BLOG - I have a difficult volunteer, now what?

You have reached the boiling point with a volunteer and you need to do something, but what?

 

First, you may want to read an earlier post (A volunteer is driving me crazy, what should I do?) to be sure you are assessing the situation correctly. 

 

Volunteers are critical to the work of non-profits and we need to find ways to work with them, but they are not always right.  You still have to manage them, their work and your sanity.

 

Typically, you are in one of two scenarios based on the value of the program that they are working on or the importance of the volunteer.

 

In the first, the volunteer is a top prospect, donor or well connected to others higher in your organization.  Likely, you are stuck trying to meet the expectations without being driven nuts.     

 

The second is when the volunteer is not as connected and there are others ready and willing to step into their role. Here you have a greater ability to push back with the volunteer.

 

In either case, I would suggest that you put together your thoughts and concerns.  Then share them with your supervisor to get their reaction and be sure you understand all the possible ramifications of any action.   If they will not let you move forward to discuss the challenges with the volunteer, you may want to decide if this is the right organization for you.

 

Once you get their blessings set up a meeting with the volunteer.  If possible, in person is best but a phone call can work.  I would recommend that you never do this in an email or text.  

 

Be professional and appropriate. Calmly thank them for their work and then state the challenges that they are presenting to your efforts and the organization.  Hopefully it can be a productive conversation.

 

They may be understanding of your position and feedback.  Sometimes a direct conversation can be extremely helpful for everyone.  They may not have realized that what they were doing or asking for was such a challenge to you or the organization.  If this is the case you can move forward with some suggested guidelines for them on how to best to work together. 

 

You should also be prepared that they may push back and even get angry.  Do not engage in an argument.  You would like to keep the conversation professional and the person engaged with the organization.   If it reaches a point where they are very angry and upset, it may be best for you to thank them for meeting and excuse yourself.  You can then follow-up or have your supervisor follow up by phone or email thanking the volunteer for their time and telling them that they will no longer be needed as a volunteer.

 

No organization wants to lose a donor or a volunteer, but it is not helpful if the volunteer is not helping move the organization forward or worse is hurting the organization by their words or actions.  If it comes to it we all need to be prepared to "fire" or remove a volunteer. 

 

A suggestion is to treat volunteers like employees.  Make sure they have a job description, goals and regular reviews to make sure they are on task and on track.  If they start to stray, have a conversation and set more regular contact.  Then, once we have done our due diligence, the option to remove them is available.  If we treat them in this manner, they should not be surprised if we need to move in a different direction and it will likely help us keep our sanity.