, I want volunteers to be protected from unfair treatment, but I also don't want them to become employees. There is no right to be a volunteer. An organization involves volunteers so long as such involvement explicitly benefits the mission of the organization. A volunteer's length of service or donor history shouldn't trump what the organization wants, needs and plans for. I don’t ever want any volunteer dismissed for arbitrary reasons, I don’t ever want any volunteer mistreated or exploited, and I want us all to work to make sure that never happens, but I also don’t want volunteers to become entitlement volunteers.
All of this is on my mind per the Volunteer Rights Inquiry happening now in the United Kingdom. In November 2009 the Volunteer Rights Inquiry was established by Volunteering England as a response to a number of high profile cases of volunteers being poorly treated by volunteer-involving organizations. In December 2009 the Inquiry commenced a three-month evidence-gathering exercise that sought input from volunteers, volunteer-involving organizations, volunteer managers and many other stakeholders. Inquiry members have used this input to develop the Volunteer Rights Inquiry Interim report. The Volunteer Rights Inquiry members are meeting again in October to consider the responses to the interim report and start preparing the final call to action before the end of 2010. To quote the interim report, "The goal should be to treat volunteers with the respect and esteem accorded to paid staff but without wrapping volunteering in, what some see, as the suffocating cloak of employment legislation."
Regarding the interim report: I really, really like how the comments from the stakeholders are used in the report to represent the various arguments. It shows that the Inquiry members are really listening! I so wish organizations in the USA that claim to want input would put together their reports in a similar manner, to show that they, too, are really listening (because, frankly, final reports often don't seem to at all reflect the input of stakeholders).
One of the suggestions I like from the report is creating a written code of conduct regarding volunteers that organizations would be asked to endorse publicly and practice internally. It would not be legally binding. But it would allow volunteers to know up front what organizations have signed on, and would better define the parameters of what poor treatment of a volunteer looks like beyond what the organization's written policies and procedures may say. An organization that chooses not to sign on might see a drop in the number of people who volunteer with them. But could an organization be dismissed as a signatory for violations? Your thoughts?
Regardless of what the UK decides, or if any other countries follow suit, your organization needs written:
- policies and procedures that includes a grievance procedure
- code of conduct
- statement of why the organization involves volunteers
And volunteers: remember that you have a voice right now, regardless of what the UK decides, or if any other countries follow suit:
- Violations of policies and procedures should be brought to the attention of the HR manager, the Executive Director, and perhaps, even the Board of Directors, in writing, with dates and full descriptions of incidents.
- Sexual harassment or criminal acts should be reported to the police and/or your state's human rights commission.
- You can blog about your experience as a volunteer, remembering that you need to stay fact-based and within the organization's written confidentiality policies, and that what you say online is FOREVER, and can be used by any person and any organization to judge you.
- You can leave the organization and volunteer elsewhere, and encourage other disgruntled volunteers to follow suit.
Your thoughts?
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