Volunteerism

dubadub

Anther word for 'Slave Labour'

pwd

It's the only work that isn't slave labour. People do paid work because they need the money; there is no choice. People do voluntrary work because they want to.

star gazer

originally posted by dubadub
Anther word for 'Slave Labour'

Are you refering to the fact people aren't being paid or that people feel they have no choice but to do the voluntary work or both? Could you flesh out some detail please?

I'd go with the sentiment pwd is talking about, you do it because you want to if you don't want to you don't have to do it. However there is also a sense in some areas where charities/voluntary groups would feel they are doing work that would not otherwise be done. A sense of community responsiblity does bring people out to make sure gaps in the services available are filled.

is_that_so

I am not sure where the slave work comes into this. If you mean unpaid carers , then even they come in two categories, genuine volunteers and those carers with no choice because there is no one else who will. A volunteer chooses to do work They get a different type of reward out of it. We all need to give something back.

star gazer

Coming into the Christmas season there is a greater meaning to helping people to have a christmas that is not dominated by what people don't have. The vincent de Paul reach out to people and there are a lot of voluntary organisations that get into the community to help people with meals, gifts, entertainment and the general Christmas spirit to help bring dignity to people's lives. It also gives the volunteer the enhanced christmas spirit feeling and takes them away from the extra food and drink associated with this time of year for a couple of hours, maybe not such a bad thing. As a volunteer you get a certain intangible payoff that you won't get when being paid to do something, Christmas is one of the best times of year to revel in that.