Labor Surrounding the Olympics

The volunteer system the Beijing Organizing Committee set up for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was A LOT different than anything I have experienced in America.

Many of the paid volunteers were working on-site at the venues at least a year before the Games ever began. And I am talking about basic-level management positions for simple operations at venues. For instance, the manager of the "pigeon holes" at the Laoshan Velodrome will have worked for about 14 months at the venue at the completion of the Paralympic Games. Pigeon holes are essentially boxes that hold any releases published by the Olympic News Service at that venue. The manager had about 10 people working for him and the coordination of this pigeon hole operation would take no more than two weeks of planning. Yet, he will have worked about 14 months on this task.

It was clear that the mindset as it relates to the paid volunteers was the same across the board. It didn't matter that the pigeon hole operation took less time than the coordination of the Opening Ceremony. The two would put in the same amount of time. I don't know if that is exactly the case hours wise, but the thought process was similar for the two. And the result was a lot of napping. Napping and small-group games were the solutions for many of those paid volunteers to pass the time.

Also, it was evident that the organizing committee demanded devotion from these volunteers when it wasn't necessary. The Laoshan Velodrome had showers built in - not for athletes - but for volunteers. In my time there, I never would have found it necessary to shower there. On top of that, there were instances that I was told of volunteers taking sleep bags to the venues and staying overnight. I think the intentions of the organizing committee were good. It wanted the Olympics to go as smoothly as possible but the use of paid volunteers was much different many Western cultures. And in fact, in one conversation I had with the pigeon hole manager I mentioned above, he emphatically told me he would be telling someone after the completion of the Games that what they demanded of him was unfair.