This Q&A with an Empower Work peer counselor shares the unique perspective of one of our inspiring volunteers who started her Empower Work experience as a texter. Laura Combs works in direct service for a nonprofit and has a background in retail and food service.

What inspired you to volunteer at Empower Work?

I became a volunteer after being a texter. I was really struggling at my previous employment and I was on a job searching group on Facebook. I saw a post from the founder of Empower Work, Jaime-Alexis, and she was asking for volunteers. I thought it was a really cool concept, but didn’t have the capacity to volunteer at the time. Work got worse and more stressful, so I actually reached out as a texter because I remembered this really cool organization and thought I’d check it out. I was probably on the line for about 20 minutes due to a crammed schedule, but it was really helpful because I didn’t have anyone else I could talk to. I needed to talk and vent it out more than I needed someone to tell me what to do. After reflecting, I realized I actually wanted to have the capacity to volunteer. So I went through the training, and then I started volunteering in the Fall of 2018.  

How did your experience in using the text line help you in your skills as a volunteer?

The thing that stood out to me in my own conversation when I texted in, was that it wasn’t advice. It was a “What’s going on? I’m here to listen,” conversation. I work in direct service work at a nonprofit, so my job is very intense for my staff and myself. So, it can be really difficult to step away from jumping into problem-solving because we want to help people as quickly as we can, but sometimes you don’t need that. Sometimes you just need to listen and vent it out. That was something I felt really supported with when I texted the line. It was less about the situation that was going on, and more about what it meant on a larger scale of my own wellness and empowerment at work. It was more about how I feel at work rather than actually solving the situation itself which was a skill that really helped me both as a volunteer on the line and when I think about my own management style.

Why would you encourage people to donate and give back through Empower Work? 

Empower Work is an incredibly unique model. It plays upon the exact definition of people helping people. It’s not like the volunteers at Empower Work are all social workers, or career coaches, or college students. It’s not a specific pool which is really advantageous because the people who are reaching out for support are also not just from a certain pool. Because Empower Work’s population is everyone who works, I also think that everyone who works can give back and provide support in a very special way that can’t be done if the support team becomes too specific and centralized. 

In terms of donating, being able to upgrade systems of support for people costs money. For example, there’s the internal tracking systems that Empower Work uses to track data and see who’s the most impacted by these needs of support or who is the most comfortable reaching out. Maybe the people who are the most comfortable reaching out aren’t necessarily those who are the most impacted. Being able to use financial support or pro-bono support to reach those populations is absolutely necessary to be able to have target outreach to people who need it. That can’t be done without a coordinated effort of both money, exposure, and people.   

How has your volunteer experience at Empower Work changed your perspective of the world of work? 

Having worked in retail, food service, and direct service which are all low pay for high stress jobs, and knowing people typically work multiple of these jobs, it’s illuminating to see the struggles people have across the board in different sectors. It’s not just people who have lower wages, and it’s not just people who work directly with the public. These are very structural problems and needs. The core need that everyone needs is support within their workplace regardless of what skill or training level they come to that job with. 

What is an inspiring conversation you’ve had on the line?

There are a few conversations that stick out. But as a general theme, it stood out to me that there are so many people that are unsupported at work. At work, I’m a manager and it’s super unsettling as someone who supervises people at work to see that so many people that are unsupported in the workplace. It was really enlightening to me to see the amount of people that feel that they don’t have support from those who are supposed to be their support systems at work. It forced me to reflect on my own management and learn how to use the skills I was learning as a volunteer—being able to read through the lines, not jumping to conclusions, not jumping to advice—in order to support my own staff.

What are the most valuable skills have you learned from volunteer training? 

Not jumping to problem-solving, listening intently rather than listening to respond, and reading through the lines. As someone who’s worked in nonprofits my whole life, I’m very much in my bubble of what I support and what I do. With Empower Work, both the other volunteers that I went through training with and the people I was supporting were varied in career paths and I thought that was really helpful for me to get out of that bubble. My background is in retail, food service and direct service. So, to engage with other volunteers who’ve worked in tech companies, consulting companies, higher education, etc. and actually learn from them as well, was really beneficial in a way that’s more difficult to do in more traditional training settings because those are usually more sector specific. 

What would you tell someone who is thinking about volunteering at Empower Work?

I’ve done a myriad of volunteer work, and I’d say volunteering at Empower Work is definitely more of a commitment and I think people really need to gauge their commitment ability and also do some self-reflecting before stepping into it.

Gauging commitment also means gauging the ability you have emotionally to support people because working with people is not easy work. That said, it’s also very rewarding. We want to make sure people are committed and that they understand what it takes to support people, and also celebrate that they are doing it.

*Note: Empower Work provides non-legal support for workplace challenges. This information, while authoritative, is not legal advice or guaranteed for legality. Employment laws and regulations vary by state. We recommend consulting with state resources for specific interpretation and decisions. If you believe you were discriminated against in violation of the law, we recommend you seek legal advice.