Volunteer

When it’s no longer a part of your daily routine, it’s invigorating to get up early with a purpose…take a shower and get dressed to go out there in the world where appts are made and you have someplace to be. Unemployment is the utmost break from the routine – deployment to an appt for the day is a break from the break. Today, I attended orientation at Cape Cod Hospital – what a great little hospital in the quaint part of Hyannis. New-hires and volunteers together hear the same presentation that hammers home the message of being compassionate and respectful of one another, being honest and open and ethical in all relationships, and really giving a shit about each other! It’s nice, and for a fun contrast I think of the egotistical self-centered exploitative oppressors I’ve worked with before – I think of them very briefly!

Heading out the door for an interview or orientation as a volunteer is such a different feeling than when you’ve just begun, or are trying for, a full-time position. But it really shouldn’t be. As a volunteer, you head to interviews with a happy and light feeling instead of anxiety, a confidence instead of worry, your bring your hot beverage in with you, you joke more freely, you’re more “real”. You feel courageous for showing up to orientation by yourself. You’re treated with welcome and gratitude that paid co-workers are not.

A Volunteer Coordinator can ruin a volunteer program fastest by being greedy with volunteers’ time and resentful of their desire for full-time employment – the best Volunteer Coordinator is one who understands you’re a volunteer (bound by desire not a paycheck) and they’re someone who encourages and helps you get placed as an employee if that is what you want. In that case, it’s an all-win situation of happy people and positive word-of-mouth. It’s no wonder why a small hospital like Jordan Hospital in Plymouth would have 250-300 active volunteers at any given time – it’s their Volunteer Coordinator’s attitude about the program that creates understanding, contentment, and loyalty.

But the best part of all is how a hospital workplace varies from a typical corporate workplace. Everyone is mandated to wear comfortable clothing or scrubs so that they’re concentrating on the right thing. No one is allowed to marinate in, or even dabble in, perfumes, colognes, smelly hair products, etc...one of my favorite rules! And all personnel are literally in it for the common goal of saving and bettering lives – as opposed to the corporate environment that pretends they’re saving lives so as to justify their trauma-center-style treatment of a co-worker. Oh, they’re so wrong. Should we tell them? (Would they listen?)