My first work experience
It didn't come with a paycheck or a choice. It turned out to be more complicated than I'd remembered. It also happened, interestingly, in a nonprofit context.
What I tend to call my first work experience didn’t come with a paycheck or a choice. It came through the church my family attended, where I was assigned responsibility early and expected to carry it without much discussion.
My role was straightforward, unofficial and unspoken: set up Sunday school materials, reset the space afterward, make sure it was ready for the next group—but it sat inside a much larger system that ran on routine, hierarchy, and expectation.
That environment was structured to the point of rigidity. Time was fixed, behavior was guided, and participation wasn’t optional.
Showing up early, staying through long services, and maintaining a certain level of attentiveness wasn’t framed as work, but it required the same discipline. What I learned quickly was that reliability gets noticed—and once it does, it tends to come with more responsibility, not less.
At the same time, I was getting an early, unfiltered look at how institutions actually function. There was the visible layer—services, teaching, community—but underneath that was constant coordination, resource management, and fundraising.
Weekly giving, special campaigns, events—it was clear that sustaining the organization required ongoing effort and buy-in from its members. That stuck with me.
Where things became more complicated was around curiosity. The system had clear expectations for participation, but less tolerance for disruption—especially the kind that comes from asking questions that don’t have easy answers.
I crossed that line once. I asked a question in Sunday school that didn’t have a clean, acceptable answer in that setting. The response wasn’t a discussion or even a correction. I was pulled off my duties and replaced. Just like that.
Looking back, I don’t frame that as a personal slight so much as an early lesson in how structured environments maintain themselves. They reward consistency, they scale responsibility based on perceived reliability, and when something introduces friction—especially the kind that challenges the frame—they resolve it by removing the source. That dynamic isn’t unique to that setting. I’ve seen versions of it everywhere since.
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