Apart from students (and young adults) who still live at home; are supported by their parents and do not work as virtual assistants to earn a living, but only to make (extra) pocket-money.

And conversely in the understanding, that adult virtual assistants have fixed-costs (i.e., and e.g., overheads; rent and utilities, telephone, Internet-connection, and essential living expenses) to cover.

Although I would never dream of inviting any adult PVA to perform any (labor-intensive and time-consuming) task on my behalf for LESS than what it would cost me (in overheads, etc.) to perform the task myself. (And in so doing not only expect the provider to work for a below-the- bread-line wage, but also be obliged to spend (often more than) the pittance they have earned on (additional) costs that would not otherwise have been incurred!).

No. Whereas every virtual assistant is free to work for whatever fee they are willing to accept.

So as to set a standard and completely prevent anyone who makes a practice of “impoverishing others to enrich themselves” from exploiting virtual assistants and profiting at their expense.

I would really like to see a change in the present situation, whereby, a minimum wage for, e.g., students, the unskilled, skilled and able, and qualified professionals IS stipulated, in advance, by the virtual employment agency concerned.

And so as to gauge the favorable (or unfavorable) reaction of providers to a stipulation of this nature. The “minimum wage*” question (and *amount to be stipulated in each instance) could be put to the vote.

With thanks,

Elizabeth Sleigh.

PS: in the interim and to save providers’ time (and money). If the hourly (or fixed) budget that buyers are paying for any assignment could be listed alongside the job-postings on email alerts, it would be much appreciated.

If any buyer, who has a number of jobs to offer (and a similar number of job-descriptions to post each month), yet has difficulty in compiling correctly spelled; grammatically correct, and “understandable” (English language) job-descriptions.

Would like to hire me to “proofread” the job-description (and correct any spelling or grammatical errors) before the brief is posted on oDesk.

I would be pleased (to be invited, through the auspices of oDesk) to undertake this task for a reasonable (fixed) provider-fee of, e.g., $4.00 per brief, per 1 – 5 briefs, or $3.00 per brief, per 1-10 briefs, per month.

Kind regards and best wishes,
Elizabeth Sleigh

PS: once the invitation has been extended (and accepted) and email addresses exchanged. All the buyer would need to do, is email the draft for the receipt of a (speedily) corrected brief via return mail.

Its always been about business. Nothing personal. We don’t exactly have a ‘relationship’ going on whenever a job is agreed on.

BUT -

We all can use a more personal touch It makes the whole thing much easier.

***
On a personal note, if you don’t like being micromanaged or being talked down to – don’t apply for a job that sounds like one.

I recently was holding some interviews and one provider came 10mins late just to tell me that he was going to the office right now and would be available in an hour… Another provider kept using Internet acronyms like “lol” and generally taking liberties with me. Of course there are others who can’t speak English and I’m having some really hard times trying to figure out what they just said…

I would agree that work from both perspective gives you a better insight. Before submitted a single proposal, I posted a job the understand the “buyer’s pain”. The experience has been valuable.

Watching handfuls of people saying the same things and making the same mistakes ensures you’ll never make them again.

If you are going to criticize someone, you need to be sure your own house is in order. You state your second pet peeve is not using correct grammer and spelling.

Look at your 1st bullet – it’s a recycle ‘bin’ – been is a verb. If you had ‘read’ through your post you would know ‘red’ is a color.

2nd bullet – your English is ‘a’ work in progress – sort of changes the meaning of the sentence. If you still ’straggle’ with concepts then you need to look up struggle in the dictionary.

Why would I entrust my paycheck to someone who can’t use spellcheck?

There are other lesser grammatical errors in your post but I think you get the idea. My mama always said people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. It’s pretty sound advice.