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Anon tries being social (europe.pub)
submitted 3 days ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 63 points 3 days ago (9 children)

Volunteer work is an amazing way to break cycles of isolation and loneliness. You have a shared common goal with other volunteers and you are making a collective effort to improve the lives of those less fortunate than you. Even if you walk away without having met the love of your life or whatever, at least you can feel good knowing that you helped make the world a better place and got to meet some cool, likeminded people.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 days ago* (6 children)

    Volunteer work backfires for a lot of people when they work at like food pantries though. You get a huge amount of entitled rude assholes and it can make you hate the public and/or the destitute

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  • [–] 13 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    It's hard reconciling the fact you are being generous (even indirectly) and the fact that poor people with fucked up lives may be a bit too busy with their shitty lives to show gratefulness.

    Like animals biting you when you rescue them, it's hard to understand, no doubt.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

    The other volunteers bite you too.

    And it's easy to understand, a lot of them are bored miserable people looking for an outlet and decided volunteering was the best way for them to power trip and pat themselves on the back while doing so. Or to get away form their wife/husband/kids that they hate. Def met quite a few people like that in my volunteering.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Sad but yeah, I worked for a few years in charity and heard similar stories. I was IT so didn't have to deal with them directly, thankfully.

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  • [–] 3 points 14 hours ago

    The problem is the miserable people want to be in charge, and the good people don't. So the miserable people always end up in charge and drive all the good folks away, because nobody wants to work under a miserable person.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 child)

    It's not necessarily true at all.

    Volunteer work can be full of really shitty and awful people who justify their shittiness based of their 'good intentions'.

    I have volunteered my entire life and seen many orgs fail/fall apart due to shitty people getting involved and cannibalizing the org for their own selfish ends, or wanting to turn it into a social club first and a volunteer org second/third.

    It can be rewarding, but a lot of orgs are full of very catty insular people who don't want you to be part of their group unless you look/talk/walk like they do, and you tow whatever 'party' line they believe in, even if it's shitty.

    Someone volunteering doesn't make them automatically a good or a nice person. That's the smokescreen shitty/selfish people use though to justify their crappy behaviour in these orgs.

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