Why You Should Never Volunteer

Volunteering is a great way to give back and help your community. It’s often seen as one of the most noble, most selfless acts a person can do. Those who do it are respected for giving up their free time without financial incentives.

However, as with most things in life, volunteering has its drawbacks, and you might be doing yourself a disservice if you choose to volunteer over getting a paying job.

Here are some 6 reasons why you shouldn’t volunteer, and what things to look out for if you ever decide to.

1) There’s no financial remuneration

Just like a regular job, you could be working sometimes very long hours, doing some often grueling work, but with one exception: you won’t be paid for your time.

2) You shouldn’t make a habit of working for free

We live in a capitalist society, a society that runs on money in exchange for labor. Everyone, including you, needs money in order to survive.

Now, there will be many times when doing something without expecting money in return is necessary, but you shouldn’t make a habit of this, as people will become accustomed to it and expect you to do it all the time.

3) It takes valuable time away from more productive things

Our time on this Earth is short, and the last thing anyone should be doing is volunteering when they could be doing more productive or fun things with their spare time.

While helping out at your local soup kitchen might seem like a nice gesture, it could be stealing time away from other pursuits that could improve your career prospects.

For example, you could be learning how to code or putting in extra study time for that impending MCAT exam.

4) You might slack off

When there’s no financial reward on the line, people can sometimes get lazy and complacent.

The truth is, no matter how benevolent you are, the knowledge that you’re working for free will stay with you, and can shape the way you approach your volunteering gig.

You might be less inclined to pull your weight on the job because you don’t consider it a real job. This could lead to you turning up late, having a bad attitude when you’re asked to do something, things like that.

These are all things that normally don’t happen when money’s involved.

5) You might be exploited

Volunteering is sometimes an easy way for wealthy corporations to exploit well-meaning people. They’re usually able to get away with this by piling on the workload and delegating work they know they should be paying for.

Many not-for-profit organizations make lots of money through donations, and much of that doesn’t reach the people most in need. By getting your free labor, these organizations get to pocket whatever donations they receive.

6) You might get triggered by the suffering you see

Volunteering can be a healthy and rewarding experience if you’re equipped to deal with the emotional triggers that come from seeing other people’s suffering. If not, then volunteering just becomes another burden for your psyche.

It is important to understand how these conditions may affect your mental health before deciding whether or not volunteer work is for you.

Volunteering is one of those things that we’re usually “called” to do – that is, the cause pulls us to it, making it impossible to refuse. So the likelihood is that nothing you read here will change your mind if you’ve decided to do it.

In the interests of getting the best out of the experience, however, you should consider these few points before agreeing to anything:

• only volunteer when you can afford to
• treat it with the respect that it deserves, as you would a regular, paying job
• choose a cause that makes it easy for you to commit
• try to gain skills from it that will be applicable in future jobs