Virtual Assistants, Virtually Exploited

For the past year, I've been working as a virtual assistant for a firm. As a virtual assistant, I was doing all kinds of tasks, including creating social media posts, editing blog posts and book chapters, and doing product research. I've learned a lot about small businesses, as well as the remote work industry. I had no idea, for example, how much blog writing had become a promotional tool, rather than an opportunity for an author to share their ideas about a given topic. I learned the importance of drip marketing and creating content calendars. Honestly, it's not a bad gig.

But one's pleasure at being a VA is very much dependent on who you are working for and under what circumstances. I've had some very grateful clients, but I'm currently frustrated by one person who has been fairly frustrating because of what I perceive as her lack of trust in my integrity and quality of work. She doesn't know anything about me or my skills, or maybe she doesn't care. Moreover the firm I work for, it's great, but they are offering the lowest reasonable rate for the work I do, and it doesn't matter whether I'm googling images or creating original content, I get paid the same amount and expected to do it within a given time frame. In fact, I'm getting paid roughly half of what an independent (working for yourself) VA would earn.

It is easy to want to squeeze as much work out of a freelancer for your dollar, often at the expense of quality. It would be nice to be able to write something well-crafted and thoughtful, but if it takes longer than an hour or two, well then you better start cutting corners. For the work I've been doing, I've been feeling squeezed twice, first by the penny/minute pinching client, and second by my firm paying me a lower rate than I would like. Although I was trained to bill for every minute I spend working on a client's task list, I have found myself shaving off minutes here and there in order to not arouse any suspicion that I am taking up too much of the client's time. "This is exactly what they want you to do, " my partner @mikedynamo told me, annoyed on my behalf, "they want to get as much work out of you at your expense. If you play into it, you are setting yourself up to be exploited."

Well, then. Guess it's time to make some decisions.