The past few days have been filled with friends, new and old - Whistler is great for that. Its also been filled with running around the village, cats sleeping on my face, and snowy mountain days. Here are just a few...
Saturday, February 13, 2010
More pictures say More Words
The past few days have been filled with friends, new and old - Whistler is great for that. Its also been filled with running around the village, cats sleeping on my face, and snowy mountain days. Here are just a few...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Yes its great, but its also really frustrating
While I was in India everytime I would check my e-mails, anxious to hear from my family, friends or my sweet love, I would without fail receive a message from the organizing body for the volunteers of Vancouver 2010. At the time I really didn’t pay close attention, as I could never think that far ahead. I was more concerned about making sure my parents knew where I was headed, telling my friends who were in exams that I was headed to the sunny beach or keeping up the blog. I always opened the e-mails from Vancouver 2010, but I rarely read them with any fervor; as far as I could tell they covered details that given my geographical locations would be irrelavent until I returned to Canada but I do remember reading these words over and over in every correspondence: ‘experience’, ‘journey’ and ‘important contribution’.
Yesterday I spent 3 whole hours sitting in an empty room. Well, it wasn’t entirely empty. This room is in the Athlete’s village and it is ready for its guests; there are three Vancouver 2010 themed pool tables, 3 foosball tables, a shuffleboard and three air hockey tables (that sing the ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ theme song every 4 minutes – trust me- I timed it); there is also some leather couches and faux fireplace all in an attempt to make guests feel at home. However, there are no guests in the Athlete’s Village really, but this has not however changed the fact that they require a volunteer to ‘man the area’. Guess whose job that was. That’s right – yours truly. So after playing solitaire for 3 straight hours on my iPod, draining my battery completely I started to think about this ‘volunteer experience’ that was promised to me in lieu of giving my time, enthusiasm and willingness to help for such a massive event. What happened to my ‘experience’, ‘journey’ and ‘important contribution’.
The first week we were doing uninteresting things such as making an inventory of gym equipment, moving furniture around, setting up video games, popcorn machines and chill spaces for the guests of the Athlete’s village – uninteresting yes, but social and busy none the less. It was fun if not because every one had come with a sunny attitude (or an attempt at one) and in getting to know one another we were chatty, making jokes and the atmosphere was relaxed.
It is a full week before the games begin and while my supervisors look bug eyed from what appears as lack of sleep I am sitting and playing solitaire. After supper I whined about this to Jeanette and we came up with some interesting points. As I stood by the sink declaring to Jeanette, the kitchen and the cats that I felt completely underutilized and wondered how many more of such days I could take before I walked out on a shift (probably undetected too) we got onto an interesting topic that was only a little tangential.
“ Here I am, young, able bodied and not to mention smart and they have me sitting in an empty room with pool tables! My job could easily be replaced by sign that the one person who might come in could read – it would say ‘Hi, make yourself at home, feel free to play the games and have fun!’ instead my supervisors run around with a million things to do – do they not realize that we are here to help? Why can’t they delegate? Why don’t they have us do something… helpful?”
It verges on infuriating, although at the same time, with the level of trust and responsibility they have directed to me and other volunteers, I am leaning towards apathy rather than fury. What’s the point right? This is the brilliant part of being a volunteer: I come with my enthusiasm, my brains and my able body, an attitude of a cheery kindergarten teacher and the people getting payed can’t get it together fill in their end of the deal, which is to provide their volunteers with some work to do, to help create an ‘experience’, to feel as though we are part of a ‘journey’ as well as to make an ‘important contribution’.
Jeanette made a really great point in response to my diatribe by asking about the pyramid of Olympic power. Isn’t it interesting, she pointed out, that the volunteers there are a swarm of young people eager to help. Those employed with any position of ‘authority’ (although I use that term loosely as these people seem just as lost as the volunteers who, at this point are the bitches of bitch work) are a few years older. Above these people you have a group probably in their mid to late thirties and so it goes: More power = greater age. Perhaps it is an outdated mode of managing but these folks behind their desks are ignoring their greatest asset by ignoring a generation that is clearly desperate not for direction, but for some responsibility; for some trust that we can get the job done and that we can do it well.
Of course, the sword is double edged – it always is. These ‘supervisors’ and the ‘folks stuck behind desks’, bless them, are working in conditions that are under a lot of scrutiny. There are the IOC and the NOC that have very particular expectations, there are rules and policies, red tape, rules and a fat load of logistical inefficiency to navigate. For this reason, I don’t envy their positions but I am a little wary of the way they treat the volunteers. Sure, everyone is friendly and people have some amazing strengths, but even my sunny disposition is growing thin. My responses in the past few days to the question ‘How was your day?’ have gone from ‘interesting’, to ‘unusual’ to ‘boring’.
