Theoretically, volunteerism is great, but the literal meaning of the terms is to offer your services freely - without charge, and without being put in a position where you don't have any other choice.
Lately, corporations such as the one I work for have made a big thing about "corporate citizenship", meaning two things a) employees can log their volunteer hours outside work so that he company can say, "Look at what good citizens our employees are!" - (& it is implied "Look at what a good corporate citizen we are!"). Also, b) employees may be required or "strongly encouraged", during work time, to do volunteer work (again implying good corporate citizenship.)
But in the first case, the corporation cannot truly take credit for the volunteer work their employees do on their own time. It is simply an untruth to take credit for it. In the second case, this isn't truly volunteer work, as the employees are essentially being forced to do it as part of their job. Even if technically, you might be perfectly within your legal rights as an employee to refuse to take part in this and instead stay at work and do the job you were after all hired for, one just doesn't have the feeling that one has a choice. It won't look good if you decline to participate. (Moreover, many employees don't have a clear idea of what their rights are in such cases.)
Perhaps I'm being unduly cynical. I wouldn't deny that it's a good thing that companies encourage volunteerism on the part of their employees and provide them with the opportunities. But what bothers me is that companies do this primarily because it makes them look good.
And as a consequence I have spent this morning mucking about planting trees. Well, good enough for me.
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