Sorry this will be long, but I'm really upset.
I have volunteered as an SA crisis counselor before so I so have some experience on how crisis volunteers need to be trained. So some highlights from my super long training session today which made my blood boil:
-The person training us told us that we are not allowed to ask any questions. Ever. Not about assignments, not about the training, nothing. One girl dared to try to ask a question and he instantly cut her off and snapped- “I already said no questions.” How does that make any sense.
-He tried to make it seem as though the program was doing US (the volunteers) a favor instead of US doing THEM a favor by VOLUNTEERING in a hugely mentally exhausting line of work.
-They made us pay a $60 nonrefundable deposit to secure our spot. Which felt fairly MLM scheme-y but I didn't mind because I was excited to help. Then during training, the supervisor said that we needed to be grateful to be selected because it takes $1600 to train each person. Ummm what? We need to be grateful to them when we're helping THEM save money in the long run by not having to hire full time counselors for the hotlines?
-He made it a point to remind us every hour or so that he just knew that some of us weren't cut out for it. Like thanks, that's super motivating. Funnily enough, it took exactly half the training day before someone dropped out. Biggest red flag of the day.
-Supervisor said its not their (the supervisors') jobs to support us while we support callers?? Volunteering in these kinds of hotlines is emotionally draining. If we can't lean on our higher ups then who are we supposed to turn to??
-The boomer “tough love” training program: everything the volunteers did during training exercises was “wrong.” If it wasn't a perfect answer, it was wrong. He randomly called on another volunteer to answer a question and the volunteer said “I had a few answers but others said the same things as me and you said they were wrong so I don't have anything else to add.” Boss got annoyed and insisted he give an answer. Volunteer rightfully argued back and boss ended it by point blank saying, “you will not win an argument with me, so don't bother wasting our time.”
-Intimidating us about using them as a reference. He pretty much bragged about people having lost their jobs because he didn't give them a great reference because they didn't fulfill their commitments completely.
-He stated that we should treat the training as though it was a graduate level course and we should put as much effort into our assignments as we would in grad school.
-Just intimidating us in general. Apparently every minute offense is enough to get us kicked out of the training program. Late by a minute or two when returning from break? You're out. Assignment late? You're out. Not participating enough? You're out. Also weirdly enough, really really emphasized that he knew the deans and people who ran LMSW programs in NYC so we should be careful of how we conduct ourselves.
-Apparently in addition to literally talking people down from suicide, we are expected to help with maintenance of the call center like taking out trash, cleaning and bathroom stuff. Why? Cuz they're a small friendly family.
-“We will be watching you closely today to see your facial expressions, how you react and how much you participate. Don't be surprised if after training you get an email dismissing you because we don't think you care enough. And after that don't bother appealing our decision because you won't get a response back.”
If this was a paid job, I think I would've run for the hills already.