Some people just can't help but cause drama

When I moved back to the town I graduated high school in I wanted to find an opportunity to continue my community service as I would no longer be able to volunteer for the crisis center I had previously been doing.

I evaluated several opportunities in the community - going to a new crisis center, hospital, nursing homes, animal centers and I decided I really wanted to work with animals. In the beginning I truly enjoyed working with the animals. I enjoyed spending time with them, working on obedience training, exercise and play time!

Then the animal center manager asked if I would like to be more involved and take over the volunteer coordinator position. I thought about it and decided to give it a try. However, the more involved I became the more I realized all the responsibilities of the volunteer coordinator position truly required this to be a paid position. I approached the manager and discussed this with her and the fact that money would have to be given to support this. I provided her with a list of grants that helped provide funds for this position but never heard anything back from her.

I continued on with the role, recruiting and training new volunteers, locating community events opportunities and participating in spreading awareness in the community to the needs of the shelter and the animals in need of homes.

Towards the end of last year I noticed that the center manager and animal services manager both began to behave in hostile ways towards me. I was informed by new volunteers that the 2 managers were telling staff members that I was saying things about them, I began receiving complaints by the volunteers about the 2 managers  were treating them badly and etc. I tried to speak to the 2 managers but the hostility just grew worse. By the time the new year rolled around I decided there was too much drama involved with actually being involved with the personnel at the center and decided I wanted to strictly work with the animals after the new year.

 During this winding down period at the end of the year I noticed that many of the volunteers were no longer returning, the public comments on the social media pages were often complaints of how they were treated by staff members and that the over all general feeling about the center was that it was  being run by people were not nice, did not care about the animals, and were often rude to the public and often were unable to be reached by phone or email.

I let the staff know I would no longer be able to participate in the volunteer coordinator position because of this and that I would go back to strictly just working with the animals. Then suddenly the treatment became even more hostile.

I am one of those persons who use to let this type of behavior upset me but over the past few years I started eliminating behavior and people who behave this way from my life.
It saddens me that people who are supposed to care about finding homes for animals behave this way and drive many in the community to view them harshly and not want to support the animal center.

Even though I wanted to continue on with my community service I have had to decide that for my own sanity  can not be associated with an organization that makes me feel like I am beating my head against a wall when it comes to trying to improve services, improve the animals lives and provide a quality service for the community.