My immediate reaction to this question is another question. Why would anyone say so?
The reason I would ask such a question is because when you volunteer be it your time or services you do so of your own free will and often these have not been solicited and even then you can still walk away.
That being the case why then would someone make such a statement as “volunteering is a waste of my time”
I am not an expert at this but drawing from my personal experience of volunteering my time and or services that feeling of “waste of of time” arises when expectations on both sides have not been made clear or met.
I will illustrate this from my experience. I arrived here in the UK in 1991 and lived in Dalston East London for a while and apart my immediate family I didn’t know anyone else in Dalston and my working hours made it near impossible for me to make friends locally. One morning as I was walking to the shops I saw an advertisement in the window of a building occupied by the local Age concern branch. They were looking for people to visit elderly people in Homerton Hospital whom some reason or other didn’t have any visitors.
I was surprised to learn that they were people out there who did not have anyone visiting them whilst in hospital, because where I come from this is unheard of. But of course our African families tend to be very large.
I walked into the Age concern office and introduced myself and an hour later I was signed up for the volunteers training scheme prior to being allowed onto the wards or being attached to any of the patients. All of the trainees were local people and this met my need/desire of meeting and making friends with local people. We got on well as a group and continued to meet well after the training had ended.
I was assigned to a woman whose so had moved to Australia and this was the reason she has no one visiting here. I saw her every week and sadly she passed away six weeks after I started visiting her. I never felt that my time was wasted at all as my primary need or the reason why I had joined had been met.
Interestingly a few years later I used the experience I gained as a volunteer for age concern to gain a full time and paid position at another organisation. All things considered I gained a lot more out of this experience.
Sadly not all volunteering services go well as I was to find out when I volunteered by services to a school in Stirling Scotland. I helped with sourcing ethical clothing that could be used for the show. My expectations and certainly what was agreed was that I would be part of the show and present my work in Africa to a Scottish audience. From a business point f view this type of exposure is priceless and it would open up a whole new market so I gave all I could.
To my horror the school pulled out the day before I was due to travel to Stirling leaving me out of pocket and unable to recover my direct costs of my airfare as well as the money I had paid the ladies for the work they did.
Discussions are still underway to resolve this so I can’t say anymore than this. In this example I feel that the volunteering of my time to enable the school to access Fair Trade clothing from our producers in Tanzania was a waste.
Compare therefore the difference between the two tales/experiences!
If you have only experienced the first example you maybe encouraged to seek out more voluntary opportunities but on the other hand if the sum total of experience is as described in example two you would be forgiven for never wanting to give your time or services free of charge.
If you have been a volunteer I would love to hear from you with your experiences on what worked well as well as that which didn’t
Ethnicsupplies's Weblog 
May 20, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I have two examples to give as well. 🙂
The bad example is gardening in my local farm. This was just back-breaking literally, I never really felt I was appreciated there and although I went for 2 hours, I didn’t see how this was benefiting me so I left.
The good example is the one I’m in at the moment. Working as an office admin in a charity and also doing many other stuff that involves training courses and events that really do benefit the community. I wasn’t impressed with the volunteering system so I’m aiming to improve on the things they’re lacking in like a proper volunteer’s introduction pack as well as other general needs.
I did feel like I wasn’t being appreciated there too but after two weeks, I managed to get on the good side of everyone that came to the office. I guess it was just a case of unfamilarity but still, volunteers need to be felt that they are wanted and not an annoyance or back-hopper to the organisation. If anyone does then they shouldn’t take on free labour (that’s what it is at the end of the day).
May 21, 2009 at 6:10 am
Many thanks for sharing your experiences. Often organisations do want the “free labour” but don’t quite know how to manage it or how to best use it
Reminds me of a village dog that chases every car that passes through the village, one wonders what the dog would do if it caught the car!
June 25, 2009 at 1:47 am
Hi Ida
I loved your article on volunteering. Brings up lots of good memories for me. Last year I spent a number of months as a volunteer in one of our Australian Aboriginal communities and loved every minute of it – I was so well looked after and so appreciated (to the point of embarrassment!!). I learnt so much and I know the young woman I mentored also felt the same way.
I also sent 15 years working in not for profit organisations run by boards and management committees – and every one of the members of these committees were volunteers – I was the paid CEO!!! And I loved working with these volunteers – appreciating that they were giving freely of their time for something they were passionate about.
Your story about the school was not a good story But I have a belief that nothing we do is a waste of time – there’s always something to be learnt.
June 25, 2009 at 7:00 am
Hi Diane,
Welcome to the discussion. Yes I do believe it is important for the person volunteering their time to feel valued. In the great scheme of things it is never really a waste of time. Even with the school experience I learned some lessons that I am unlikely to repeat. In addition from what I read the children really enjoyed the show as the clothes were made from their own designs
August 10, 2009 at 12:37 am
Hi again, just a quick update.
I’m still volunteering at the charity although I don’t do any more hours in the office. It’s good to see there are a lot of volunteers though, apparently summer is the best time for voluntary organisations so it was a good time to stop for me.
I used the charity as a reference and it helped me greatly in job interviews and I really appreciate all the experience and skills I learnt back then.
To answer your question “Is volunteering a waste of time?” My answer is, certainly not if you think of what it’s in it for you and as well as the place you want to volunteer for. If you don’t like it, move on to another opportunity! There are literally thousands of chances of volunteering (at least here in London).
August 12, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Hi Zpte,
I agree, that the volunteer has to be very clear about they are hoping to gain from the experience and if tehse are not met then it may well be time to move as you say. I am glad you are enjoying your experience
August 12, 2009 at 7:12 pm
[…] I have previously written about my own experiences as a volunteer, yesterdays programmes got me thinking about the numbers of times most of us volunteer our time […]
May 31, 2010 at 9:00 am
[…] had no experience working with the elderly but wondered if my previous experience as an Age Concern volunteer would get me through the door and it did, my interview was about basic maths, English and […]
September 4, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Another update and a belated one at that. From the volunteering work I did at the charity, I got some hours doing actual paid work with them then the interview that I went for in the summer of 2009, I managed to get the job thanks to the experiences of volunteering I did. So it definitely was not a waste of time!
November 28, 2010 at 7:04 pm
First of all volunteers should be valued more or trained better. I agree that volunteering is great when it is a win win situation but I think most organizations should be denied the privilege to have volunteers within their organization. I also don’t think high school seniors should be forced to volunteer as part of graduation regulations. Many places have a thing for segregation between volunteers and staff and feel since they are free labor they must be garbage, annoyances or back hoppers. There are people out there that I have met who truly want to give back to the community, actually have much to offer but turned away or simply not appreciated with the work that “customers”/”clients” and what have you love and keep coming to the place of business because of them. Also volunteer positions should not entail hours of hard labor that is equivalent to work that should indeed be paid for or used as punishment. Often I have heard how volunteers can be pegs as losers and only winners/favorites would get hired at a company. Also needing a resume for many volunteer positions is not necessary. There is more but I would stop here. If many organizations would acknowledge anything with regards to volunteerism then many people would not consider it a waste of time or a painful stepping stone to nowhere.