Had the worst volunteer shift last Saturday and it broke me

I signed up to help at the local food bank in Austin from 8am to noon. Got assigned to organize the canned goods section. Three hours in some guy yelled at me for putting black beans with the rest of the beans instead of the 'ethnic foods' aisle. The coordinator backed him up and made me redo it. Has anyone else dealt with weird power trips at volunteer gigs?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

jennifer_mitchell533mo ago

And there I thought volunteering was supposed to make me feel GOOD about myself, not like I needed a manager for my bean sorting skills. Guess I should have checked the official Bean Hierarchy Chart before I started.

5

sanchez.mary3mo ago

... oh honey, I feel you on this one. That coordinator had no business making you redo all that work, especially after you were just trying to help out. I've seen that kind of petty power move before at a shelter I volunteered at, where this one lady would "correct" how we folded the towels even though they all went into the same bin anyway. It's like some people sign up just to feel important instead of actually helping the cause. Really sorry you had to deal with that, it's not what volunteering is supposed to be about at all.

4