Is voluntary work harder than paid work?

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fifasy
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22 Jun 2017, 12:57 pm

I'm curious about people's opinions.

I'm wondering if in a sense voluntary work is harder than paid work because the people who do it do not care about maintaing standards.

In a paid job, they know if they don't do a certain amount of work they could lose their job and lose their money. But in voluntary work, are people more likely to do more small talk?



JakeASD
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22 Jun 2017, 1:02 pm

Even though it can be frustrating when someone has clearly put little effort into what they were doing, I find voluntary work to be just as insufferable as that of paid work. The obvious advantage of paid work is that you are being financially rewarded. But conversely, I always fear that I am not working quite as hard as I should be.


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AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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22 Jun 2017, 3:23 pm

fifasy wrote:
. . . But in voluntary work, are people more likely to do more small talk?

Good point, people are likely to think it's the norm to be more sociable and kind of place this "demand characteristic" on me.

And the few times I've tried to get involved in volunteer work, just as many steps and delays in the hiring process as a for-profit outfit. And it seems just as disorganized as a large company. And I've been in some disorganized businesses!



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22 Jun 2017, 3:55 pm

I find it way more layed back, there should be no stressed, your working for free go at your own pace?


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fifasy
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22 Jun 2017, 3:58 pm

Dave_T wrote:
I find it way more layed back, there should be no stressed, your working for free go at your own pace?


When I did volunteering it seemed the other volunteers had a lot of time to chat. It felt quite hard for me us not having to do much because I couldn't think of enough things to talk about to keep the other volunteers happy. I frustrated them because I was struggling to make conversation.



Dave_T
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22 Jun 2017, 4:02 pm

fifasy wrote:
Dave_T wrote:
I find it way more layed back, there should be no stressed, your working for free go at your own pace?


When I did volunteering it seemed the other volunteers had a lot of time to chat. It felt quite hard for me us not having to do much because I couldn't think of enough things to talk about to keep the other volunteers happy. I frustrated them because I was struggling to make conversation.


Yea i can see that being a problem. I have a computer engineering degree and can talk about computers all day, i did voluntary work teaching older people how to use pc`s. So i guess it helped that everyone i talked to wanted to talk about pc`s.


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fifasy
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22 Jun 2017, 4:05 pm

Dave_T wrote:
fifasy wrote:
Dave_T wrote:
I find it way more layed back, there should be no stressed, your working for free go at your own pace?


When I did volunteering it seemed the other volunteers had a lot of time to chat. It felt quite hard for me us not having to do much because I couldn't think of enough things to talk about to keep the other volunteers happy. I frustrated them because I was struggling to make conversation.


Yea i can see that being a problem. I have a computer engineering degree and can talk about computers all day, i did voluntary work teaching older people how to use pc`s. So i guess it helped that everyone i talked to wanted to talk about pc`s.


That sounds ideal. Volunteering around a special interest would be a lot easier.



Joe90
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22 Jun 2017, 5:55 pm

Voluntary work was better because you weren't under pressure to do so much work. Plus it's a good way to make friends. In paid work you can make friends too but mostly people aren't there by choice so you don't really know whether you're going to fit in or not. If people want to subtly bully someone at work, they know they can because you can't just walk out and have no money, unless you can find another job. But in voluntary work you won't be losing anything if you walk out, and finding somewhere else to volunteer is easier than finding a new paid job.


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fifasy
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23 Jun 2017, 6:48 pm

Joe90 wrote:
Voluntary work was better because you weren't under pressure to do so much work. Plus it's a good way to make friends. In paid work you can make friends too but mostly people aren't there by choice so you don't really know whether you're going to fit in or not. If people want to subtly bully someone at work, they know they can because you can't just walk out and have no money, unless you can find another job. But in voluntary work you won't be losing anything if you walk out, and finding somewhere else to volunteer is easier than finding a new paid job.


Life is so hard for so many people these days.

I have never worked because I have severe anxiety and Asperger's affects me a lot. I have volunteered quite a lot of places though and couldn't manage it. I feel sorry for Aspies who work who get bullied. And non-Aspies in the same position too. It's not right. In the current economy we have people are being taken advantage of because there are so many zero hours contracts and not enough jobs for all the people applying. If there was job for almost everyone it would be better because then people would have proper choice.



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23 Jun 2017, 7:15 pm

Well it certainly does not pay, and if I am going to work my a** off I damn well want to be getting paid.


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AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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24 Jun 2017, 5:31 pm

fifasy wrote:
. . . because there are so many zero hours contracts and not enough jobs for all the people applying. If there was job for almost everyone it would be better because then people would have proper choice.
I think this is a major social justice issue.

And unfortunately, it might get worse. In the youtube video "Humans Need Not Apply," the guy talks about automation. He makes a lot out of the fact that robots right now are in the early stages of being general purpose, that there are software virtual bots, that self-driving cars have already driven hundreds of thousands of miles up and down the California coast as well as through cities, that there are currently about 3 million driving jobs in the United States, that even in the professions of medicine and law there are major aspects that can be computerized. And toward the end, he points out that the Great Depression had quote-unquote "only" 25% unemployment.

I think clearly the remedy is bold experimentation. And the way to do that is neither baby step nor giant step, but medium step by medium step. Take a medium step, see how it works out, adjust it, and take another medium step. For example, with just a little bit of tinkering, some things may work out better than we expected.



fifasy
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25 Jun 2017, 6:10 am

AardvarkGoodSwimmer wrote:
fifasy wrote:
. . . because there are so many zero hours contracts and not enough jobs for all the people applying. If there was job for almost everyone it would be better because then people would have proper choice.
I think this is a major social justice issue.

And unfortunately, it might get worse. In the youtube video "Humans Need Not Apply," the guy talks about automation. He makes a lot out of the fact that robots right now are in the early stages of being general purpose, that there are software virtual bots, that self-driving cars have already driven hundreds of thousands of miles up and down the California coast as well as through cities, that there are currently about 3 million driving jobs in the United States, that even in the professions of medicine and law there are major aspects that can be computerized. And toward the end, he points out that the Great Depression had quote-unquote "only" 25% unemployment.

I think clearly the remedy is bold experimentation. And the way to do that is neither baby step nor giant step, but medium step by medium step. Take a medium step, see how it works out, adjust it, and take another medium step. For example, with just a little bit of tinkering, some things may work out better than we expected.


Right on. Major changes are coming in employment, are people prepared?



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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28 Jun 2017, 6:19 pm

No, we're not prepared right now, but we can be.

And we can help contribute to a public debate and discussion.



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29 Jun 2017, 3:28 pm

I think it might be easier to get but you still have to fill out a form and go through a background check before you can volunteer. Also it helps with your resume and employment in the future. If you do a good job and are a good team player, you might get a very good reference when you look for work and sometimes they just hire you on the spot after you had been volunteering because they liked your work so much. So basically volunteer work is just a way to build up your reputation to make it easier to get a job and to build up your references.


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