Theos-Talk Archives (June 2009 Message tt00512)

Volunteers and 'Salaried Priests'
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One of the issues that comes to my mind is that of "salaried priests". In
respect of many spiritual and philanthropic organizations, the question of
volunteers and paid employees is a critical one. If you look at those who
launched organizations and who are responsible for greatest growth, they are
all volunteers driven by an ideal and they usually give their prime of life
and life blood. As organizations grow, more volunteers join and help them.
They do so, again driven by the ideal of the organization coupled with the
charisma of the leaders to whom others look up to, and whose integrity and
honesty are unquestionable.
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Once someone is put on payroll, I think they get 'employee mentality' and
start behaving like every 8-5 employee who is there to make a living and
possibly have lip commitment to the ideals of the organization. If the job
is routine work, it may not generally matter. But, when one is given
important responsibilities, this employee mentality can be counter
productive. The idea of a correlation between salary and their contribution
in spiritual environments is questionable.
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To give you an idea of the employee mentality, I need to recall an
interesting incident. A very well paid employee was visiting my city on an
official mission and the employee was displaying a cell phone hanging from
the pocket. It was those days when cell phones were expensive. To test the
responsiveness, I inquired about the phone number, the response was negative
and was told that I need to call the official number if I need to contact.
The official number is operational during normal business hours. This simple
incident revealed how the person operates - like every low wages employee.
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In my experience, most people are considerate and do not unnecessarily
bother others at odd times. I am sure if the above person was a volunteer
working for the organization driven by the ideals of the organization, there
would be no hesitation about anyone calling at any time, because most
determined volunteers do not look at the clock when their commitment to the
ideals are concerned.
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It would be nice if we can motivate volunteers to help the organizations in
their mission. Volunteers are going to be motivated by what goes on in the
organization and the charisma of the leader.
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MKR
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