Officers' Quarters: Not an officer
by Scott Andrews 
Mar 29th 2010 at 1:00PM
Who deserves to be an officer? Guild leaders struggle with this question quite a bit. It comes down to this question: In your guild, does the officer rank exist to reward players or to give them responsibilities? In other words, what is the purpose of the officer rank? Later, I'll talk about the two most common purposes. But first, this week's e-mail comes from a player who feels he deserves a promotion to officer.
Hey Scott,
I've been playing with a group of people for five years now. We've stuck together as a guild for most that time, though we've moved from tag to tag over the duration. I left WoW for a short period while I moved across the country and upon my return found the guild I had been in was disbanded and we had merged with another guild. No big deal, we've done it before. I was an officer in the old guild, but was not promoted to officer status in the new (too many officers, not enough members, etc.). Again, no big deal.
Over the past three months I've taken a very proactive attitude in the guild. I wrote the guild constitution, restructured the guild hierarchy, built the guild site, organized events and assisted raid leads on a regular basis. In the meantime three of the five officers all but vanished from the game and only show for the occasional raid. Both the co-leaders have stated they want to make me an officer, but nothing has come of it. Our guild leadership is notorious for procrastinating. I'm doing all the duties (and then some) of an officer without the promotion. I feel the officers are taking advantage of me at times. Should I outright ask for the promotion? What's the best course of action here?
--Not an officer
NAO, much depends on the way officers are perceived in your guild and the purpose of the officer rank. In some guilds, officers aren't actually the people who carry out the day-to-day business of the guild and bear the burdens of responsibility for all of those tasks that you've been performing. Rather, the officers are merely the members who have been there longest, who happen to know the guild leader in real life, or perhaps simply the players whom the guild leader feels are deserving of the privileges of the officer rank.
In those guilds, being an officer is a reward. Unburdened by too many extra duties, the officers rule like monarchs. They take care of the occasional crisis. They handle inviting and kicking players according to their whim. Meanwhile the average citizens are expected to make sure the guild is functioning smoothly.
If you're in such a guild, you might feel like you deserve the reward of leadership after everything you've done for your organization. But the officers may be afraid to promote you. Once they do, they fear that you will stop working so hard.
In this case, I'm afraid to say that you've fallen into their trap. You've done all the work, but they don't actually owe you anything. They will give lip service about promoting you, but they'll drag their feet about actually doing it.
This situation isn't the norm, but unfortunately it does happen more frequently than it should.
For most guilds, on the other hand, being an officer is not exactly a reward, although some may perceive it to be. In fact, it's more like a burden. In these guilds, officers not only deal with all guild crises, they also carry out all the tasks that a guild needs in order to function: scheduling, recruiting, leading and organizing events/raids, squashing drama, maintaining a website and voice chat server, etc., etc., etc.
In this type of guild, players like you are a godsend, because they take some of that burden off of the officers. Even a player who volunteers to help with one of these tasks is a boon for the leadership, let alone someone like you who has done so much.
If you were in my guild, I would have promoted you long ago, and before you asked for it. But I certainly wouldn't have felt like I was rewarding you -- far from it. Rather, I'd feel only that I was recognizing your efforts with the proper status for someone who was doing all that for the guild. But instead of being a volunteer, once you were promoted I'd expect you to continue doing such things.
(Of course, all officers are volunteers. None of us gets paid. But there's a difference between a normal guild member who's helping out with leadership duties and an officer who's assigned to handle certain tasks.)
If you're in a guild like this, you can be more assertive about asking for a promotion. Some people who actively ask for promotions do so for the wrong reason. They want to lord it over their fellow guildies or they want the leadership-determined privileges of rank. In your case, however, you've clearly put in the effort and should be given the rank. There's no real harm in asking again, aside from perhaps being perceived as pushy or overly ambitious.
It's better to phrase your request as an offer to help rather than a demand for recognition. Say something along the lines of this: "I noticed a number of our officers haven't been around lately. If you need someone to fill the gap, let me know." That will go over much better than, "I've been doing all this work and I'm not even an officer. Can you promote me?"
Ultimately, however, your officers will promote players when and if they want to. My advice, if you care about your guild, is to continue on as you are. Rest assured, the people in your guild know who's doing all the work. Rarely does anyone actually get thanked, whether they're an officer or not. In many circumstances, the guild officer position is an utterly thankless job. Yet, people do appreciate your efforts, even if most don't actually say so.
/salute
NAO, much depends on the way officers are perceived in your guild and the purpose of the officer rank. In some guilds, officers aren't actually the people who carry out the day-to-day business of the guild and bear the burdens of responsibility for all of those tasks that you've been performing. Rather, the officers are merely the members who have been there longest, who happen to know the guild leader in real life, or perhaps simply the players whom the guild leader feels are deserving of the privileges of the officer rank.
