My wife is a life member of the National Trust and a volunteer, I am considering volunteering but I have concerns based on conversations with other people.

Since Covid every effort seems to have been made to put off volunteers. The business-style training in diversity was difficult to access, poorly monitored and held over volunteers heads like a threat until completed. Why was this training necessary? What evidence was there that volunteers were causing anyone distress?

There seem to be many more "paid" staff than volunteers these days. There is a sort of implication that they are "better" than volunteers.

My wife is no longer permitted to train staff on tills or cash up at the end of the day, despite having done it for seven years (and having 40 years’ banking experience). She's more qualified to do it that the "paid" staff. She feels insulted, devalued and degraded by them.

At the properties people know what sells well in the shops in their location and would order accordingly. Now there is central ordering, which means that the wrong stuff is sent and just sits around. The system which used to rely on trust in volunteers is now over-centralised, and it isn’t working. It is the same story in the coffee shops, where stocking and planning for deliveries is looked after by a paid member of staff who doesn’t consult the volunteers. This leads to both shortages and waste on a regular basis.

This has led to people stopping volunteering, putting in fewer hours and becoming less enthusiastic in their roles. Volunteering has become more like a job than a vocation and volunteers have lost faith in the overpaid hierarchy. There is a strong feeling that things need to change.

Even the fun part of the job has gone, as there are no more socials or Christmas parties.

I'm not sure whether the experience of volunteers is the same nationwide, but following discussions with volunteers, I have put off joining until next season to see if communication and management improve.

Anonymous