This is my vision - if you don't like it, take a walk.
It was as though a black bin bag bursting with issues had been dumped on my doorstep. I had been watching BBC2's Mary Queen of Charity Shops and, much to my surprise, found myself feeling overwhelmed as the closing credits scrolled up on the screen.
Mary Portas, the retail fashion guru, had taken over a charity shop in Kent and turned it into boutique style store by spending £15,000 on a re-fit and employing a full-time shop manager.
She succeeded in increasing the shop's weekly take from £900 per week to £2,000 per week but not without its costs - and I don't just mean financial. Five of the volunteers felt so alienated they walked out.
Does this matter?
They were ladies in their 70s and 80s, many of whom had given decades of service to the store. They felt it was theirs. They felt they belonged. They balked at her spending their hard-earned cash on making the store look funky. They objected to her hiking the prices up. They did not like having to answer to a manager when they had been used to running the store themselves.
How much should Mary, who I think is wonderful by the way, have poured energy into getting them on side? At what point should she have said: "This is my vision - if you don't like it, take a walk?"
I think I was touched because I genuinely do not know the answer to that question. That clash between the need to move forward and the need to get everyone on board, arises in any kind of corporate change. The pain of it is exacerbated by my own befuddlement about the most creative course of action might be.
If you have any thoughts on this, do let me know. Great posts on the subject have been written from the perspective of a charity shop manager and a charity shop shopper. I'm especially interested in thinking about whether the answer is different depending on whether the people you are trying to get on side are volunteers rather than paid employees.
In the meantime I leave this post with two pictures, one of Mary, to represent the vision, expertise and a general can-do attitude that excites me. And another of Pat Jeffs, a volunteer at the PDSA store in Harborne, Birmingham who had nothing to do with the television programme but who I'm putting in to represent that day to day dedication to a cause that I salute. I love them both.
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I love this programme and I totally understand the issue from both sides of the argument. There is an increasing call on charities to be more professional to be part of the 'third sector'. This professionalisation can often rob organisations of that comfortable feeling that led lots of people to join as volunteers in the early days. I recognise that volunteers are the life blood of many charities, especially charity shops but at the end of the day charity shops are still shops. Their aim is to make as much money as possible for the charity. I like Mary Portas' challenge to the public to improve the quality of stuff they take to a charity shop (and not use it as a dumping ground)and ultimately the charity will benefit even if it means that it looses a few of its volunteers... (eek that sounds so mean!!)
Thanks for this comment Ade. I so understand your reluctance to say it is worth losing volunteers if it means the charity will get more money. I teeter on the edge of being able to say it, but think, at the end of the day, that I do.
I've had some interesting comments made on the post through Facebook and through Twitter.
One correspondent said the charity has a legal obligation to maximise its profits. Another said it had a dual role - to make money for charity and provide affordable clothes for the poor.
It's interesting to notice that the professionalism of some charities might put some volunteers off - but there again, I guess, it might make it more comfortable for others to work there. A big bag of issues, as I said.