I blame Tim Ferris.
Today I will exploit six single mothers in three different counties. And tomorrow I’ll do the same. I use Virtual Assistants. And in some people’s eyes, this has become a modern day slavery trade driven by the demon Internet.
Tim, who as an Irish Hurling Champion can’t be all bad, wrote the best-seller Four Hour Work Week, which is the definitive guide for outsourcing your life. Here’s how it works.
Are Virtual Assistants 21st Century Slaves?
This argument is pretty simple.
Outsource your mundane tasks to others and focus on activities that bring in more money.
For example?
Well, instead of writing a 40 page report that takes 8 hours to type up, send an audio file to a transcribing professional and get them to do it.
Do the math.
If they charge you $100 but you make $500 a day, then you’ve made a profit of 400 bucks. Hard to argue with isn’t it?
Or so I thought…
Remember when Prince was a slave?
In 1993, Prince, the rock/pop star, had the initials SLAVE written on his cheek.
“…during negotiations regarding the release of Prince’s album The Gold Experience, a legal battle ensued between Warner Bros. and Prince over the artistic and financial control of Prince’s output. During the lawsuit, Prince appeared in public with the word “slave” written on his cheek. Prince explained his name change as follows:
The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to the Love Symbol.”
In his eyes, they had reduced him to the level of a slave and he was legally chained to an unfair contract. And maybe he was. I don’t know. It depends on your perspective. But most folks who live in 5 star hotels and travel by limo… well, that’s a slavery many of us yearn for. But, in his eyes, he was a slave and complained bitterly about it.
I am a slave, says Ronaldo
Yes, the Real Madrid player was also branded a slave as he was… forced to honor a legally-binding contract. He was earning close to $100 per week at the time at Manchester United but wanted to move to Real Madrid.
“Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to join Real Madrid appeared stronger than ever last night after a television interview in which he reiterated he had not changed his mind about wanting to leave Manchester United and agreed with the Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s criticism about the way the European Cup winners had handled the situation. Blatter had urged United to allow the player to leave and, more controversially, complained that there was “too much modern slavery” in the sport.”
People have different definitions of slavery. While Prince, Ronaldo and other multi-millionaires may feel they are enslaved, the reality for most of us is different.
Are Virtual Assistants really Slaves?
One of the services my company provides in China is matching skilled US professionals with Chinese firms. It’s the opposite of Chinese, Indians or other minorities looking for work in the US. These days, it’s US graduates coming to Beijing looking for work.
Times change, it seems.
We’ve also provided Virtual Assistants as most projects are web-based. And this is where the slavery comes in. While I see this as a positive thing – giving work to those who want it – others take a dim view of this activity.
Reading through the emails, the argument against Virtual Assistants is that they deny local people work opportunities while exploiting labor laws. Like most arguments, the pros and cons are multi-faceted. Here’s someone who runs a successful web business that relies on VAs.
How to hire a Virtual Assistant
Is outsourcing worth the effort? Erica Douglass writes about how to do this on her excellent marketing site, “You don’t have a whole lot to lose–since you can expect to pay $3-$10/hour for most basic work, it’s low-risk if you hire someone and he/she doesn’t work out. Since you’re starting with basic tasks and expanding from there, you can quickly gauge if a person is competent. And, if someone doesn’t work out for whatever reason, you can simply “End Assignment” and start a new job with new candidates.”
But isn’t out-sourcing killing the US economy?
I honestly think Chicken Nuggets are probably doing more damage to the US’s health if obesity figures continue to rise, but let’s think it through. While most companies in developed countries have green initiatives and recognize minimum wages laws, they also employ staff in 3rd world countries to lower costs.
Others, such as Apple, outsource the work through third party firms. Technically, they’re not really using cheap labour but…
Why do we have out-sourcing?
In a word, it’s cheap. I can hire a degree-educated professional for less than $10 per hour. The quality is great. The turnaround is fast. The response is professional.
It’s hard to argue against this.
But in the US and Europe, we have minimum wage laws. These are to protect employees against exploitation. For example, the minimum wage is California is $8 per hour. In Georgia, it’s $5.15.
Of course, other developing countries don’t have the same laws. So, I can hire Ph.Ds for less than $10 an hour.
The question is whether this is good business practice or simply unethical.
What do you think? Would you hire someone in China over someone in your hometown because of price? And how do you justify it to your investors?
About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com
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