Work? For free? – aka volunteering? Mark Glazer wants to know why you and I "work for free". It’s a "nagging question" for him.
Is this such a difficult concept to grasp? Couldn’t you make a list of 100 reasons people volunteer their time, effort and knowledge? Or am I wrong? Is it hard for you to figure out why AOL had more volunteers than it knew what to do with? Or why iVillage still has a million volunteer CLs even though iVillage is less than good to its volunteers? Or why you can’t throw a stone in a suburban neighborhood without hitting a PTA mommy? Or why you can’t wander through a big city without bumping into a soup kitchen volunteer? Or why women are happily contributing blog posts to Blogher?
I wonder if people who don’t have a strong history of volunteerism are the ones who have the biggest problem understanding the work for free concept.
Well, he is an economics reporter, and this is a segment of the economy that is undertracked.
I would come across this attitude quite often when I volunteered, absolute mystification as to why I chose to volunteer my time. I volunteered for years in my community and my online work began as a volunteer position. What still bugs me is the attitude that a volunteer can’t possibly be as professional and hard-working as a paid worker. I’ve not found that to be true for myself or in others; quite the opposite.