On the nature of compensation
Aug. 16th, 2010 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
debgeislerThis morning, I am in my office for a three hour committee meeting. Unfortunately, last night I was awake for several hours in the middle of the night, leaving me with a sleep deprivation issue. And my complete lack of enthusiasm about going into Boston for this meeting got me thinking about why we agree to various jobs and tasks.
When I agreed to work with this committee, it was because my friend and colleague Bruce asked me to be involved. He has always been willing to help me out when it was possible, and I try to return the favor. So even though it wasn't high on my happy hit parade (because of some political issues it would take too long to explain), I said "Oh, sure."
On Friday, Bruce stopped by my office and chatted a bit. He pointed out that we actually get paid extra for being on this committee (a rare and weird thing in our line of work). Who knew? "Well, Deb, you would have known, if you'd read the whole email." *snort* 'kay. Got me there. Next time, no skimming.
But that's when something odd happened. When this was just a favor for a friend, I would have chewed off my own arm rather than blowing it off. Finding out that we were getting $50 an hour for it? Made it less attractive. And when a bout of insomnia cut my sleep time last night to about 4 hours, I actually contemplated calling Bruce and not coming in. (Okay, only for a few seconds, but still.)
This sort of dissonance is why some of us will put massive amounts of time and effort into volunteer positions and will do things we would not do for money (or at least not for what people would be willing to pay us).
Organizations for which we will volunteer could not afford to pay what we'd charge them to hoist boxes, clean bathrooms, scrub party platters in hotel room bathtubs, or put up with public service positions dealing with obnoxious humanoids who think we're servants.
Appreciation is our coin...and, for some of us, the satisfactions of seeing things work right. And that, of course, is why putting obstacles in the way of a volunteer, driving them mad with stupid procedures and poor treatment, is the dumbest thing we can do.
When I agreed to work with this committee, it was because my friend and colleague Bruce asked me to be involved. He has always been willing to help me out when it was possible, and I try to return the favor. So even though it wasn't high on my happy hit parade (because of some political issues it would take too long to explain), I said "Oh, sure."
On Friday, Bruce stopped by my office and chatted a bit. He pointed out that we actually get paid extra for being on this committee (a rare and weird thing in our line of work). Who knew? "Well, Deb, you would have known, if you'd read the whole email." *snort* 'kay. Got me there. Next time, no skimming.
But that's when something odd happened. When this was just a favor for a friend, I would have chewed off my own arm rather than blowing it off. Finding out that we were getting $50 an hour for it? Made it less attractive. And when a bout of insomnia cut my sleep time last night to about 4 hours, I actually contemplated calling Bruce and not coming in. (Okay, only for a few seconds, but still.)
This sort of dissonance is why some of us will put massive amounts of time and effort into volunteer positions and will do things we would not do for money (or at least not for what people would be willing to pay us).
Organizations for which we will volunteer could not afford to pay what we'd charge them to hoist boxes, clean bathrooms, scrub party platters in hotel room bathtubs, or put up with public service positions dealing with obnoxious humanoids who think we're servants.
Appreciation is our coin...and, for some of us, the satisfactions of seeing things work right. And that, of course, is why putting obstacles in the way of a volunteer, driving them mad with stupid procedures and poor treatment, is the dumbest thing we can do.