Volunteering - are they taking the piss?

[Atethehalloweenchocs]

I have wanted to volunteer in my local community for a while, to give something back and do something different from my full time job. Started with a local charity which has a variety of roles including several behind the scenes, which I explained would be my preference. Have been almost exclusively put into what I said I least preferred. I understand they are trying to make the most of what people have, but I was looking for a change to what I usually do. Have now had two requests I attend training, which means taking holiday time as the training is never offered on the days I usually volunteer. The first time I took an afternoon off. The second time would have involved taking a full day and would be about what I do in my job - sort of like asking a math teacher to take a one day course in multiplication tables. So I politely declined. AIBU to feel a bit pissed off with them? I thought I was doing something good but it is not feeling like a good experience.

What skills people have, should have said.

I don't think it's necessarily 'taking the piss' just because you could have just said no or asked to have a conversation about the fact that you were only interested in doing 'x' and not 'y'.

Presumably they've clocked that you have very useful skills that they can make use of and want to utilise them which is flattering but you still aren't obliged. I'd just have a chat with them about what it is you're interested in doing with them and what your availability is (eg- not on work days) and ask that anything pencilled in for is put within that availability and area.

I had something quite similar happen in a fairly large charity, and whilst I know that they were probably desperate for help, I would have been a round peg in a square hole in the role suggested.
I declined and thought I had blown my chances, but they got back in touch several months later and offered job I originally applied for.

You are entitled not to do it but surely you see the charity is not taking the piss? They want to put volunteers skills to best effect. From their perspective furthering the charity's work (whatever that is) is most important, not giving the volunteer a feeling of well-being / a break from the norm.
Ask if you can switch as this may be easily fixed but climb down from thinking they are taking the p....

This is why the Foodbank where I volunteer think I’m a bit of a rogue. Can’t be arsed with all the prescriptive stuff.

A relative, and former nurse, wanted to volunteer at the local hospice when she retired. The amount of training they wanted her to do, included courses she used to run herself, was ridiculous so she just decided not to bother. Some was stuff that would be regular training as things changed but she was still working part time when she was looking to volunteer and her training was superior to the volunteer training being offered. Crazy. I think they just want to tick boxes, which is fine for employees but a big ask for people giving their time for free.

Oh, and she worked specifically in palliative care for over 10 years so it was really close to her everyday job.

Maybe find a different charity to volunteer with.

Or remind them that you wanted to do something behind the scenes and if they can't offer you that, say unfortunately you will have to look for a different charity to volunteer with.

Yes @PurBal , I think there is a lot of box ticking. I get that charities want to utilize their volunteers as best as possible, but they have to be realistic about what they ask for, and try to match what the volunteer wants. My point was that it is not unreasonable for them to ask. But it is unreasonable for them not to listen to what you are saying. Guess voting with my feet will be the way to go if it doesnt improve.

@sadiewt - it is not furthering the work of the charity to put off volunteers surely? There has to be a happy medium between their needs and what the volunteers are comfortable or able to do. Ignoring that is not good.

I'm amazed your relative doesn't realise that all volunteers - whatever their background - need to go through the same training so that patients are kept safe and there is full accountability.

I think you are being unreasonable tbh. It takes everyone mucking in to get the overall job done, naturally you'll have elements to it that you prefer doing but that doesn't mean the other things don't need done too. Eg I volunteer as a dog walker for an animal shelter. Some days they're short and my time is more useful cleaning litter trays so I go where they put me and get on with it. Also when you talk about training, are you talking about safeguarding training because things like that or first aid or food hygiene etc need to be arranged and delivered by the place you're volunteering in to cover them. So for eg I work in safeguarding but if I volunteer with a youth group I'll still have to do the child protection training along with everyone else. My friend is a doctor, she still needs to do first aid training for her youth group role.

If there is a genuine reason why you can't do a particular task eg. You have anxiety and aren't confident dealing with customers in a charity shop, then you need to go to whoever is coordinating the volunteers and explain why you can't do that particular task and give a list of what you can do. But you do need to be reasonably flexible because charities that have paid staff can only accommodate so many volunteers so they also need to be able to tell you where you'll be most useful to them and make the biggest difference.