When People Feel Underutilized

On Saturday night, I felt so distraught with the oil spill that I went to a meeting to learn what I could do to volunteer and help. I listened to angry, disgruntled people rant about wanting to volunteer in the rescue efforts. Since I regularly paddle on the San Francisco Bay, this hit home for me.

So there I sat with a few hundred volunteers feeling angry and extremely frustrated. Our frustration was shared by all as we wanted to help but couldn’t- too many volunteers and no volunteer strategy in place. One woman in the audience said “we want to do something now” and another said “use us, we are here to help.”

As I sat and watched and listened to these heated discussions, I kept thinking about how demotivating it can be to underutilize people and their talents. We all want to make a contribution and help but when the expectations are unclear or the strategy hasn’t been designed, we feel useless, underutilized and plain frustrated. People got up to leave and walked out upset while others tried to sign petitions and others kept complaining.

Meanwhile, we’ve learned that 58,000 gallons spilled in the bay and more than 12,000 have been recovered.  511 oiled birds that have been rescued but 403 have died. A fundraiser has been announced and there’s more information on how to help.