Not to be surprised that volunteering ha fallen since the pandemic?

[antelopevalley]

Since the pandemic ended, volunteering levels are far lower than they were before the pandemic.
I have a personal interest as I used to do lots of volunteering but no longer do and I am not sure I ever will again.
I have just seen a rise in selfishness and self-centredness and I no longer want to volunteer for local community projects to benefit those families who would not give a damn about me and my family.

I've just felt exhausted since lockdown. I used to do a few voluntary things, but now I just can't get any motivation to do anything beyond the bare essentials to keep life going. I'm also working a bit more, but on the other hand both DC are now at school full time (younger one started school in 2020), so those should balance out, but somehow it just feels like more things to think about and my brain doesn't have the space.

You sound horribly bitter about nothing in particular so I’m sure no charities etc will miss your attitude

I used to do volunteer work, but people take the piss so I stopped. I'm not doing anything unless I'm getting paid.

I used to help at a animal place where you take the animal into your home and foster it til it gets rehomed.
I don’t anymore as the people that run the charity were a pain in the ass and you had to pay yourself to feed the animals, toys, bedding.
Nothing was supplied:
Then one day I wasn’t available when they wanted to come and collect the animal (after I had it for 4 months with hardly any contact). I told them they could come a day or 2 later and they moaned so I stopped helping.
Hardly any contact and poorly ran.
Now I don’t want to put myself out when you get 0 thanks.

I work for a charity. We have far less volunteers than pre-covid, meaning some services we still haven’t restarted. It’s a real shame. I totally understand why but it’s tough to see needs that are more desperate now and have less ability to help.

I used to volunteer, but (1) the pay rates for my work have fallen in real terms, so I'm more careful how I spend my time and (2) TBH, I resent plugging the gap for services that should be properly funded, whilst Rishi etc hoard their millions

I volunteer for a national charity, but the local branch of a national charity. We are highly trained, it takes at least six months to become a fully fledged volunteer in this role. I think the pandemic actually increased the number of applicants. Not all applicants get accepted, and not all trainees complete their training, but I think with what I do we’re doing alright.

I used to volunteer as a committee member running a community festival - it was a lot of work all year round plus the actual festival itself. I really enjoyed it but I’ve withdrawn for several reasons: I’m busier at work because I’m in a different role; my main hobby has increased so I need to commit more time to that; and I don’t want to have to deal with Covid red tape. On the last point, venues have got more onerous policies, there’s the risk of cancellation if a new variant pops up and the government decide to bring in restrictions and I think fewer people will come anyway because some still don’t want to mix socially, which makes it even harder to break even, never mind counteract price increases.

So the festival doesn’t run any more which is sad, but I can’t carry on because the personal cost to me is too high. The landscape has changed and some things just don’t work any more.

I think everyone's life is just feeling squeezed, as a result of the government's repeated shit decisions over the past years.

More people rely on family for childcare as a result of costs going up and wages stagnating or not increasing in line with inflation. So fewer grandparent voluteers. People work longer hours, and fewer people go part time pre retirement (particularly women after the pensions cock up). Fewer people go part time after children, and if they do, only do so to save in childcare. Workplaces seem intent on bleeding employees dry meaning their capacity to do anything else is low.

Means fewer volunteers. So the ones left have to work harder, so fewer people have the capacity and the cycle perpetuates.

I volunteer with animals. I’ve seen too many horrible people to volunteer to help humans anymore. Although I’m sure there are many lovely ones out there somewhere, I’m done. My oldest child is just about to start volunteering.

Some people may still be concerned about covid or maybe need to work more paid hours. I have friends that feel like me though, fed up of horrible people and have decided to join in with the just look after yourself attitude. It’s a shame but there’s only so much shit people will take.

I wonder if some people have lost their confidence after lockdown. A lot of the volunteer positions I've looked at are ones where you need to hit the ground running and learn quickly as there isn't going to be a lot of support and supervision. It really put me off and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I happily volunteered before and during the pandemic but not any more. People became greedy and self centered. The places I volunteered started to want minimum shifts and sometimes those were 12 hour shifts. Those being helped charities and end users alike, no longer said thank you and expected more and more. No please or thank you. Just this is what we want. No one thinks about or says thank you to the volunteers anymore. Charities no longer seem to think a volunteer is anything more than a single unit fulfilling a piece of work.
Volunteers are more than a robot, they are human beings and a thank you every now and then, works wonders - and it’s free.

I live in an area where's there's lots of retired people. A lot of them are very selective about their socialising since the pandemic I suppose a lot of them will not go back to volunteering if they don't even socialise as they used to.

A lot of people who would have volunteered are now doing childcare for their DGCs. We've lost volunteers to that.

