There are people who work without being paid. Perhaps they develop an interest and get involved in helping out at a school, an area of health or social care. There are many things people can get involved in perhaps for a few hours a month or more. I myself was on the PTA of my son’s school. I did this partly to help but also as a working mother who didn’t collect her own child from school to get to know other parents and to demonstrate that I cared. I was under no illusions about this, but it didn’t stop me spending evenings planning events or evenings setting up and helping run quiz nights, discos, promises auctions and whole weekends running fetes in varied weather from 90 degree heat to torrential down pours.

There are lots of people in health care who do things to support the statutory work that goes on. People who visit others, who sit with people so their carers can go out, who campaign for better services, who advise and support. They do these things without being paid, and as professionals we should be grateful that they do. After all if people didn’t volunteer then things wouldn’t get done or those extra touches that add the quality wouldn’t be there.

But sometimes you come across people who insinuates that people who only work as part of their paid employment are in some way  less committed, and therefore less professional than them. Who suggest that doing a paid job and another unpaid one till late at night makes them a better person. While I appreciate everything that that person does, actually I don’t think they are better and the very fact that they try to make others look less caring leads me to question their motives.