Charity shop managers.

Charityworker

Hello there. I'm the manager of a very large community centre which has a charity shop, coffee bar, drop in centre and various rooms with art, craft and gardening activities going on.

My volunteers are quite good in that if there is something they want they always pay the going rate for it. Having said that we keep our prices dead cheap anyway. It's £1 for adult clothes and 50p for childrens clothes and 50p for bric a brac items.

The volunteers get a christmas meal and christmas party where I get an alcohol licence and they can either bring their own booze or we sell lager and wine. I keep them motivated by doing little treats for them all year like let them bring their own cd in or plug their own ipod into the speaker, let them have free tea and coffee. The atmosphere is very relaxed and laid back so its like having a laugh with your mates rather than working.

Its not like we dont get our fair share of dramas though. In the last month we have had someone die, someone give birth, someone report a rape, a homeless guy expose himself to a female volunteer, someone brought a snake in and just got it out of his bag in front of everyone. It's definately not for the feint hearted.