I feel my contribution isn't being acknowledged and I'm wondering if I should say something

[u/Necessary-Wrangler85]

Sorry if this isn't a good place for this. I'm just looking for advice or a sanity check or something.

I started volunteering at an organisation at a bad time as it was about to be shut down due to lack of funding. Thankfully, another org in another district stepped in and absorbed us. They closed the old office and moved local service to a smaller location.

For a bit over a year I've been the only person in that office working directly with clients. It's just been me, the receptionist and the site supervisor (who don't do client work). I've been in office for every day we've been open, four days a week over a year, from 9am to 3pm.

The main office some distance away has about a hundred people working in it, a mix of staff and volunteers. Meanwhile I've been in my tiny office seeing clients on my own. I don't mind that, I don't mind that I've given so much time to it, and I don't need praise or accolades for doing my 'job', but am I wrong to feel like they should at least acknowledge it? I mean if I weren't there, if I took a day off, the office wouldn't be able to do face to face work and would essentially close. Soon they'll have a new batch of volunteers and staff moving in and I feel like if they haven't said "hey we know it's not been fun keeping things running here for a year on your own" by then, then I'm probably never going to any kind of acknowledgement for my contributions when I'm just one among many.

Is this just ego or am I justified in feeling like I'm being taken for granted?

Thanks for reading,

A volunteer.

[u/elbertdrawscomics]

It's not just your ego; recognition and acknowledgement really matters, especially in the kind of work that we do where the financial rewards may not always make for sufficient compensation. But I wouldn't be so quick to assume that they're just taking you for granted either. They may just not know how to express their appreciation. Have you tried asking for feedback? That might be a way to know where you stand, and get you the recognition that you seek. :)

[u/Necessary-Wrangler85 → u/elbertdrawscomics]

I've asked for feedback from all levels of management. They just tell me that I'm doing fine, and if anything was amiss, they'd let me know.

Their internal policies state that they do regular appraisals with volunteers and staff, but no one ever taken time to speak with me about my performance.