Inside Track October 2004

Can You Fire a Volunteer?
Marlene Wilson

Churches can face difficult situations when:

A faithful member takes “ownership” of a volunteer position.
Leaders think that being willing is the same as being able.
A wrong fit is made in placing a volunteer.
The volunteer’s enthusiasm for a role changes into duty and “keeping on keeping on.”

In a workshop I was conducting, a team from a church asked me to have coffee with them during a break. I had just presented a session on leadership styles, and one style I identified was what I call the “abdicrat”—a leader who has retired without leaving.

The church team said they realized that their volunteer youth leader was clearly an abdicrat, and they had no idea how to deal with the situation. I started asking questions and learned that the youth leader had held the position for 15 years. The team said they realized that he‘d stopped leading after 10 years in the job. The unfortunate results were:

Kids were leaving the youth program in droves.
Parents were angry.
The entire church body was upset over the situation.

I asked them who was being served in this situation. The answer, of course, was no one–not even the volunteer. To deal with this dilemma, I suggested the team follow these steps:

First, determine who’s in charge and who this volunteer was responsible to (if the church had ministry descriptions, this should have been included in that description.) The person to whom the volunteer is responsible is the person who needs to take action.
Pray that you may discern what this person’s gifts and strengths are (clearly, his were no longer with youth).
Meet privately with the person, honestly defining the problem.
Lovingly and caringly explore other options of service for this person.
Make the changes as quickly as possible.

Here are some other suggestions to help avoid, or at least minimize, these situations:

Have written ministry descriptions with time commitments spelled out, including number of hours per week/month/year, and for how long. I prefer six-month to one-year commitments with the option to renew at the end of that time. This way both the volunteer and the church can decide if it’s still working well for them.
Have personal interviews before placement for all volunteers. This helps reduce the likelihood of “bad matches.”
Have periodic evaluations, especially for volunteers in leadership. Check on how things are going. Many problems can be nipped in the bud and good volunteers saved. It’s also a wonderful form of recognition. The volunteer is pleased that the church cares enough about them to follow up.

But what happens when the long-time member has taken ownership of a job (such as an organist, Sunday school teacher, or youth director) and doesn’t want to give up? On the one hand, it’s a relief to always have that position filled so you don’t have to face a recruitment problem. And it’s not necessarily a problem unless they no longer have the zest or passion for that ministry. The key question to ask is always Who is being served and how well? If the answer is that no one is being served except for the volunteer, then the hard decision must be made for the good of the ministry. It should be done prayerfully, carefully and with love…but yes, you can (and in some cases must) fire a volunteer.

There’s another sticky situation that can arise, and that’s if a volunteer’s behavior is inappropriate, abusive, or abrasive to others. In the case of inappropriate behavior, you should first check to be sure the volunteer received proper training. Sometimes mistakes are committed out of ignorance of the correct rules of behavior in your church. Be sure that all volunteers know the acceptable boundaries relating to their job and the people they work with.

If behavior is abusive in any way to others, you must remove a volunteer from that a job immediately. We must provide a safe and loving environment for those in our care. Abuse does happen in churches, and we must not tolerate it. Make a note in this person’s file so they aren’t recruited for the wrong position in the future. Having done that, refer the case to the appropriate pastoral care person for loving counseling.

How about the person who’s a difficult volunteer because of an abrasive, aggressive personality? Again, too often, these people are tolerated because no one knows what to do…after all, they’re a member of the church! The truth is, they frequently drive other volunteers away, as they tend to be bossy and unpleasant to work around. I suggest a process I’ve used with both staff and volunteers in this situation. Once again, the person to do this is the offender’s supervisor:

Observe the problem behavior yourself. Don’t just accept gossip or the opinion of others.
Meet with the problem volunteer as soon as possible and in private. (Never confront a person in public.)
Honestly define the problem behavior and why you consider it to be a problem (such as other volunteers leaving or transferring, unpleasant climate which affects motivation).
Let them know that this is unacceptable and the problem must be solved.
Invite them to offer suggestions and you do the same—with the goal of reaching a mutually acceptable solution in this meeting.
Some examples of possible options:

Change the job to something the volunteer can do alone.
Work on changing their aggressive behavior. This works best if the suggestion comes from the volunteer. This takes close follow-up on the supervisor’s part, as behavior change is difficult, but not impossible.
Invite them to consider serving elsewhere.

I always find it helpful to remember that in the church we don’t have wrong people—we often have right people in wrong jobs. No one likes to be put in the position of “firing” a volunteer, but sometimes it’s necessary. By setting up your volunteer ministry carefully and including ministry descriptions, periodic evaluations, and training, you can greatly reduce the incidence of many volunteer problems.

Marlene Wilson has written and trained on volunteer issues for 35 years. More than a quarter of a million people have attended her workshops.