No paycheck, no performance review, no real consequence for walking away. On paper, managing volunteers sounds like the harder job. Mary Elizabeth and I debated it, and the real question turned out to be less about volunteers and more about something every PM eventually has to face: how much of your leverage was ever real in the first place.
The Tension
Mary Elizabeth argued for the motion. Her case:
* With no paycheck at stake, there’s nothing stopping a frustrated volunteer from simply disengaging, and that changes the whole management equation
* A volunteer project almost never sits at the top of someone’s priority list, so when work, family, or life gets in the way, the project loses
* Passion-driven teams invite ego and politics in a way that can turn toxic fast, especially when people are fighting for a cause instead of a paycheck
I argued against it. My case:
* The idea that paid staff comply because of pay doesn’t match reality. Most PMs, even ones with formal authority, get results through influence, not leverage
* Ego and political infighting are just as present in the corporate world. People undermine each other for position all the time
* Comparing volunteer projects to staff projects is really comparing different terrain, not different difficulty. It’s like saying finance is harder to manage than construction
The Line That Still Hits
A volunteer leader, dealing with a stakeholder who wouldn’t let an issue go, got the perfect deadpan response from someone higher up the chain: “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure we don’t give this volunteer a raise, so his pay will go from zero to zero next year.”
Why This Still Matters
Most PMOs today run on teams that barely resemble a clean staff hierarchy anyway. Matrixed reporting lines, cross-functional squads, people who answer to three priorities before they answer to yours. The volunteer dynamic isn’t a niche case anymore. It’s closer to the default.
Final Thought
Whether someone’s on payroll or not, authority was never the thing doing the work. Influence was.
Which is actually harder for you to lead: a team that’s paid to show up, or a team that’s only there because they want to be?
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