Community workers are disability service workers, they are refuge workers, they are youth workers, they are crisis workers, they are social workers, they are counsellors, they are homelessness workers, they, like me, are community development workers.
They are many things but they are no angels.
Community development is my job. It’s my career. I didn’t wake up one morning and think – today I am going to make the world a better place and I will volunteer my whole life to do so. I don’t do it solely because I am passionate about it. It’s a job – it’s what I do to pay the bills. And you know, I do love it – but, as anti-angelic and amazing as it might seem, lots of people love their job but don’t sacrifice their pay because of it. Why should I?
It’s funny you know – when I meet people and answer the age-old ‘what do you do for a living?’ question, I have to bite the insides of my mouth and clench my jaw at the predictable responses.
You can put your last $5 (and I am often down to my last fiver – so maybe I should) on the replies – “Oh, you must be an angel!” and, “Wow, that must be so rewarding!”
Inside of me I feel a rant coming in reply – something honest and strong and fierce and bold, and possibly rude.
But when I open my mouth I always say something like “yes, yes, it’s lovely to be able to work with people who need a little extra help…it makes the world a better place for all.”
Angels we might not be but we can certainly be self-deprecating. Maybe that’s been part of the problem.
My job is rewarding. I help people make the very most of sometimes not very much at all – and I get paid not very much at all to do it. To be honest and strong and fierce and bold: I know how valuable I am. I know what I am worth and I know it’s certainly not a penny less than the going rate for angels.
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Comments ( 2 )
exactly!
I love working in the community sector – but there is a strange irony in that many workers are themselves on such low wages that along with their clients they are recipients of Centrelink benefits!
This is quite bizarre when you think about it – not least because often we are extremely well qualified, with at least a degree, often more, and yet people with much lower quals often earn far more.
I remember when I was an undergraduate hearing about Human Capital Theory – which obviously doesn’t apply in the community sector.
One of the things I believe is really important in any workplace is that people are remunerated appropriately for what they do – failure to do this results in poor worker morale, higher personal stress levels, dissatisfaction and can also result in high turnover of staff.
You can feel really committed to what you do – but if we accept that we are not worthy of decent pay, what message are we communicating to others?
Marianne added these pithy words on
May 15 10 at
11:03 am
I’m a unionist and a community volunteer. All I can say is that the paid workers in the community health centre where I am a volunteer are worth far more than they now receive under the award. Let’s face it, NGOs are taking up the slack in the government programs and serving the needs in diverse communities that no for profit organisation will supply.
I’m right behind the Pay Up campaign.
Rebecca Albury added these pithy words on
May 28 10 at
5:01 pm