In those guilds, being an officer is a reward. Unburdened by too many extra duties, the officers rule like monarchs. They take care of the occasional crisis. They handle inviting and kicking players according to their whim. Meanwhile the average citizens are expected to make sure the guild is functioning smoothly.
If you're in such a guild, you might feel like you deserve the reward of leadership after everything you've done for your organization. But the officers may be afraid to promote you. Once they do, they fear that you will stop working so hard.
In this case, I'm afraid to say that you've fallen into their trap. You've done all the work, but they don't actually owe you anything. They will give lip service about promoting you, but they'll drag their feet about actually doing it.
This situation isn't the norm, but unfortunately it does happen more frequently than it should.
For most guilds, on the other hand, being an officer is not exactly a reward, although some may perceive it to be. In fact, it's more like a burden. In these guilds, officers not only deal with all guild crises, they also carry out all the tasks that a guild needs in order to function: scheduling, recruiting, leading and organizing events/raids, squashing drama, maintaining a website and voice chat server, etc., etc., etc.
In this type of guild, players like you are a godsend, because they take some of that burden off of the officers. Even a player who volunteers to help with one of these tasks is a boon for the leadership, let alone someone like you who has done so much.
If you were in my guild, I would have promoted you long ago, and before you asked for it. But I certainly wouldn't have felt like I was rewarding you -- far from it. Rather, I'd feel only that I was recognizing your efforts with the proper status for someone who was doing all that for the guild. But instead of being a volunteer, once you were promoted I'd expect you to continue doing such things.
(Of course, all officers are volunteers. None of us gets paid. But there's a difference between a normal guild member who's helping out with leadership duties and an officer who's assigned to handle certain tasks.)
If you're in a guild like this, you can be more assertive about asking for a promotion. Some people who actively ask for promotions do so for the wrong reason. They want to lord it over their fellow guildies or they want the leadership-determined privileges of rank. In your case, however, you've clearly put in the effort and should be given the rank. There's no real harm in asking again, aside from perhaps being perceived as pushy or overly ambitious.
It's better to phrase your request as an offer to help rather than a demand for recognition. Say something along the lines of this: "I noticed a number of our officers haven't been around lately. If you need someone to fill the gap, let me know." That will go over much better than, "I've been doing all this work and I'm not even an officer. Can you promote me?"
Ultimately, however, your officers will promote players when and if they want to. My advice, if you care about your guild, is to continue on as you are. Rest assured, the people in your guild know who's doing all the work. Rarely does anyone actually get thanked, whether they're an officer or not. In many circumstances, the guild officer position is an utterly thankless job. Yet, people do appreciate your efforts, even if most don't actually say so.
/salute
Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas, and suggestions at scott@wow.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
scaresome Mar 29th 2010 1:07PM
I agree with the response.
It's hard to know how they are seeing you as well. The work you've put in, perhaps they appreciate it but may not quite like the direction or tone of your work. Maybe they fear the direction you will take the guild as an officer.
If I were asked by you, I'd say coast for a while and just play the game.
BadAndyMk3 Mar 29th 2010 1:17PM
Being promoted to be a guild officer sounds like winning a pie-eating contest where the grand prize is more pie.
Lissanna Mar 29th 2010 1:49PM
That's one of the reasons why I handle a lot of my guild's recruitment stuff without the actual ability to say "yes" and invite them to the guild. I just convince people to apply & then the "real" officers have to sort out the rest. It doesn't even normally bother me, since it means that I have the control to be able to stop doing it if I didn't want to, whereas having officer status means that it would be my "job".
Boydboyd Mar 29th 2010 1:54PM
It all depends on the guild, BadAndy.
Ben Mar 29th 2010 2:39PM
I'd say it's more like getting access to the special "Officers Only Pies" table, which is actually the same as the "Members Only Pies", but you get to have a different label on your pies.
I've been in a similar situation, since I helped with recruiting, helping other members figure out gear they need to get raiding, providing enchants, etc, but it never occurred to me to even ask for "officer" status, since it wouldn't actually change anything about what I was getting done, just the label I do it under.
Dashifen Mar 29th 2010 1:20PM
It could also be that they don't appreciate the amount of time you're spending on things. I've worked up a web site for my guild and it takes quite an effort to coordinate everything but most of the outsiders just see a site go online and have no understanding of what that entails.
