Exits and Other Challenging Situations: What do you do if…?

Endings and challenges don’t have to be negative! It’s inevitable that both of these situations will happen at some point, so what do you do? Prepare of course! While you can’t prepare for the specifics of every situation, you can decide on a general approach to handle them to achieve the best possible outcome. Let’s work through some of the possible situations.

"When a volunteer leaves, whether it is their choice or a situation has made us decide to dismiss them, it is important to let them know that we really appreciated the time they gave to our organization." - CALP Practitioner

1. A Volunteer Decides to Leave: What do you do?

• Set up an exit interview – it’s best if you can meet them in person, but it can be done by phone. Learn what you can about their experience. Ask questions like:
  
  • What was the most rewarding and most challenging aspects of your role?
  • What is your reason for leaving? Follow their lead in how much information they want to give here, especially if it’s a personal situation.
  • What is our organization doing well and where can we improve?
  • Would you like to share more in an anonymous survey? (see Volunteer Questionnaire below)
    
    
• Show genuine appreciation for the time they’ve given – does your organization have an appreciation process for volunteers who leave?
  
  
• Look to the future:
  
  • Ask them if they would be interested in volunteering in the future. In this role or perhaps another.
  • Let them know what will happen to their volunteer file. How long do you keep their information and is it in a secure place?
  • Do they want a letter of reference? It’s easier to do at the time they are leaving, rather than later.

Click on the image to download the document. 

2. You Must Dismiss a Volunteer: Think about what types of circumstances might create a situation where this may become your only choice (don’t forget to refer to your policies and procedures).

• Just like an employee, you may need to re-assign a volunteer, put them on probation or dismiss them. As you try to decide what’s necessary, think about:
  
  • What is the best outcome in this situation?
  • Can the situation be remedied with clearer expectations or more training? Offer correction as early as possible to avoid this situation
  • Would another role be a better fit?
    
    
• If dismissal is necessary:
  
  • Document, in detail:
    • Incidents
    • Dates
    • Observations of unacceptable behaviour
    • Actions taken by your organization
  • Be sensitive and factual
  • Refer to any specific policy breached

3. Other Challenging Situations:

You can learn so much from others in the CALP system. The following are situations that other CALP practitioners have dealt with and shared to help you think about some of the ways you can prepare for your own experiences. 

Think about all you’ve learned in this e-Learning – all the planning, processes and policies you have or are going to put in place – and work through the following situations. What would you do? Once you’ve worked it through, or perhaps you just want to know how others dealt with it, open the document to see what actually happened!

Situation #1: You have someone apply for a volunteer role and have gone through all the steps without issue. You get their police record check back and it shows a conviction. What do you do?

Click here to learn how the organization responded. 

Situation #2: Someone approaches your organization wanting to work with new immigrants. The language he uses is odd - he wants to teach "them"; he wants to show newcomers how to be Canadians. What do you do?

Click here to learn how the organization responded.

Situation #3: An experienced and well-liked tutor, who has been with the organization for a long time, starts saying inappropriate things and swearing in class. What do you do?

Click here to learn how the organization responded. 

Situation #4: A family literacy volunteer is driving a family to and from program, giving advice and counseling them on different topics, maybe even giving them money to help them out. What do you do?

Click here to learn how the organization responded.

Situation #5: A tutor suspects that their learner is being emotionally and perhaps physically abused by a family member. The learner is asking increasingly more of their tutor to help them with the situation and the tutor is becoming uncomfortable and even scared. What do you do?

Click here to learn how the organization responded. 

Situation #6: An office volunteer in a small rural organization is sorting learner stories - putting them into the computer and taking out the personal or identifying information about them. Many of the stories are ones of incredible dedication and overcoming barriers. The volunteer is proud to be working with an organization that does such great work. They end up telling the stories to others, without remembering to remove all the identifying information, and as it happens in a small town, people guess who they are about. A learner tells you that somebody has said something to them about their story which makes them uncomfortable. 

Click here to learn how the organization responded.