
The Olympics' Greatest Feat: An Unpaid, Highly Engaged Workforce - 1337biz
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/unpaid_and_highly_engaged_the.html
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rhizome
This is a strange article. It seems a bit gloaty to champion the myriad
volunteers working at a for-profit event, but this story isn't about the
volunteers. It's about how the organization benefits from them, as a "lesson
to business." Well no kidding they benefit!

The R&D scientist, the shop-keeper and their "honest advice," the bartender
who knows your name, and other examples of simply giving a crap, are used in
service of "engagement," and "alternative customer experience[s]." There is
not one iota of critique for how companies breed enthusiasm out of the people
they pay, much less those who are volunteering, and least of all how crappy
companies are made, but that's obviously not what they were trying to do...but
what _is_ the point of this story? Even people given to slavery _without_
smiles aren't going to get anything out of this article.

Coming from the HBR, an site notable in irony for running this story at the
same time the top-selling item in their store is a 7-page case study entitled,
"PCL: A Breakdown in the Enforcement of Management Control." Maybe PCL just
needed more happy volunteers? One thing is for sure: when half of your
workforce is unpaid, it's not hard to make your numbers.

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ZoFreX
I thought the more notable take-away was how much unpaid volunteers went
above-and-beyond, and how nice it is when one experiences that kind of
authenticity from paid workers - they specifically mention that it seems to
have "rubbed off" on other people, and that it'd be nice to see more of that.

I can definitely say that at Zipcar, it's quite easy to find people that
exhibit that same property, people that are genuinely enthusiastic about doing
their job, helping you, and really want you to have a nice day. I think it's
an important thing to seek out for any customer service oriented business.

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rhizome
Sure, but from a customer service standpoint the article would be too
abstract, and from a worker standpoint it's apples and oranges to compare
Olympic volunteers with Zipcar employees, who are getting paid. Is the point
that it's good to have half of your workforce be unpaid? Is it perhaps that
not paying people is the key to good customer service? I really can't tell.
I've been thinking about this for a day now and the only concrete positive I
can pull out of it is to "have a good product," with the implication that,
well, if you have a business that can't thrive with a 50% unpaid workforce,
your product must be bad. I may have too much imagination.

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untog
I will admit to having been pretty cynical about the London Olympics before
they started. However, since it started I've enjoyed every minute on it, to
the extent that (as a Brit in the US) I decided to get a last minute flight to
come back this week to enjoy the atmosphere and see the closing ceremony.

In more relevance to the article: I'm pleased that there are enough British
people out there willing to shed the stereotype of being negative about
everything, because I was guilty of it. I'd actually love to do it if I had
the time (I wonder what proportion are retirees? I've seen a few). Although
working as a developer is clearly superior in almost every way to the grocery
store job I had at the age of sixteen, I do still miss the personal
interaction you get when you're meeting new people every day.

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megablast
The media is so incredibly negative just before every Olympics that I can
remember, with almost exactly the same stories. Transport will not be able to
handle it, airports will collapse, the facilities will not be ready in time,
not enough people. For Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London, the media in the UK
and Australia all did the same repeated boring stories.

It is no wonder that you and most people felt bad about it.

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rhizome
_The media is so incredibly negative just before every Olympics that I can
remember, with almost exactly the same stories._

That's because it's an editorial strategy to lead up with negativity before
spending two weeks delighting their readers/viewer by describing how awesome
it all is. You spotted it yourself: they don't even bother changing the
stories.

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ukgent2
Maybe it’s the "I am doing this for free so I can be myself"

All personal option below, Friday afternoon ramble Example when starting a new
job, most people purposely hold back expressing themselves, they just want to
fit in and keep people happy. There is a fear of over stepping boundaries,
saying something that someone might take offensive all contribute to this
“shut up and do your job”. The issue is that it’s hard to get a job, and
people don’t want to rock the boat so heads down and work because the job is
tied to their ability to live.

The People at the games have nothing to lose, no expectations, they are free
to enjoy and present themselves as they wish. Someone in a job at a desk in a
call centre for a bank does not get that freedom and never will. The bank
needs that person answering phones as quickly as possible to make their wall
board stats look good so their managers can get bonuses.

This whole article was interesting from the point of a small company and how a
smaller company could empower its staff to enjoy their roles more and in turn
the new hire staff they bring in would follow the same patterns. For main
street corporates this is the last thing they want, cutting away efficiency
for what? Staff that enjoy their jobs, ha-ha don’t be foolish drones are
easier to control, also the people attracted to upper management jobs are
generally in it for the money more than the “lets make a warm and happy team
and all live happily ever after”

The guy writing this bit was getting excited over the idea of an energized
work force for free, everyone likes the personal touch however in customer
service roles they are given scripts and told what to say and how they should
say it and told that if they step out of line or say something that is wrong
they could lose their incoming and in turn the ability to live their life (who
has savings anymore?) until they get another hard to find job.

