"Supplementing or Supplanting?" The Mystery of "Volunteer" versus "Paid Employee" Right to Work
If there were a Ten Commandments of Volunteer Management, one of them would surely be the statement "volunteers should supplement, not supplant, paid staff." Drilled firmly into the head of every new volunteer manager is the fact that staff support is dependent upon relieving fears of replacement by hordes of unpaid volunteers and accordingly work done by volunteers should never impinge upon or threaten the jobs of paid staff.
Now, neither Steve nor Susan is opposed to paid staff keeping their jobs, so please don't interpret what follows as an attack upon full employment.
But both of us have always been puzzled by how this seemingly simple phrase gets interpreted and what in real life it actually means.
Consider the following:....
Comments
Andy Fryar, Lyell McEwin Health Service Volunteer Association, Adelaide, South Australia
April 25th, 2002, 2:13pm
If you ever needed to encourage peope to hit the respond button - this should do the job :O). This is an important issue, and one I have been debating again only in the last week or two with one of my work colleagues.
In fact, I've recently coined the phrase (when dealing with paranoid paid staff), "Our (paid staff) Job Descriptions tell us what we are responsible for seeing gets done - and not what we necessarily have to physically & personally do".
To be quite honest, I am still working through the implications of this comment in my brain, but I think it makes sense! (in terms of trying to address some of the fears you mention in your piece). It talks about the fact that 'supplementary' work need not be 'secondary' work, and that if realtionships are understood then volunteers can perform absolute vital functions without being a threat ...but now I am just raving :O)
It is a great piece - congratulations
J Cravens, United Nations Volunteers, Online Volunteering Specialist, Bonn Germany
April 25th, 2002, 2:12pm
There ya go, being provocative again. Actually, I was glad you brought up the issue about the debate in the U.S. within the firefighting community regarding "to what extent we preserve the primarily volunteer nature of firefighting brigades in small communities as opposed to moving toward 'professional' firefighters." That's not just a U.S. issue -- I've learned it's in other countries as well. I'm dating a volunteer fireman here in Germany, and have been getting an earful from him and his fellow volunteers about how upset they would be if they were replaced by "professionals." It's all the same things you hear in the U.S. Fascinating...
Lisa Coble Newport Hospital Manager of Volunteer Services Newport RI USA
April 29th, 2002, 2:11pm
Excellent article on where volunteers fall in the organizational structure. Perfect explanation of how paid and unpaid staff can work in concert to accomplish the mission of an organization. If community and governmental leaders follow the guidelines outlined on pg.5 (task analysis) for creating volunteer positions- imagine the benefits to society! Thanks for putting my personal philosophy on "the role of volunteers" in writing.
Rob Jackson, Royal National Institute for the Blind, Volunteer Development Officer, London England
May 1st, 2002, 2:11pm
This article is going to get a fan club all of its own! One of the most succinct, thought provoking and challenging pieces on the subject I have read in a while. I would have liked to see a discussion about the loaded nature of the word 'professional' though as I am always picking people up on this. Maybe we'll see that in e-volunteerism in the future?
Jan Masaoka CompassPoint Nonprofit Services San Francisco CA USA
May 14th, 2002, 2:10pm
Thanks for an excellent article. It's also useful to think about how to implement such a philosophy within the context in which it usually arises: a union contract. Realistically, managers and employees seldom object to volunteers on a job displacement basis. However, unions almost always do. One thing we need is some high level, visible union leaders to champion volunteerism. Susan and Steve, can you find and recruit some for all of us?