Yesterday was challening, both physically and mentally. Yet I feel it is only just the beginning. I can appreciate that we as performers are going to be "pushed to our limits" as they said, we are of course right in the action on the opening night, all eyes on the world will be on the stadium where we are performing, and we have to make it look good. All this pressure is one reason I didn't follow drama as a career. Dance is even worse! I'm not a professional dancer, and my body (at present) is not used to working so hard, so quickly, so intensly. I'm hoping it will get easier as time goes on.......
Yet at the back of my mind, I do keep thinking.....we are only volunteers! Should we really be pushed like this? We have given up time to make the weekend rehearsals, and for some (me included) there is a signifigant financial commitment being made. Yes they are paying for any travel expenses within London, but for me, this offer is useless as I leave the train at Stratford.......no travel across London required.
My parents are both gamesmakers (the team of Olympic Volunteers).
My dad is in the trasportation team, driving important people around from the Olympic park and Westfield shopping center, to various destinations around London.
My mum is with the security team. Welcoming guests to the Olympic Park and aiding with the security procedures.
My dad has recently been given his shifts. And to be honest, they are horrific. He is being asked to work all hours of the day, for 9 hours at a time! Now, correct me if i'm wrong, no PAID position is having to work like that! Somedays he is working 9am-6pm and others he is 4pm-2:30am, and some are even through the night!!!! These are not hours that my dad is used to working, and I'm not even sure he was told to expect these sort of hours, and I think that is bad on the gamesmakers part. He was selected for the Paralympic Games period, yet he is having to work 5 weeks!!!! And the Paralympics only runs for 10 days! Mum is now dreading the arrival of her shifts, fearing that they could be very similar.......
My parents are not alone in their grief. All one has to do is log onto the Gamesmaker facebook page, and the wall is full of other people's concerns about their hours, destinations, financial problems, and places to stay. How are people who finish their shift at 2:30am going to get home?? Some people, who have regular jobs, have only asked for 2 weeks off work (the time the Olympic Games runs) yet are being required to work for 4 weeks! It's not consistent, and unfortunately I fear that many people are going to have to give up this wonderful opportunity because they have not been told the correct information of what is going to be required of them right from day 1.
I fear my parents may go the same way. My dad feels he cannot work the hours being asked of him, and mum is going to turn down this opportunity if her hours are anything like his....and I think that is such a shame.
What I have also recently discovered is that many of the volunteer jobs within the games also are available as paid positions. I for example have a job as a programme seller (this is also a volunteer's role), there are paid security, paid cleaners, paid transportation and EVEN (as I discovered yesterday) PAID OPENING CEREMONY PERFORMERS!
Please don't get me wrong, I am honored to be part of the games. I just feel so sad for the people who desperately want to be part of it all, but just can't comitt to what is being asked of them as volunteers.......
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