Excuses Excuses
I'm going nuts. I can't believe how irresposible some people are. Here are some of the excuses I've heard from freelancers and contractors over the past couple months.
Article writer - outsourced articles, but writer is MIA (didn't ask for permission to outsource)
Data Entry Assistant - Family Business/out of town (day after started project)
Article writer/researcher - 2 deaths in the family
Team leader article writer - 1 dead article writer
Virtual assistant - Power outage
PR submitter - invasion of flying termites
So you can bet I went nuts when I assigned a project to start immediately, and the guy went to bed and said he'll do it in the morning.
...also..perhaps writing is a more dangerous job than we all though, there seems to be a lot of writers dying - or maybe just those I hire *cue ominous music*
Thanks.
In the span of two weeks, he was hospitalized twice, his wife had a baby, his email account was hacked, and his dog ran away. He must have been the world's most unlucky dude. It took about three weeks to get my first 450 word article (150 words less than the ad offered) and then there was a 2-day delay between every other article.
Never again.
This is a people problem, not an outsourcing problem. Most people simply do not have work ethic, if everyone did it would be a lot more competitive for us that do have a good work ethic.
Hard work, dedication and the ability to do what others are not willing to do will lead to success. People tend to think it is more complex than this.
I can tell you that we have had many botched outsourcing jobs and actual "hires" over the years...and this was even after the weeding out process takes place. I respect people in HR because their job is very difficult and they have to deal with a lot of mediocrity in order to find quality.