Standing Up for Ourselves

Recently, the Philadelphia Business Journal had as its “Business Pulse” question of the week the following:  “Do you agree with companies asking employees to ‘volunteer’ to work for free some days?”  Sixty-five percent of the respondents said “No – getting paid for the work you do is only right.”  Far behind at 32%, was the response option of “It depends”-depends on what else the company does for employees besides paying them.  In other words, how good are the perks?  Only 3% said yes, employees should give back.

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I found the response of the 2/3 interesting for two reasons.  First, with the illogical expectations that the general public, as well as donors and board members, have about the wages nonprofit employees should earn, the vast majority of nonprofit employees are working for free many days, not just the handful or so suggested by “some” days.  Nonprofit employees give back to their employer-and their clients – day in and day out, year after year.

And while they complain about not making a decent living, and some good board members and executive directors do the right thing to try and improve those wages, the reality is that the practically all nonprofit employees continue to work in the sector for the love of the missions for which they toil.  Why does the majority of the public think it is okay to ask nonprofit employees to work for practically free, but for everyone else it is “only right” to get paid for the work you do?

We in Pennsylvania are into our 19^th week of a state budget impasse.* To look at the duration from a different angle, that’s 9, and counting, pay checks for employees who get paid every two weeks.  Too many people-and I would say one is too many, but we are talking way more than that-employed by nonprofits haven’t received all of those nine pay checks, and with each day of no resolution, the numbers joining those ranks of not paid grow.

But, as everyone likes to point out, and rightfully so, all of the legislators and their staff are being fully paid.  So while they are sitting pretty, much of the rest of Pennsylvania is suffering.  As happens with every budget impasse-we saw it in 2010, 2004 and the list goes on back to the horrible year of 1956 – the people most in need get hurt.  Sadly, the stories are replete throughout the state of nonprofits having to close down services, furlough staff, close doors altogether.

I’m not telling a new tale here; there have been small and inconsistent articles about this in various media outlets.  But it would seem as though we have become inured, as the outcries and the rage aren’t pronounced.   We aren’t being assaulted with the numbers and the impact, like those who are suffering because their literacy program is closed and their dreams of finding a better job and life are put on hold; or the senior day center that can’t be open regular hours so that seniors must remain on their own, without benefit of social interaction and at least one nutritious meal a day; or the counseling center that has gone from three counselors to one, leaving the depressed individual without the human touch that helps conquer the dark pull of suicide.  We, the nonprofit sector, are sitting passively by, waiting, watching, complicit in our own demise.

Why are we, who spend day after day helping others gain skills to improve their lives, exposing children and youth to new ways of thinking and doing, protecting animals and lands from extinction, breaking down literal and figurative walls that keep people separated as opposed together, and equipping people with the means to solve problems, sitting so docilely and letting others determine our fate and that of our clients without a battle?  Why do we continue to do what we always do:  figuring out some way to keep a semblance of something going?  Why doesn’t our sector ever stand up as a sector and say, “No!  This is not right!  This is people’s lives with which you are toying-their physical, mental, spiritual/cultural health with which you are playing and it must stop immediately?

Why do we just take it?

*For you history buffs, this isn’t the longest this state has gone without a budget; that record of 336 days belongs to 1956.  We are, however, closing in on the fourth longest impasse on record-134 days in 1960.