So where is the lesson in all of this? Well despite the obvious that this job requires a lot of patience for dull moments, it has shown me an interesting side of effective people management (from the perspective of one of the people being managed). If there is an organization asking for volunteers there must be a return. There must be an effort to feel as though we have experienced something important by making a contribution; something that constitutes a good story – a journey, if you will. Of course we can say ‘yes, I volunteered for the Olympics’ but that should not be followed by ‘ and I would never do it again’.
Until next time…
Yesterday I spent 3 whole hours sitting in an empty room. Well, it wasn’t entirely empty. This room is in the Athlete’s village and it is ready for its guests; there are three Vancouver 2010 themed pool tables, 3 foosball tables, a shuffleboard and three air hockey tables (that sing the ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ theme song every 4 minutes – trust me- I timed it); there is also some leather couches and faux fireplace all in an attempt to make guests feel at home. However, there are no guests in the Athlete’s Village really, but this has not however changed the fact that they require a volunteer to ‘man the area’. Guess whose job that was. That’s right – yours truly. So after playing solitaire for 3 straight hours on my iPod, draining my battery completely I started to think about this ‘volunteer experience’ that was promised to me in lieu of giving my time, enthusiasm and willingness to help for such a massive event. What happened to my ‘experience’, ‘journey’ and ‘important contribution’.
The first week we were doing uninteresting things such as making an inventory of gym equipment, moving furniture around, setting up video games, popcorn machines and chill spaces for the guests of the Athlete’s village – uninteresting yes, but social and busy none the less. It was fun if not because every one had come with a sunny attitude (or an attempt at one) and in getting to know one another we were chatty, making jokes and the atmosphere was relaxed.
It is a full week before the games begin and while my supervisors look bug eyed from what appears as lack of sleep I am sitting and playing solitaire. After supper I whined about this to Jeanette and we came up with some interesting points. As I stood by the sink declaring to Jeanette, the kitchen and the cats that I felt completely underutilized and wondered how many more of such days I could take before I walked out on a shift (probably undetected too) we got onto an interesting topic that was only a little tangential.
“ Here I am, young, able bodied and not to mention smart and they have me sitting in an empty room with pool tables! My job could easily be replaced by sign that the one person who might come in could read – it would say ‘Hi, make yourself at home, feel free to play the games and have fun!’ instead my supervisors run around with a million things to do – do they not realize that we are here to help? Why can’t they delegate? Why don’t they have us do something… helpful?”
It verges on infuriating, although at the same time, with the level of trust and responsibility they have directed to me and other volunteers, I am leaning towards apathy rather than fury. What’s the point right? This is the brilliant part of being a volunteer: I come with my enthusiasm, my brains and my able body, an attitude of a cheery kindergarten teacher and the people getting payed can’t get it together fill in their end of the deal, which is to provide their volunteers with some work to do, to help create an ‘experience’, to feel as though we are part of a ‘journey’ as well as to make an ‘important contribution’.
Jeanette made a really great point in response to my diatribe by asking about the pyramid of Olympic power. Isn’t it interesting, she pointed out, that the volunteers there are a swarm of young people eager to help. Those employed with any position of ‘authority’ (although I use that term loosely as these people seem just as lost as the volunteers who, at this point are the bitches of bitch work) are a few years older. Above these people you have a group probably in their mid to late thirties and so it goes: More power = greater age. Perhaps it is an outdated mode of managing but these folks behind their desks are ignoring their greatest asset by ignoring a generation that is clearly desperate not for direction, but for some responsibility; for some trust that we can get the job done and that we can do it well.
Of course, the sword is double edged – it always is. These ‘supervisors’ and the ‘folks stuck behind desks’, bless them, are working in conditions that are under a lot of scrutiny. There are the IOC and the NOC that have very particular expectations, there are rules and policies, red tape, rules and a fat load of logistical inefficiency to navigate. For this reason, I don’t envy their positions but I am a little wary of the way they treat the volunteers. Sure, everyone is friendly and people have some amazing strengths, but even my sunny disposition is growing thin. My responses in the past few days to the question ‘How was your day?’ have gone from ‘interesting’, to ‘unusual’ to ‘boring’.
So where is the lesson in all of this? Well despite the obvious that this job requires a lot of patience for dull moments, it has shown me an interesting side of effective people management (from the perspective of one of the people being managed). If there is an organization asking for volunteers there must be a return. There must be an effort to feel as though we have experienced something important by making a contribution; something that constitutes a good story – a journey, if you will. Of course we can say ‘yes, I volunteered for the Olympics’ but that should not be followed by ‘ and I would never do it again’.
Until next time…
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