Volunteering for Failure
This is an article about failure.
The ad stated a volunteer was needed to photograph animals for the pet rescue service and post them to the rescue center’s website while also coordinating closely with the director. It was perfect for me. I have long held a love of photography and this seemed like a unique opportunity to both volunteer and use my skills in a good way for dogs and rescued animals. It was also, I thought, a way to add some meaning to my life.
My wife and I had been talking about volunteering for awhile as a way to add some meaningful element to our lives. We wanted to do something with dogs — maybe volunteer to walk rescued dogs or work in a shelter helping care for the animals. We wanted to make an impact. And so when we found the ad, we thought it would be a great way to get our feet wet.
I also reasoned volunteering would add a layer of meaning to my life by giving something other than money, such as my time. Making a difference in another life is one way I believe we find meaning in our existence. In a sense, stepping beyond the boundaries of our own lives connects us to something greater than ourselves.
So we responded to the ad, received a reply and we were soon ready to begin our work. We were both excited — not sure where this might lead. But we felt as though we were taking a step in the right direction and would be helping abandoned animals find new homes.
Our excitement, it turns out, was a bit premature. Though we were eager to help, it wasn’t simply a matter of rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. We had volunteered with a foster center and there was no physical location for the organization. This meant we rarely met all of the animals the shelter had been trying to find homes for. It also posed certain challenges in relation to our volunteering duties as most of the shelter activities took place in pet stores or malls (not normally good places for photos).
We worked with the rescue center for about nine months. And as I note above, it was largely a failure. I recently ended my tenure with them out of frustration. It wasn’t a complete failure because I learned a few things about volunteering (and about myself) in the process. And that is a large part of what my journey is about.
After nine months, this is what I can take away from my experience — 5 simple rules.
Don’t volunteer for an activity that mirrors your daily work -
Unless you absolutely love your job, sleep at the office and couldn’t think of anything else to do in your spare time, don’t agree to work that is similar to what you do for a paycheck. Though I volunteered to take pictures (something I actually do enjoy doing in my free time and don’t do for a paycheck), I ended up editing a newsletter because I am a designer and have design skills. This turned out to be a little too close to my day job and I grew to dread putting the thing together each month for a lot of different reasons — mostly it just felt too much like work.
Do something you will enjoy and don’t mind doing for free.
Decide on the impact you want to make and how you will measure it -
In my instance, I was working on a newsletter. But what I really wanted was to work with dogs. Aside from the occasional photoshoot, I rarely ever saw a dog. Part of this was because I volunteered for a foster shelter and not an actual shelter. Lesson learned. Working on a newsletter didn’t give me an opportunity to measure my work or feel as though I had a real purpose in what I was doing.
Figure out your “why” (i.e. why you want to volunteer) and then figure out what sort of measure will confirm you are actually doing what you set out to do.
Don’t work with assholes -
Our first day of volunteering involved one incident of us watching the director admonish one volunteer who was not handling an animal according to her standards and subsequently snapping at another volunteer who was training us. We shrugged it off. Maybe she was having a bad day. But this behavior would later turn out to be a telltale sign of her personality. Needless to say, her personality did not mesh with mine and I found it difficult to work with her.
Work for people you like to work with. You’re doing this for free. So you shouldn’t to work with assholes.
Make sure you really have the time and space in your life -
Volunteering can become infectious in your life. That is, you start off doing one thing and before long you are doing a half-dozen different tasks. So ensure you are at a stable place in your life. I made the mistake of volunteering during a very turbulent time in my life where my wife was taking a new job and I was going through a very busy period at work. We had the added problem of providing care for our geriatric Maltese. With everything we had going on in our lives, we had no business committing to volunteer work.
If you have the extra time in your life, you’ll be more likely to enjoy what you are doing. If you are pressed for time and always watching the clock, it is less likely you will enjoy the volunteer work you are doing and more likely you will see it as an added burden.
Volunteering isn’t much different than finding meaningful work -
I’ve written about what makes work meaningful before. And, it isn’t a stretch to state you are looking for the same qualities when volunteering. After all, volunteering is work.
Briefly, you’ll want some level of autonomy in your work. You will want some sense of purpose — that what you are doing is making a difference. And you will want the ability to achieve a sense of mastery in what you do. I won’t dredge up what I have already written concerning these elements. You can read more about them here.
Volunteering, for me, has been a massive failure. It added more stress to my life. I found myself arguing with the director over design decisions (pretty much what I do all day in my professional work life). I didn’t really have the time to do most of what I needed to do for the organization. I never really worked with animals, which was my initial reason for volunteering. And, I don’t feel as though I made any impact whatsoever.
All of this is really my fault. And though I consider it a failure, I have learned something about myself in the process. In trying to add meaning to my life and in finding my purpose here on this planet, I know one thing: Volunteering isn’t a piece of that puzzle. At least not right now.
Sometimes knowing what not to pursue can be just as valuable as knowing what to pursue.
