# Never volunteer. Never refuse. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315 "2011-01-12T05:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/21 "2011-01-12T19:32:40Z")
Sorry but I can’t get behind any adage with so much emphasis on ‘Never’. Doesn’t do it for me. I’m a thinking creature who can decide what individual circumstances require, thanks anyway. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/22 "2011-01-12T19:50:01Z")
I keep imagining that one character from Galaxy Quest dramatically proclaiming “Never Volunteer! Never Refuse!” Classes it up a bit I think. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/23 "2011-01-12T20:36:11Z")
I’d never heard the “never refuse” part. Refusal isn’t an option. From Anthony Burgess comes my favorite British Army saying: “They can kill you but they can’t fuck you; or maybe they can, but they can’t get you pregnant; or maybe they can, but they can’t make you love the kid.” ---
**Author:** ![Tamarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tamarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamarin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/24 "2011-01-12T21:21:56Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Sorry but I can’t get behind any adage with so much emphasis on ‘Never’. Doesn’t do it for me. > > I’m a thinking creature who can decide what individual circumstances require, thanks anyway. That’s kind of the point of it though. In the military they rarely say, “I need 3 people to volunteer to scrub the latrines.” They either say, “I need 3 volunteers” without telling you what you’d be volunteering for, or they say “You 3! You are “volunteered” for latrine duty! MOVE!” So, it’s more like…Never volunteer [for unspecified duties], [but if they assign you a job] never refuse. (suck it up and do it without bitching) Also, being a MeMeMe person who takes on every shit job voluntarily rarely gets praise or credit, just more shit jobs. At least, that was my interpretation of the advice. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/25 "2011-01-12T21:45:43Z")
> [@Tamarin](#): > > Also, being a MeMeMe person … At one point (near the end of basic) I and a couple other guys actually did that. Drill asked for a number of volunteers and we turned into 6 year olds and started hopping up and down, “OOh! Me! Me! Me!” He just growled at us to shut the hell up and do some pushups and pointed out the requisite number of problem children to rake some rocks into a pattern he found satisfying. Good times… ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/26 "2011-01-12T22:37:44Z")
> [@Tamarin](#): > > That’s kind of the point of it though. In the military they rarely say, “I need 3 people to volunteer to scrub the latrines.” They either say, “I need 3 volunteers” without telling you what you’d be volunteering for, or they say “You 3! You are “volunteered” for latrine duty! MOVE!” My favorite made up word I heard in the military: Voluntold. ---
**Author:** ![EKDS5k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@EKDS5k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EKDS5k)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/27 "2011-01-13T07:49:19Z")
I always heard it as “Don’t be first, don’t be last, and never volunteer for anything,” and that it mostly applied to basic training. The idea is that if you stick out in the instructors’ minds, then when they need someone to clean out the toilets, you’re the first name they think of. And when you’re explicitly told to do something, refusing is not really an option ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315/28 "2011-01-13T10:46:12Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > My favorite made up word I heard in the military: Voluntold. Nothing made up about it. It’s a real word with a distinct meaning. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-volunteer-never-refuse/567315.md?page=1)