Giving the milk away – was Mom right?
You know the old saying about the milk and the cow. Feminist perspective aside, some are wondering if this adage might apply to the professional mediation community.
There are a whole lot of people in the Boston area alone practicing mediation and conflict resolution in various ways. Some make very comfortable livings doing mediation or a combination of mediation, arbitration, negotiation, coaching and even ombuds consulting. Some combine these works with other work. And many, like me, do this work as an avocation. For free.
I can’t help but think back to my days in the Boston music scene. There are literally thousands of bands in Boston alone. Many are happy to play for free (or really end up paying to play by the end of the night). And with so many bands drooling just to have an audience, any audience, bars have little or no reason to pay bands anything. That is, no reason until a seemingly miraculous chain of events combine with an incredible amount of hard work and a lot of supportive people to land that band with a few bargaining chips in their pocket.
Is it the same in the world of mediation? I’m looking at you, experienced Boston mediators, especially. Post your comments and share your thoughts or add some more questions.
Does giving it away make it harder to make a living?
Are we promoting awareness of the profession through all this volunteer work, and so making it more possible for more people to find conflict resolution a profession rather than avocation?
July 16th, 2008 at 1:38 am
[…] might have seen my recent post, “Giving the milk away – was Mom right?” Well, a very good conversation occurred recently on MediationMensch, MediationChannel, and […]
November 13th, 2008 at 12:23 am
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