Virtual Thoughts

If you are looking to invest here in the Philippines, Boracay is a good place to invest. Every year there are thousand of tourist there. Do contact me if you are interested to learn more about this investment.

It has been a very frustrating week for me. Why? because I got two inconsiderate clients who haven’t paid yet.

I can’t understand why people treat their online workers like S.H.I.T!!! If we are working in their office, most likely our compensation are always on time, but what do they do to virtual workers? Let them sweat it out for payments. No matter how many emails you sent to inform them that their monthly payment is due, they just ignore it, worst thing is, you keep receiving emails with instructions on your work.

One virtual colleague of mine complained to me the other day. Her employer pays her every end of the month, she would want payment every two weeks, but it’s an inconvenience for her employer so he rather pay her on a monthly basis, and that is fine if he pays on time, the thing is he doesn’t. So what happens? she is late on her payment for the room and board and the landlady has asked her very politely to leave because she is always late!

Why can’t these virtual employers be more considerate? You expect a certain quality of the work rendered by your virtual workers, isn’t it common courtesy to pay on time? What if your virtual worker is the breadwinner of the family? Is she going to tell her kids or other family members to hold on eating for a while because Y.O.U haven’t paid?

What these virtual employers don’t realize is that they have all the advantage already on getting home based worker, let me count it off:

1. home based workers or virtual workers are cheaper than actual worker, everybody knows that.

2. home based workers are paid on a monthly basis or every two weeks, the thing is it’s always late payment. If you get a big call center, you have to prompt on your payment.

3. Big call centers request for revolving funds, home based call center operator has to have own funds to pay their workers.

4. If the employer is late in payment, the home based worker cannot do anything unless they want to let go of the project. With big call center, try not paying and see if they won’t sue you.

5. There is no holiday for home based worker except for Christmas and New Year. One absent because you’re sick or something, the virtual employer would want to deduct your compensation. With office workers, at least they have two weeks off vacation with pay, plus sick leave and maternity leave all with P.A.Y.

6. Home based workers are expected to work harder because you are home based.

So please virtual employers P.A.Y. On T.I.M.E.

I think I should implement a rule that for every late payment there would be a fine or a day off for us, sounds much better instead of me hounding them with emails.

Somebody once said that ” I want to work at home so I can be with my kids, discipline them and raise them”. I forgot who said that, or was it me???? I must be insane at the time I said it, because really my kids are driving me crazy!

Truthfully, I really, really love my kids. Nothing in this world can complete my life but them. I have added several pounds to my once 118 pound body and yet, no regrets, if I have the choice to do it again, I will. BUT, raising kids isn’t an easy task, it is giving me lots of gray hairs. Imagine two boys, quarreling every few seconds ” he pushed me first”, “he kicked me first”, ” he bit me first”, ” he scratched me first”, etc., etc., etc., the list of complaints is endless. They are only sweet and adorable when asleep.

But one of the biggest benefits of working at home is that I get to be financially independent. And this is what I would like to stress out to stay at home parents.

I have been working online for four years already, and I will continue to work online even when the kids are grown up. Why? Because aside from the fact that I am earning, I am also learning and growing. Technology will never cease to amaze me. There is so much going on in the internet for individuals to learn. If I am working in a corporate office, I may not be able to learn what I have learned so far.

But we have to admit that working at home may not be for everybody. Some people cannot stand social isolation. Working at home is very lonely, you cook, you mind the kids, you wash, you do household chores and then you work online. Nobody chat with, laugh with or joke around, except when your husband comes home at night.

The bottom line is, raising kids takes approximately 10 - 12 years of their lives. At thirteen, they are teenagers already and may not depend so much on mommy to bathe them, feed them or play with them. The growing up years are very precious and I wouldn’t want to miss that. It amuses me the way my sons speak like me, or the way they imitate me when I am angry at them or scolding them.

So if you don’t want to miss your kids’ precious growing up years and you also want to be able to generate income for yourself, plus you crave for self-growth, then working online is a good choice.

If you have read my post titled Dream or Reality, here’s a follow up.

A week after I have posted my post, the prospective client called again. He apologized for the three weeks of absence cause there was a family emergency that needs his immediate attention. He told me that he would like to start training one of my staff for inbound calls. So everything was set for the training.

The next day which was the day of the training, he was again missing in action. We called but got his voicemail. I emailed but no reply. I left messages on his yahoo IM but no reply too.

It’s been more than three weeks again and we haven’t heard from him. We have given up on him and has moved on with other clients.

Therefore, in conclusion, what we had wasn’t a dream, it was a reality. But the reality of it was, we met an inconsiderate prospective client!

One thing that really exasperate me at times is the demands the clients make. One client wanted complete silence when the agent answers the phone. But he has to understand that even if you called up customer support of various companies, you can hear background voices of people talking. this is unavoidable, unless the virtual person you hire is working alone. But like I have four people working simultaneously, background voice and typing sounds is unavoidable. So for several days I was busy out looking for cubicles, getting quotes for having one made just so I can serve his demands. Finally, I found a company who can built a three person cubicle for me like what they’re using in the call center at a reasonable price. But guess what? after a week, the client inform me that he doesn’t need more call center agents, because his business is slow so he is canceling our contract! If I have known he would cancel the account, I wouldn’t bother having to commission a company to build the cubicle! My other clients aren’t complaining.

This incident reminded me of a customer of a client of mine who called. Before, I was the only one doing the call center work, so when I answered the phone everything was very quite. You think the customer would appreciate the fact the it is a very quite office? No she is not!. She told me ” are you in an office? you don’t sound like an office”. Well hey, sorry about that. It is just so hard to please all people!

Last night, a two week old client informed the agent that is working with him that he will not pay for days that he doesn’t have work for her. WHAT???…I assigned one agent to work with him and the agent has to be present everyday and I have to pay her daily and now this client is not going to pay me for days that he doesn’t have work for her? So who is going to shoulder the cost then? If he doesn’t have work for her for two weeks, what then? Is she just going to sit around tweedling her thumbs?

Ok, so I have part time clients who only pays when there is work and that is fine, cause I handle more than three clients’ tasks daily. But the thing is, this call center agent works with him exclusively. If he has told me from the beginning that he doesn’t want anyone full time, then I would have gotten another part time job for the agent. He told me there will always be work, and now this bombshell!

But this is the most exasperating tale, one prospect I talked to several weeks wanted to have a full time agent calling his clients and prospects. The thing is, he wants to try out the agent for a month! my goodness! This is not a varsity try out! So during the one month try out, he will not be paying anything cause he is just trying out! No wonder he couldn’t get anyone to work for him

Oh well, everyday’s experiences has its’ purpose I guess. I just sure hope it won’t be an expensive experience.