Volunteer burnout

03 April 2008 | Lynne Dalton, CEO, The Centre for Volunteering

An interesting book focusing on volunteer management is Keeping Volunteers: A Guide To Retention by Steve McCurley and Rick Lynch. The authors suggest that burnout among volunteers is most likely to happen when:

1. The volunteer role is ambiguous, especially as it relates to the precise job of the volunteer.
2. The assignment is psychologically stressful.
3. The assignment leads to de-personalisation of the client group, either through bad relationships with difficult clients or relationships that end with a bad result for the client.
4. The volunteer is feeling a lack of accomplishment or success and interprets this as failure.
5. The volunteer feels a lack of organisational support and may even view the organisation as hindering efforts to provide assistance.
6. The volunteer feels that the situation is beyond their control, through size, volume or complexity.

Burnout can directly lead to problems in volunteer retention. The issues above can impact paid staff the same way and they may not have the ‘luxury of walking away’ because of financial reasons. Remember to manage all your staff in a way that acknowledges them both physically and emotionally. And if you are having a problem retaining volunteers, phone The Centre on 02 9261 3600 to get some professional guidance and advice.