At the risk of this coming off pretty damn snarky, it's because volunteering involves work. My wife and I do a lot of volunteer work, actually; mostly with ani

At the risk of this coming off pretty damn snarky, it's because volunteering involves work. My wife and I do a lot of volunteer work, actually; mostly with animal shelters. I also do a good amount of open source work in my spare time. As a geek, I find programming fun. Even if I'm swearing up a storm wrestling with a bug, I'm having the time of my life. I'm so lucky to be able to do this as a job and a hobby, and to enjoy both. And while I enjoy working with homeless cats, there's dirty litter boxes to clean, wild cats to be socialized and tame cats to be medicated (both of which usually involve me getting clawed somewhere on my body), and members of the public to be educated about our shelter's cats and cat ownership in general. I enjoy knowing I'm doing good, but it's a different kind of enjoyment. I enjoy the outcome, not so much the journey to get there. Speaking of "the journey", I did an outreach event a couple Sundays ago. It was an hour drive each way. Great chance to promote the shelter in front of animal owners and other rescue groups. But I was beat by the time I got home, and I gave up half my weekend to be there. In contrast, I can work on open source in my favorite chair, with my feet up, watching TV while sipping on an adult beverage. Totally different experience, and one that probably sounds much more attractive to most people. It doesn't feel like work to me.