And of course no-one is obliged to volunteer. I don't consider people who don't to be particularly selfish. Most of us do it for selfish reasons, even if it's just to get out of the house and meet people.

I did a huge amount of extra volunteering during lockdown sometimes 5/6 days a week and all of a sudden, they dropped me in favour of all their middle class friends who were on furlough. I would reply to the group emails volunteering my time and never hear back. They were happy to use me and my experience to get themselves all set up then deliberately excluded me when they moved on from the shared premises to their new one.

I'm now back to just a day a week with one charity but I am a bit pissed off really, they also have set themselves up with an inner circle of all their mates around them.

''@TwoNightStand
I volunteer with animals. I’ve seen too many horrible people to volunteer to help humans anymore.''

I really can relate to that. I have actually worked for charities for many years and I have witnessed so much bad management in the charity itself or met so many beneficiaries who were taking the piss when it came to the support we were trying to give them. I left my role supporting people with mental health issues recently. I will never work delivering frontline services with charities ever again.

Completely agree that I would have no problem working or volunteering for animal welfare charities though.

At some point your patience and ability to care just gets used up by everything you see and hear.

My last charity was happy to support people who had committed serious, violent crimes including sexual offences. I simply wasn't. This was not what I got in the charity sector for.

I agree with a pp who said that some volunteering masks the depth of the problems in our community. I volunteer for our local community group to provide transport to gp appts / luncheon clubs but it has now evolved to hospital appts (including accompanying the individual to appt so can take hours) and food shopping. We can reclaim expenses but only every 6 months and it's not widely publicised. I feel these type of roles should be completed by carers who are protected by policies and procedures regarding handling money and the confidentiality aspects of being at someone's medical appt. I know the crisis that social care is in so I know this isn't at all likely but it does make me feel very uneasy that vulnerable people are falling through gaps where they do probably need more professional intervention but volunteers are masking the need.

I also volunteered at the vaccination clinics throughout lockdown, my local one was great and we were respected and worked as a team. I then moved to a larger centre and had no reimbursement for the 30 miles travel and my 8 hr shift had 2 10 min breaks and for the other 7hrs I was constantly cleaning the chairs as people vacated them. I did 2 shifts there and no more.
I love volunteering but I feel I've reached my limit now and may stop for a few years

I'd never volunteer, if a job is worth doing then somebody should be being paid to do it. I'll support a charity by buying books from their shop, but that shop should be staffed by someone with a job rather than Ms A. Random who is there because she has nothing better to do.

I volunteer for a local charity and our volunteer numbers doubled over the last couple of years, but numbers rapidly declined once offices opened up again. Also we've found some retired volunteers are less likely to help out now as they're covering childcare to help save family costs.

Also thinking about it, I'm still hoping to retire at 60, but the value of my work pensions are likely to be less than I envisaged because of soaring inflation- and I'm one of the lucky ones that have a realistic chance of still retiring then.

Originally I thought I'd do some volunteering for sociability purposes and generally supporting some causes that I'm close to, but increasingly I'm thinking that I'll need to get some sort of part time job at least a couple of days a week to supplement my income up to 67 when - hopefully- I'll get the state pension.

Whilst working part time and caring for a terminally ill relative I volunteered at 2 vaccination centres, and the long shifts (and no travel expenses for a 20 mile round trip) has put me off helping out in that capacity this autumn. I think I am burnt out!

At my hospital we used to have some retired women (and occasionally men) run our shop snd cafe. Stopped over covid and it hasn't reopened still. I guess they're of an age more likely to be vulnerable and there is still some risk to them. Its a shame though

Volunteering has certainly fallen in the charity shop where I volunteer but not because of the selfishness reasons you cite. We were shut (in Scotland) for way longer than other parts of the UK and when we reopened, many of our older volunteers were too nervous to return. We were also DELUGED with everyone's lockdown clear outs, had to refuse donations, quarantine things, get rid of the changing room - so many restrictions which made customers cross and grumpy, and volunteers feel pressured.

Our local schools have only just restarted D of E and similar volunteering so we have not had the constant stream of teens which we used to rely on.

Many volunteers just got out of the habit of coming to the shop every week when we were shut and have got other hobbies and activities to fill their days.

My DS had a similar experience - In June he saw an ad on a volunteer portal for people who wanted to volunteer over teh summer at a Lego-based playscheme for children/teens with autism. He would have been AMAZING. Two emails and a message on an answerphone and no response.

Pretty poor.

but that shop should be staffed by someone with a job rather than Ms A. Random who is there because she has nothing better to do.

The first part I agree with the second part is a really shit view of the person who has given up their time to help.