Too often, professionalism is treated as optional in community organizing. As if organizing in community and having overlapping relationships inside and outside organizations means the standards of a “real workplace” no longer matter.

As if saying “we’re all friends here” justifies inappropriate language, gaslighting legitimate questions, abusing power, dismissing and erasing someone’s contributions, expecting emotional labour in and beyond work, hating on someone you don’t even know because your friends do, or routinely funneling opportunities to people you like, not because they’ve earned them, but because they’re in your circle.

As if “we’re like family” gives people a free pass to interrogate others’ personal lives, scold someone in public, humiliate them in front of the media, yell at them during a community event, make morbid jokes or spread harmful gossip without taking responsibility, all while still calling it community work and assuming it’s fine because “we’re family after all.”

As if “we’re all doing community work” makes it acceptable to call children racist, instrumentalize seniors for rhetorical purposes, misuse or gatekeep shared resources, overpay or underpay contributors, blur the lines between paid and volunteer work, sideline partners based on personal preferences, or fail to fulfill committed obligations.

As if “we’re all part of the community” makes it appropriate to unload personal desires or relationship conflicts without consent, ignore professional communications indefinitely, hold and manipulate conflicts of interest, and then dodge real issues by obsessing over tone, imagined offenses, or how a boundary was communicated.

Some are paid to do this work. Others hold leadership roles. In both cases, personal emotional needs are prioritized over professionalism, at the expense of the work and those affected by it. It is treated as if lashing out like a frustrated child should be excused and then coddled, because organizing for community automatically makes you immune to accountability. As if calling someone your friend or invoking “community” is enough to justify being messy, irresponsible, or entitled.

Professionalism in community organizing can and should show up differently.

It’s not about corporate rigidity, endless bureaucracy, or hierarchy. It’s not about perfection, but intention.

Professionalism in community organizing looks like basic respect. It means understanding the difference between personal and professional boundaries. Knowing when someone is your friend and when they are your collaborator, and not using friendship to excuse unprofessional behaviour. Naming and addressing conflicts of interest. Avoiding nepotism and favouritism even when the work gets tough and uncomfortable. 

Managing budgets responsibly and being accountable to everyone who has invested resources, time, and labour to support the work. Responding to organizational inquiries promptly and engaging with institutional feedback thoughtfully without taking it as a judgment of your worth or a criticism of your character. 

Recognizing where emotional support ends and when professional help should begin. Honouring people’s dignity and their agency to participate or not without expecting extra emotional labour, softened delivery, or constant justification to soothe discomfort. Resisting the impulse to intrude into people’s personal spaces to push professional demands without consent, when they’ve already drawn a clear boundary. And it means doing the work even when it’s hard, unglamorous, or inconvenient, instead of avoiding it or passing it off to someone, when you’re the one paid to carry it.

Above all, professionalism means honouring the community’s trust by centering the collective mission, not ego, preferences, or power plays.