Working vs. Volunteering

I think, as tools for altruism, work (compared to volunteering) is very underrated. Our main criteria for judging the "goodness" of a deed should be its impact; if you can choose between saving 1 life or 2 lives, generally saving 2 lives is better. But we have preconceived notions that cloud that judgment when comparing "work" and "volunteering". We generally look down on "workaholics", but it may be that, if you decide to devote a couple of hours of your free time per week toward a good cause, it would be best to just spend that time at your job.

That may seem counter-intuitive at first, but consider the hypothetical person "Bob". At Bob's job, he makes pills that cure cancer. It takes him an hour to make a single pill. He has decided he wants to be a better person, so he considers spending an hour a week volunteering for a good cause. In his area, he could clean dishes at a soup kitchen or organize donated canned foods. Clearly, he would do the most good by spending that hour making another pill that will cure someone's cancer. He shouldn't believe there's something special about "volunteering" in and of itself that would make it more virtuous than curing someone's cancer.

Nobody's job is quite as good for the world as "Bob's" (I don't think?). But in general, people tend to forget that your job does good for society. The fact that someone is willing to pay you for what you do shows that it's valuable. And most of your necessities, entertainment, and luxuries come through the time someone else puts in at their job. It's good to volunteer at a place that gives canned food to hungry families. But it's also good to be the farmer or manufacturer that are just as (if not more) essential in making that happen. It would be sad for them to feel like what they are doing isn't important just because we don't value the impact of working the way we value the impact of volunteering.

Another overlooked aspect is, in addition to judging the impact of what you are doing, you have to consider how effectively you would do it. And we are usually relatively good at what we do for a living. Plus, the fact that we already spend a lot of time at our job can make it such that it's more clear how to spend an extra hour in an efficient way. I imagine many charities have a hard time figuring out how to put people who only volunteer for an hour every now and then to good use. I know my first hour of work after a vacation is not very productive.

A common objection to the idea of "altruistic over-working" is probably that you can benefit financially from working an extra hour. First, for many on a salary, that's not necessarily the case, though it may lead to better raises/bonuses in the future. But making money does not cancel whatever impact is done by the work itself (think of hypothetical Bob making cancer-curing pills). Additionally, having more money gives you even more opportunities for altruism by putting that money toward a good cause. And even if you just spend the money on something for yourself, one person's spending is another person's income. Self-sacrificing deeds are definitely admirable, but that doesn't mean we should look down on win-win situations.

I'm not suggesting volunteering is not good, and there are definitely many cases where a person does more good from volunteering than working. It just depends on your job, your talents, and your volunteering opportunities. But... if you want to spend some of your free time doing some good for the world, deciding which activity to choose should largely be based on what you expect to have the most positive impact. For some people that will be their job, and hopefully that doesn't get missed when thinking about the options just because it doesn't "sound" as good at first glance.