Question

please help me with this situation

You join a large bank that encourages and promotes employee volunteerism, allowing employees one day a month, or up to 12 days a year, to volunteer for a cause of their choosing. Shortly after you start working there as a junior teller, your boss’s wife is diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer that carries a very poor prognosis. Realizing it will win you kudos with your boss, you choose the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation—a breast cancer charity that sponsors an annual Race for the Cure—for your company-sponsored volunteer work.

In addition to working at the foundation’s office one day a month, you spend your own time actively soliciting other staffers at your firm to sign up for the charity walk in a few months’ time. Impressed with your qualities of tireless dedication, your boss puts your name forward for promotion to junior bank officer, well before the customary two years of service normally required for being considered for promotion.

Using a web search tool, locate articles about this topic and then write responses to the following questions. Be sure to support your arguments and cite your sources.

Your company is generous in its approach to employee volunteerism. It gives you paid time off, and you acquire enhanced job skills through your volunteer activities. Have you just been smart in recognizing the value of volunteering for a charity that you know will earn your boss’s personal appreciation? Or are you taking unfair advantage of your boss’s vulnerability and manipulating the situation?

Answer 1

Giving employees paid time off to do volunteer work is a very effective way to motivate them. Such experiences not only give employees sufficient exposure but also equip them with new skills that enhance their overall productivity at the work place.

In the given case, the volunteer job chosen is sensitive by nature. Only someone who is genuinely interested in the cause should get involved. The very purpose of volunteering is defeated when someone tries to take undue advantage of a sensitive situation for fulfilling personal goals. Here, it seems like the sole motivation for the employee is professional growth. Volunteer work is supposed to be done for personal growth and not for professional or monetary gains. If the employee truly believes in the concerned cause, he/she should be willing to work for it unconditionally.

The importance of giving back is reinforced by doing volunteer work. It gives employees a sense of purpose and in the process their productivity is increased that helps in reducing turnover. For instance, Colgate Pamolive has Colgate Cares Day that helps employees reinstill the importance of giving back by serving the community . Colgates's Bright Smile Bright Future offers free dental care for children. Another organisation promoting community service is Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that works globally. Even Starbucks has invested in funds for encouraging employees to work at NGOs. Such efforts on part of organisations are likely to be effective in terms of increasing employee skills set only when there is genuine appreciation of the work at hand.

(Note: Fortune magazine, employment companies like glassdoor post miscellaneous articles on volunteer work and the same form the source for the above explanation )