If you do something for free you can do what you like, worse case you get sent
home, in a job you can lose your job over expressing an option or spending too
much time trying to help a single customer and in turn you lose your incoming
(ability to live). No wonder people are more held back and reserved in their
paying jobs than when they offer to do something for free.

/ramble

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cs702
I love it: these unpaid, enthusiastic volunteers are providing real, honest
customer service -- as opposed to _the theater of customer service_ one
normally gets from the paid "customer support" staff of large organizations.

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larrys
"as opposed to the theater of customer service one normally gets from the paid
"customer support" staff of large organizations."

Keep in mind also that the olympics is a short term thing and a job is a long
term thing. It's easier to remain enthusiastic over the short term and for
something that you choose because you wanted to do it. As opposed to something
you have to do.

So the group of volunteers is both self selecting and additionally short term.

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biot
This reminds me of Dan Pink's talk on the science of motivation [0]. Ask a
bunch of people to do something for little to no reward, and they find the
task much more pleasurable than those who are highly rewarded for the same
task.

Likely there's a good dose of cognitive dissonance thrown in: people who are
highly rewarded justify doing the routine task for the money; those without
pay have no extrinsic motivation so their brain fools itself and finds
intrinsic reasons to enjoy the task.

In the case of the Festivus of Athletes™ (not 2011, not 2013, but somewhere in
between) the volunteers get to have an insider's experience they otherwise
wouldn't have, it's short duration so they don't burn out and get bored, and
they experience camaraderie with the other volunteers.

[0] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc>

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bradly
Well they aren't paid with money, but there is value in being a part of
something like the Olympics. Getting up close to the athletes, seeing the
action from the floor, even being on TV in the background of something being
watched by millions is exciting for many people. This is something people
would probably gladly pay for, so getting to do it for free is a method of
payment.

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mynegation
It's not just Olympics that capitalize on volunteers. Any industry that is
viewed as glorious/glamorous with a potential of high payoff (not just
monetary, but also in terms of fame and reputation) exploits volunteers and
low-paid workers to death.

Acting ("When someone in LA tells me 'I am an aspiring actor', I ask 'Which
restaurant?'"), fashion, arts, music, charity, design and architecture to some
extent. Take for example <http://workinculture.ca/> You would never see that
many volunteer and unpaid internship positions in IT or engineering.

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rhizome
That's a good point, re: internships and spec work.

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chevas
The volunteers were great, but not perfect. They needed to be more selective
about which roles the volunteers were capable of handling. This story comes to
mind: [http://1045theteam.com/american-tv-neglected-the-saddest-
sto...](http://1045theteam.com/american-tv-neglected-the-saddest-story-in-the-
olympics/)

The timekeeper should not have been a 15 year old kid.

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shurane
I would like to say that _age_ is not indicative of capabilities. That could
have just as likely happened to a 25 year old or 65 year old.

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chevas
I disagree. I think there are more capable 15 year-olds than others and it's
not a comprehensive indicator, but brain development is not complete at that
age and therefore having an adequate attention span to competently time keep
is arguably more difficult to secure from a 15 year old than a 25 year old.

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alexshipillo
As someone who volunteered at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, I can
confidently say that the two weeks of the Games was the most exciting time of
my life.

The culture of being a volunteer was incredible, and it almost felt like you
were part of a cult (in a good way!). I think that biggest reason for the
authenticity and commitment of the volunteers was the ongoing emphasis that
the actions of any single volunteer could be the difference in ensuring that
an athlete, spectator, media person, or official would have a great experience
in Vancouver. The organizers made it clear that they were entrusting the
volunteers in that responsibility to represent our city and country to the
world.

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andy_boot
I'm a London olympics volunteer. I took some time off work. (I contract so its
not hard to do). Its fun and makes a change to normality.

I think that what you really get out of it [apart from access to some of the
events] is a change of scenery and a break from the routine by doing something
'different'.

Plus we get special pink oyster cards (london transport) .

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gadders
And a ton of free Adidas kit, at least according to the Games Maker I know.

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binxbolling
Salient fact: most of these volunteers are working for a very short, albeit
intense, amount of time.

Other than "an engaged workforce is good," (duh!) it is difficult to draw any
key lessons for my organization when we're seeking (like most of you here)
retention, investment, and engagement over a span of _years_.

