From Julia
Yesterday, I was chatting with one of my VA friends. She casually mentioned that she just received her salary from her employer.
That salary was already 3 WEEKS late. That means in a week, she’ll be invoicing her boss for the next month’s salary. She’s been working with that guy for several years now.
She’s lucky she’s not the sole breadwinner. And she was making enough that she had a bit saved up. She doesn’t have to worry whenever her salary came late. But because her boss has this habit of paying late, the turnover in that business is really bad. He’s always hiring someone new every few months to replace someone. Even though he gives all his employees a generous salary, the inconsistency has driven a lot of them away. I even know one of her former co-workers who now works for a smaller company. They don’t pay her as much but at least they always pay her on time.
This was one of the biggest fears I had before I started working online. I don’t mind making less than what I was making working in an office. I just wanted to make sure I made enough to cover my expenses and that I’d be able to pay everything on time. I can’t delay buying groceries for my family. I can’t work if I can’t pay for electricity, internet, water or rent.
That’s why a lot of VAs are demotivated when their salaries are late. It’s hard to focus on work when:
* you have to worry about stretching out the food that’s left in the refrigerator, or
* thinking about where you can borrow money quickly to pay for tuition, or
* worrying whether you have extra money hidden somewhere to cover for your maintenance meds.
And the thing about us Filipinos is that we won’t complain. We’ll tolerate it as much as we can. We don’t want to seem like we’re complaining too much because we’re worried it might cost us our jobs.
If attention to details like this isn’t your thing I suggest you set a date on which you pay people. If payday is the 1st, on the 30th of each month set a reminder on your calendar and do it right then.
John