Never volunteer at Stephens

To the Editor:

I am writing to you to tell everyone in the community never to volunteer at Stephens Memorial Hospital. I was a volunteer for four years at the hospital coffee shop. In the whole time I was there I only had one lady who was very rude and not nice to me.

They have since closed the coffee shop down and now they have lost the heart of the community. I take summers off to spend time with my son. I called this fall to go and volunteer somewhere in the hospital and was told by the person in charge of volunteer services that they were all set. I got upset and left a message and no call back for a week.

I then e-mailed administration and then I got a call back from someone in Human Resources and they told me that customers complained that I talked about my personal life. This is the first that I am hearing about someone complaining.

I so wanted to serve my community by volunteering at the hospital. In so many words they told me they did not want me to volunteer at the hospital. But if I wanted to volunteer far away from the hospital that was okay.

On the phone she kept saying "Ummm, ummmm." I feel like I have been discriminated against. There was not one volunteer who worked in the coffee shop who did not talk about their personal life. I always talked about my son and how proud I was of him.

I worked behind the grill so I did not have a lot of time to talk to too many people. It usually got very busy. I don't remember a time that when they called I didn't come in and when they were shorthanded I always came in if only for a few hours.

They really do not know the damage that they have done to this volunteer. I have been very hurt and feel my reputation and my character have been smeared. I took a lot of pride serving my community and thought I was doing an excellent job in the four years that I volunteered in the hospital coffee shop.

I was told once that someone said that I talked to their son and I asked him why his mother did not like me. We had a meeting and addressed that and Human Resources did not have all the facts and none of my supervisors ever told me anything in the whole time I volunteered.

That was a year ago and now all of a sudden I don't fit the mold to volunteer. I always thought that was one thing that Stephens Memorial was proud of — to be kind to everyone, including volunteers.

That is not the way it is now. They have changed and you're just a number on paper and if you don't fit the mold, you are not good enough to serve them anymore. I have volunteered in many places, but I have never been so poorly treated in my life as at Stephens Memorial Hospital.

Penny Haslett

Oxford