SurvHunterMMHuntard Mar 29th 2010 1:30PM
I have been a non officers doing officer duties and an officer doing officer duties and dealing with guild drama and currently am just one of the masses, I must say from seeing all the spectrum of the game I have enjoyed my play more this way than in any other way. However when you have been in seat of power and then you are no longer you still have a tendency to radiate the power and then force yourself into the dramatic situations you long to avoid and were happy you left when you left /o chat. Guild Leadership and being and Officer in WoW is a double edged sword, and I no longer like knives.
L Mar 29th 2010 1:54PM
However it is fun for some people. I do recruiting/organize all off night raids/talk to problem guildies/try to stop drama before it happens. I am an officer in my guild also. I enjoy all my "duties" it is part of the fun of the game for me.
Octolincoln Mar 29th 2010 1:58PM
Out of commitment to my guild, I did the same thing as the writer of the e-mail above...wrote a new constitution, completely restructured the leadership, devised new policies...all in order to move the guild into a position to progress in raiding. This is a casual raiding guild, and we were losing members left and right because of stagnation.
Difference is, i DID get the promotion...to effectively third-in-command (a member of a triumvirate that ran everything and oversaw GM activities). I HATE this position! It's all the responsibility I was taking on before, nothing major there. I did not realize the amount of crap officers sometimes take though. I asked for a demotion to a non-Ochat level position, like class leader at highest, to get out of it. This was not the first time I was guild leadership in general, but it was for this particular guild. If you've come back after hiatus to a new guild, be REAL careful about wanting an officer position. Each guild is very different, and those differences are painfully obvious especially near the top of the food chain.
To reflect the comments of SurvHunter....it's a double-edged sword that is sometimes sharper on the wrong side depending on the guild!
Hoggersbud Mar 29th 2010 2:01PM
>Over the past three months I've taken a very proactive attitude in the guild. I wrote the guild constitution, restructured the guild hierarchy, built the guild site, organized events and assisted raid leads on a regular basis. <
You did all that? I think you put the cart before the horse.
Navk123 Mar 29th 2010 2:19PM
MILITARY COUP!!! get all the officers in a building, including the Guild leader, and fire mortar rounds at it, it works out good.
txnicole Mar 29th 2010 2:29PM
"Over the past three months I've taken a very proactive attitude in the guild. I wrote the guild constitution, restructured the guild hierarchy, built the guild site, organized events and assisted raid leads on a regular basis. .... What's the best course of action here?"
Start your own guild.
What I noticed specifically was that you never mentioned if these were things you were asked to do, or if the guild wanted done, or if you took it upon yourself to correct problems you perceived to exist.
As a GM in a long running guild I've seen a few 'proactive' 'helpful' individuals harbor their own ideas of what they want our guild to change into and try to force their view by simply doing it. What they don't realize is that their help is neither wanted, nor approved of. Not only does leadership get annoyed, the regular members of the guild start seeing them as a suck-up or bossy know-it-all and want less and less to do with them. Most often the officers and myself end up having to have a chat with the 'problem person' and then go do damage control on whatever they did. Thankfully, we've had precious few people like this.
I'd say that if you and your buddies have been playing together for 5 years, then you should be quite used to how they play and what they're like. If you're not happy with how they are, maybe its time to take your grand ideas elsewhere and start your own guild.
random Cow Mar 29th 2010 4:00PM
This is what I smelled cooking here too. The 'helpful' person with 'some good ideas' in this case sounds more like someone making a passive aggressive power grab. In 4 + years of leading WoW raiding guilds, I have seen it many times.
I still have yet to figure out what it is these people think they are going to -have- once they get this perceived power. It really is much like the comment above that your reward is more pie. That, and a whole lot of responsibility, along with a lot of extra stuff to deal with. No sane person, knowing what the job entails, would actively seek it out.
Rob Mar 29th 2010 3:00PM
There are many ways to skin a cat. One way is a guild dictatorship like txnicole, in that structure the guild leader is the chief and nothing gets by without approval. In other guilds its a looser structure where the GL has some control but not that much, and only steps in to maintain the direction of the guild.
In a guild I all but left, I was the co-founder and co-leader. It created some challenges since the other leader had some different ideas (he was more into social/explorer type play, i'm all about raids). Eventually we decided the smartest thing to do was for me to step down and move elsewhere.
But that's not really the main point, which is that you really do need to make sure what you are trying to do is with the philosophy of the guild. A tight-nit occassional raiding guild is going to get bent out of shape if you start recruiting hardcore raiders and expect all sorts of hardcore things like loot systems, 3x week raids with attendance requirements, and so forth. All of which can be helpful for progression raiding, don't get me wrong, but probably isn't what casual/social players really want.
At this point we probably dont need yet more guilds unless you are really willing to work at it; in a time of declining attendance, the vast majority of the guilds out there will have attendance issues for their raids, and adding new guilds doesn't really help, just poaches the few members that are left. It's a balance for sure, but my guess is that you dont want to leave your friends.
