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My company (a relatively large one) recently asked for volunteers to help and move furniture to the new office on a weekend in exchange for free pizza. We are not professional movers, but people with white collar jobs who are salaried. Many of us are already on-call and work more than 40 hours a week as is.
So, they want 2,4, 6 or 8 hours work for some pizza...
And they now seem surprised that not enough people volunteered. If that is how they value your time, then I am not surprised.
They should be getting professionals in, for two reasons:
the professionals won't break anything and have the knowledge, equipment and skills to move heavy and/or bulky items.
the professionals are covered for the risks ie if they break something or hurt themselves.
So, no I would not have volunteered for this.
Edit: For is it ethical, well some say yes and others no, but does that make any difference to the situation? I don't think it changes the question - the company asked...
When asking for volunteers, what do they mean by "volunteer"? Is it compulsory? If so, then that is not asking for volunteers. If it is not compulsory then no-one has to accept. The subsequent complaint by the company after does lead one to believe that the company expected people to come forward ie it was not truly voluntary.
This reminds me of the old chestnut about 10 men in a line and one person was asked to volunteer by taking a step forward... 9 men took one step backwards...
The consequences of error by non-professionals doing the work are also interesting. Will the insurance cover the damages when people with no training did the moving, possibly without the correct equipment? What about personal injury claims... Will there be requirements for risk assessment and HSE (or equivalent Safety Executive depending on location) procedures?
My company (a relatively large one) recently asked for volunteers
By definition it was voluntary. It wasn’t mandatory or forced upon any employee. You could simply ignore it if you didn't want to participate.
Is this ethical?
Whether it is ethical or not could be open to debate.
The person who organized the event complained that not enough people volunteered. Is this a justly made complaint?
As it was a volunteer job, the organiser has no grounds for making an official complaint.
They are just trying to guilt trap those who didn't participate. It couldn't be an official complaint, just a rant.
Some would have found it okay or maybe even fun-filled activity. Since it was just a volunteer thing and you chose as per your liking, you can simply forget about it and move on.
It is unethical, IMO:
First and foremost, the fact is that any time an employer makes a request like this at least some employees are likely to feel pressured to attend because they fear that an absence will be noticed and lead to poor treatment in some way or other. Such fear may or may not be justified, but is likely to exist. Thus expecting people to "volunteer" under such circumstances is coercive and thus unethical.
Also, the company is trying to get something of value (moving office furniture) without paying any thing close to what it's worth. (From personal experience, I know a professional moving crew makes thousands of dollars for a single day of work moving the contents of a house; I'd expect it to be (much?) more for a sizable office. Did your employer even spend $100 on the pizza?)
Additionally, the company is trying to get that low value from its employees without really paying them - instead of moving during a normal work day and paying you for a day's work, they want you to come in on your own time and the only offered compensation is a meal (and likely not a very good one at that).
As others have mentioned in other answers, there is the possibility that an employee could be injured in this activity. Will the company cover medical expenses if that happens? Will they pay the injured employee as if they are still working, or require the employee to take sick leave and/or go on disability leave (which may not pay the employee at his/her regular rate)? Likely these have not been thought through, but without a clear statement indicating that the company will pick up the expenses if something like that would happen, the employee can only assume that they would be the one absorbing such expenses, which is not a reasonable thing to ask by the employer. Even if the employer does pick up such expenses, asking an employee to volunteer and risk an injury isn't really reasonable or ethical, IMO.
As implied above, the company could have done more to encourage employees to attend: Pay the employees who came to help with the move or given them a day off. Another way to have "sweetened the pot" would have been to give away prizes to those who attended. Of course, they should have made clear what would happen if someone got hurt.
Addressing the issue of whether the complaint was "just": In my opinion, NO! Expecting people to give up a day of their free time to help their employer and offering nothing more than a few slices pizza is not reasonable. People do have lives outside of work and many of them aren't likely to change plans for a voluntary event at their jobs unless there's better compensation offered (or fear of reprisal for failing to come to the event). You don't say how much advance warning was given, but some people may not have been able to change their plans.
Maybe a little OT, but interestingly enough, I once experienced a sort of opposite problem: My employer of the time hired professional movers to transfer our offices from one building to a new one with more space. The move was scheduled to happen over a weekend. While we left the furniture for the movers, no one trusted them to move our computers safely. Even though we made backups, on the Friday afternoon before the move virtually everyone moved their computers themselves. While I didn't witness it personally, it became known that the VP who ran our office was livid.
There is never any harm in making an ask.
As for the pay for the work, as pizza for hours of labor is well below the minimum wage, actually that is not unethical either. The terms were stated beforehand for you to either accept or decline.
Now, I recently volunteered for a task just like this a week ago. The CEO was there. Before, he did not know who I was, and now he does. Let's say for example that there is a big important, high profile project to lead and the 2 candidates are me and someone who did not volunteer. With everything else being equal, who are they going to give it to? I'm willing to bet they will give it to the person who volunteered over the person who did not. And the advancement in that person's career from that, and the salary that goes with it, will more than make up for the few hours of your weekend.
As for the company complaining, well, are they just asking a question on why the response rate was below expectations, or are they just scolding their employees? Once again, there is no harm is asking a question.
1) Is this ethical?
