How Much Time is Worth Volunteering?
It can be tempting to think that volunteering is simply an act of goodwill. You might believe that you are doing a good deed and making the world a better place. While this is true, it's also important to remember that there are other tangible benefits for your volunteer work in addition to intangible ones. Volunteering time can help you build skills, forge networks, and learn about social justice issues - things which may not come with any experience or education! It exposes you to new ideas and ways of thinking about familiar things like poverty, homelessness or politics. Additionally, volunteering can reduce your stress levels and improve psychological well-being by filling gaps in sense of control, predictability, competency and coherence in your life.
Volunteering also helps you in your career. You may learn networking and job search skills by connecting with others who share your passion for a cause or project. Volunteering also gives you experience and skills that you can use in a job search, whether or not that job is as a volunteer.
Volunteering can help your income, too. For example, volunteering at a school or camp may introduce you to the director of programming, who could give you an informal tour of the school and share information about jobs available to the general public - like summer jobs for counselors - that aren't advertised. Or perhaps someone at the camp is looking for someone to create flyers about upcoming concerts and events for their local community service club's newsletter. Getting this kind of community service experience on your resume will make you more attractive to potential employers, who want people with experience. And it won't hurt you to mention that the only reason you have this community service experience is because you volunteered your time!
Also, volunteering can help you get hired. Job seekers who volunteer are viewed just as favorably as those who have paid work experience. In fact, research shows that most organizations value volunteer experience over paid work because it shows a willingness and commitment to helping others. Volunteers are also likely to have higher self-esteem and better emotional health than non-volunteers (1).
So, how much time is worth volunteering? Probably as much as you can give! The benefits of volunteering are numerous and there's no limit to what you may be able to gain.
So get out there and give back!
References:
(1) Kalev, A., & Stavrova, O. (2012). Do all jobs take equal effort? Volunteering and intrinsic motivation. Social Science Research.
Fabio J. Sanchez is a PhD student at the University of Michigan's department of psychology who blogs about psychology at Psychology Spot . He loves to write about human behavior and social justice issues. His work with Dr. Zimbardo has been featured in TIME.com, Scientific American Mind and the Huffington Post, among others.
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To see other posts about volunteer work by Dr. Zimbardo and other social psychologists, please click here .
Copyright 2012 by Fabio J. SanchezAll Rights Reserved
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-time-is-worth-volunteering/
"Social Psychology" is a registered trademark of Sage Publications, Inc.A copy of the license at http://www.sagepublications.com/about/terms .
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1918772,00.html
And the comments of Redditors on " Reddit " Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/iama/comments/pecdk/i_am_dr_larry_zimbardo_i_gave_up_a_lifetime/?sort=confidence&st=j34izqu&sh=119e8cbe
http://happierhuman.com/?p=2458
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Comment: Fernando Aragon , March 14, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Man I wish you could have been a Psychology major. I'm walking in with minimal awareness of the field, but your articles have helped me understand many things about my own life and the world around me! Thanks for sharing your insight.
"Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson" Comment: Anonymous , March 15, 2014 at 4:51 pm
"Social Psychology" is a registered trademark of Sage Publications, Inc.A copy of the license at http://www.sagepublications.com/about/terms .
But i still have doubts about this. According to me what can we give to the needy people? Time and money are not same thing. Is it possible to donate money and spend time in serving poor people? Because if it is possible then only we can help them financially also. Err.. i mean to say, this article was not clear to me. Comment: Rajesh , March 15, 2014 at 5:42 pm
Thank you for your comment! We think this is a fabulous question. To answer it directly, we'd have to write another blog post - so please check out these links: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-resilience/201207/how-to-give-effectively http://www.givewell.org/international/ (GiveWell has some great links here) http://www.charitynavigator.org/index .cfm?bay=search&search=money+as%20a%20tool&find_all=y
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-resilience/201207/how-to-give-effectively http://www.givewell.org/international/ (GiveWell has some great links here) http://www.charitynavigator.org/index .
Conclusion
The findings show that the range of skills and interests that are important to happiness is fairly broad and that there are many activities that can be accomplished by volunteering, regardless of whether they directly benefit others.
Volunteering appears to provide a significant boost to recipients' sense of control and engagement in life, and does so in a way that does not come at a personal cost (both time-wise and financially). However, the trade-off for volunteers might be a reduced ability to spend money on themselves or augment their standard of living.
The researchers found evidence to support these claims.