Is your volunteer a bit prickly?

Is this your volunteer???

Gosh, I hope not, but, if so, why might it be that your volunteer got so prickly? Surely, when they started volunteering, they were not in such a state? What might have caused this morphing from a happy volunteer to a prickly one?

• They are not feeling well? Maybe they have an underlying health issue, known or unknown.
• They have family issues, again, might be health, might be a death of a close family member, grieving takes time and energy.
• Money??? The way the economy is, need I say more??
• Time? Maybe the time involvement is more than your volunteer bargained for? Or, since any of the above issues may have come into play, maybe their available time has dropped off dramatically. Maybe they changed jobs, new one is more demanding.
• Demands of their loving public. By this I mean, the researchers that are asking for assistance demand TOOOOOO much. Maybe your volunteer will hunt and copy obituaries from the local paper. You ask for one, you get one, you come back for another, maybe 2, you get more, maybe 2. Now you say, okkkkk, hitting the mother load here, I am gonna ask for ALL I need or want. All is how many?? 5, 10, 45??

Let's look at one more reason your volunteer is prickly - - DO YOU THANK THEM???

I read comments from volunteers all over the Internet, so many of them are never thanked. They take time out of their busy lives to do nice things for people they have never met and never will, and those recipients of their kindness never have the decency to say, THANK YOU.

No wonder the volunteers are prickly.

And, let me tell you, they go from prickly to MIA.

Volunteers are priceless, can we afford to loose them??

*Photo is of thistle in my yard. This prickly volunteer is not welcome, but it does make a great visual for this blog entry.