While I think it's fine to ask for volunteers to do certain difficult to outsource tasks (like decorate the office for a minor holiday event), there are numerous companies specialized in moving office furniture. I strongly believe your company was just trying to save some money here. It's not unethical to ask for volunteers if it was truly a volunteer-based, no-strings-attached, no-one-will-get-fired-for-not-volunteering event,
2) The person who organized the event complained that not enough people volunteered. Is this a justly made complaint?
Honestly, complaining about not getting enough volunteers for 1) a laborious task and 2) a task that benefits no one but the company during off hours is frankly very ungrateful.
I personally would not have volunteered for this task even though I enjoy volunteering in general.
I'm currently a software developer who was once a computer repair tech, who also had to take day labor jobs in college, so I have (maybe) a unique perspective on this, as I have worked several sides of this question.
As day labor, I have helped set up cubicles and other furniture in an office environment, as well as moved furniture for large and small offices. All of this requires knowledge that most people don't have. I know this because I didn't know the "tricks of the trade" until I was in the trade. In my experience, not many people know how to safely move office furniture, let alone the electronic equipment.
When I was a computer tech, I was also hired to move electronic equipment between offices. While it was easy work for me, again, most people don't know the correct or safe way to move computers, laptops, copiers, networking equipment, etc. and then set it back up. Even in this role, we were only allowed to pack up the equipment into boxes and onto pallets. The actual moving between offices was still done by a licensed, professional, insured mover.
As a software developer, I would expect to not have to do heavy labor for my employer, unless it was an emergency, such as a networking rack or part of the building falling on someone. I.E.: someone is in danger and needs rescued. They pay me for my mind, not my muscles. I learned this the hard way, by volunteering as "the muscle" for things, then getting stuck being the "goto guy" for physical labor instead of mental labor. Most people think that if you can do physical stuff, you can't do mental stuff. Because this is often true, and the fact that employers will try to "save" money in any way, you can get pigeon-holed in a low paying job for not doing the high paying duties, even if your boss/manager/CEO is the one giving you the off-topic duties and preventing you from doing your real job.
That all said, asking you to volunteer for a labor intensive, dangerous job on the weekend is a recipe for disaster on many fronts. Not only can the equipment get damages, but also the employees. This is also taking pay away from people who do this for a living, or at least attempting to earn a living. As such, it's not ethical.
Also, getting a pizza lunch for doing this large amount of work is a slap in the face.
As for the coordinator of this task complaining about not enough volunteers, that verges on workplace bullying. That depends on the context and manner of the complaint. If it was an offhand comment, that could just be frustration that the task they are in charge of can't be complete. If it was belligerent and badgering, then it's something much more problematic and less than ethical. It may still not be exactly unethical, but it's also not 100% ethical.
I wouldn't volunteer for this "task" and I think I'd even talk others out of it. This is one (of many times) the "not my job" statement is a reason and not an excuse.
Is not ethical at all, in fact it is dangerous.
This young friend died moving furniture:
https://vejasp.abril.com.br/cidades/aluno-usp-morre-asfixiado-armario-poli/
Yes. Of course. I've had to not only move furniture in the building, but I have actually had to box up my stuff and move it to a new building, despite being a "white collar employee", in my own car.
Don't want to do it? Don't. But if you're not doing anthing, it's a great way to make friends with your coworkers, get a free meal, and look good for the boss.
So long as it is truly voluntary, I don't see any ethical problems. I'd characterize it more as a risky request. What some see as a team building opportunity, others see as pressure to do what they don't really want to do when they really don't want to do it.
People can complain about whatever they want. If the organizer's complaints are crossing the line to coercing people to do something outside of their job function, then yes it's crossed into an unreasonable case.
1st: Although a true professional company would never ask such a thing, some rapidly growing companies, while trying to be professional, may act completely unprofessional. As long as it works for both sides, it's up to you to join it.
Back in time, I was doing things not in my jobspec, overtime, moved heavy furniture as few minute-work... But, when I was moving my own flat, I was given the company car. I took last-minute dayoff's.
But beware: This type of companies most likely do their all other professional work with the same unprofessional approach, and sooner or later this unprofessionalism may reflect your actual tasks, beyond you can tolerate.
Depending on the company culture, moving can make a good team-building event. In this case, pizza payment is adequate and can even be supplemented unofficially with a bottle of beer.
It may equally well not fit in the "team-building" frame.
I agree with all of the other answers, with one caveat -- if this was "just plain office furniture", yeah -- hire movers. The other caveat is "small startup", but the OP said this is a large company.
The only instance where this makes remote sense is when what's being moved aren't things which can readily be dumped in boxes, taped, tossed on a truck, hauled in, and dumped in a new workspace. For example, I once moved $2M worth of computer equipment in a co-workers pickup truck ... after hours, at night, off the loading dock (no, really) ... because we couldn't count on "the movers" to not break everything.
The other instance, which is completely unethical, is where "volunteers" are rewarded with "first dibs" on the best spaces.
TL;DR - Large companies should only rely on "volunteer movers" for specialized items which require specialized skills. Small companies may ask for "volunteer movers". "Volunteers" shouldn't be given special rewards, like choice office space.
They asked you to voulunteer. They are not forcing you do it so its not unethical.
Voulunteering shows that you value the success of the company, which may make a good impression on your boss.
Also if you help participate in the setup then you might get to have some input on where everything goes.
If its just regular furniture then I don't see how its any different than when anyone else asks their friends to move their stuff into their new appartment/house.
