Southwest Airlines: Volunteering is like Fight Club

The first rule of fight club is --
you don't talk about Fight Club.

The second rule of fight club is --
you don't talk about Fight Club.

I'll say the same about volunteering. I just saw the Southwest Airlines ad that they're running now that highlights their corporate recognition of volunteers. I'm all for it -- but not using it to spotlight the company. That kind of kills the effect if you ask me.

To be sure, in Corporate America you'll get plenty of chances to volunteer for stuff as part of the company's PR. So that's just another part of your career in some respects. I remind my students of this all the time. For those folks without other opportunities to contribute (via church or other organizations), work-related volunteering is a great opportunity.

Rule number one of Volunteering is -- you don't talk about Volunteering. To do so is to make it part of an agenda, something arranged. You volunteer when you can, for as long as you can, for things that you care about. I imagine that most of us have spent significant time volunteering -- it's very worthwhile. But we do it for the same reasons that people join Fight Club.

It helps meet needs that we have, deep down inside, that we can't discuss without making them trivial. Just like Fight Club.

It fills our need to belong to something larger than ourselves. It fills our need to get in touch with our basic human nature. To do something completely outside of ourselves. Same with Fight Club.

So I applaud SouthWest, I love those folks (bags fly free). I have a lot of respect for them as an organization, and all the SW people I've known over the years have been good people.

But the volunteering ad has got to go. My grandmother, if pressed to comment, would have called it "tacky."