In that case, really talk to the powers that be. Ask them whats going on. You have the right to make your contributions recognized, but realize that officership is a duty not a privelege.
Mordockk Mar 29th 2010 3:24PM
Let me tell you NAO. You might just want to think twice about whether or not you want to be an officer....
-all those friendly whispers soon turn into requests or complaints.
-the game you enjoyed 'playing' has somehow turned into a second job.
-you become a beacon for channeled rage by your guildies if they are upset over somethin.
-soon you'll find most anything you say begins with /o and the only friends you have begin their statements with the same.
some players often decline officer status because they dont want to be a pariah.
It's really more to it then just a title. What are you really looking to get out of this status? because I have listed your rewards for being an officer above........Oh ya, you do get a few extra withdrawals from the guild bank.
zappo Mar 29th 2010 3:30PM
This all sounds strangely passive aggressive to me. They didn't owe him anything, didn't ask him to do anything, then he does a bunch of stuff and expects to be made an officer. I'm not sure why you'd necessarily want to put that much effort into this sort of guild anyway. I mean it sounds like a bus without a driver. A gm, TWO guild co-leaders, and five officers. And no one can just give this guy a yes or no? Either this guy isn't really asking the questions, or there is no one behind the wheel.
arleban Mar 29th 2010 4:07PM
It's quite possible, zappo, that NAO is following the RL business model of promotion. In the office, it is often said that you don't get the promotion and then do the job, but show you can do the job and then get the title that goes with the responsibilities. Of course, you can also watch the boss favorite get promoted and you still get stuck with the work, too. :)
I apologize if my reply seemed condescending, as I didn't mean it to be. I just meant to say that he might be in that type of environment in RL and tried that in WoW.
Tedronai Mar 29th 2010 4:22PM
I'm the GM of a guild that is definitely in the "officers just get more work" category. Over the time that I've led my guild, I've had to promote more officers when my current ones stop playing or leave.
From what I've learned through experience, there's two big factors that come into play when promoting a new officer: Competence and Acceptance. At first, it was just the former that mattered to me. But through trial and error I also learned acceptance is just as big.
What is Acceptance? Simple. It's the guild membership accepting the officer's new rank and responsibilities. This includes both other officers as well as regular members. Pretty much, if the membership doesn't accept this new officer as their "superior" (or "equal" for officers), then it can cause a lot of problems down the line. If the members don't buy into a a new raid leading officer, then they may be prone to "ignore" the orders he's giving out. They may not respect him enough to listen to what he has to say. While that behavior can be discouraged or squashed, it will be there. And the larger the "unacceptance' pool, the more difficult things will be.
Sure, perhaps the guild should trust the decision made by their GM, suck it up, and yield the respect such a position deserves, but as we all know, we can't really force people to change how they feel. And if anyone feels that the person doesn't deserve the promotion, then there's not really much anything besides time and patience that can fix that.
To NAO, this is what I think could also be a factor. He's recently come back from the break, he's maybe still seen as "the new guy coming in, changing things, and taking over". Maybe it's just too soon. From a GM's perspective, I'd be hesitant in just doing it outright as I've seen highly motivated players burn out and just disappear - even after being promoted. Also, if someone is already doing that, then I'd hope they're doing it for the good of the guild and not because they want to be an officer. So while perhaps an officer rank might not be available at the moment, the person doing these things already feels rewarded enough by seeing the fruits of their labors. I'd still want to reward them for their efforts, but it doesn't necessarily mean it'd be in the form of a promotion as there are other ways to recognize efforts above and beyond.
If I had officer spots to fill, I'd most likely post the spots were open and receive "applications" for those interested. This gives a good way for everyone to get in their fair chance, giving me a chance to see who's really interested as well as give a more objective way to compare possible candidates.
It's not an exact science and I could feel this reader's frustration, but decisions such as an officer promotion should never be taken lightly, considering the level of potential impact it could have on the guild.
patrick Mar 29th 2010 4:25PM
i very much agree with most of what u said excpet i have another concept of which i have seen from people. they may not want to promote u not only becuase of the fact that you might stop doing what you're doing (of which personally i think you wouldn't) but i think they're more scared at the fact that you might give them such responsibilites too inso may not want such a hastle if they can have u do it!
Morcego Mar 29th 2010 5:14PM
Well, you can have my officer post on my guild. Been an officer for more than a year, and I just can't get demoted. Of course, I don't want to do something bad that will get me demoted, I just want to get rid of the responsibility.
If I were in your shoes, I would be happy NOT being an officer.