JOBS: V-Speak (How Home Based Virtuals Converse…and Meet)

Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under Blogging and the Internet, Jobs | Viewed 927 times

Home-based jobs in the Philippines have been there for a while, but seldom are there home based jobs which do not just deal with credit cards, telephone cards, and marketing some goods and services for which the home based staff earns only commissions from sales made, with no basic salary and benefits that come up with the deal. Some companies even either take a bond from the staff or hold out a part of the income.

And mind you, every now and then, I hear about scams—so be careful.

Many people have the notion that anyone can just go into home-based jobs given the opportunity. But this can only be possible if one has the necessary skills and experience. To have the aspiration or desire is different. One can say that he or she will try his or her best, given the desire and enough training. Maybe so, maybe not. But based on experience, the answer is NO—the desire to learn is not enough. Training is not enough, if one just listens. So what gives? One has to have the necessary IT-related skills, communication skills, particularly the accent and shall I say impeccable writing and speaking skills, taking into consideration that these home-based jobs cater to the international market and are internet-based. Plus COMMITMENT.

One also has to have an investment for his or her virtual office—a quiet place conducive to work, the paraphernalia so to say, like owning a computer (laptop or desktop, it doesn’t matter s long as it has the memory and speed to support the desired software and programs that go with the business), a fast DSL connection, and even a genset for those coming from places where brownouts are frequent.

Here’s sharing with you some V-speak—the way home based virtuals converse, and meet.

At 8 pm, Philippine time, when a virtual staff goes online, he or she greets the manager, “Good morning, maam” and even co-workers. The manager says back, “good morning”, so do the other officemates. This is because the clients’ time zones are used, and these are mostly continents away, like Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Australians and other nationalities, in between.

In the same way, everyone says “Nyt, nyt” when they log off at 8 or 9 in the morning of the next day, Philippine time. Also saying, “goodbye maam, I’m going home now (uuwi na po ako)”. It’s like implying that one commutes from office to home, when in fact, it is only either going to the next room, or just going directly to bed. The answer to that will always be, “Take care”, or “Ingat“, and “God bless.”

A home based virtual’s birthday is more than 24 hours—it stretches to the time the clients have in the clients’ zone, like for the US, from EST (Eastern Standard Time—Philippines is ahead by 12 hours) to CST (Central by 13 hours) to MST (Mountain, by 14 hours), and PST (Pacific, by 15 hours). So one’s birthday stretches by as much as 15 hours more.

A home based virtual also has a lunch break, and that is anywhere from 12 midnight to 5 am, Philippine time. Before one goes on a break, one says, “lunch break muna, maam”. An outsider would wonder, why lunch break in the early morning or dawn. Simple, because sometimes they do not eat lunch—they are asleep. They eat lunch when their clients take theirs.

Sometimes, when one is very very sleepy, one asks permission and says, “Maam, may I have a longer break?” That 30 minutes or 1 hour is compensated by logging out 30 minutes or 1 hour longer than the usual schedule—call that flexibility. For how can one continue working if one is very very sleepy. I wonder how many cups of coffee the staff are drinking, though I myself do not drink coffee.

Home based virtuals also hold meetings. There are facilities like “gotomeetings.com” where presentations are made, with everyone in attendance. Conversations are done either by VOIP, Skype or chat”. One time, when we were to hold virtual face-to-face meetings, I forgot all about it. I was in my working clothes—that is in my old and worn pyjamas, without my lipstick, mascara and all. I wanted to die, but I had no choice, still pretty anyway.

And home based virtuals go on vacation leave, sick leave, even maternity leave and birthday leave. They have their medical, dental and insurance benefits, a 13th month salary and year end bonus. And they talk of anything under the sun, I mean under the moonlight and daybreak.

Then one fine day, out of the blue, with only 2 weeks to prepare, everyone met face-to-face in a resort somewhere in the Quezon Province. Some flew in from their hometowns, met in Manila, then off to the resort for 2 nights. The 4-hour trip was all incessant talk, each one seemingly savouring the time together, seemingly knowing each other very well even though it was the first time to meet, trying not to sleep as that moment was a rare opportunity to be together. There was office talk 3 hours each in the evening, and the rest of the time, everyone had fun. It was like everyone was a member of a large family.

There was then a firm resolve to hold the same gathering every year, work hard even more, so that when 2015 comes, the meeting with be in the US. Possible, yes—there are endless possibilities in the internet.

Comments

5 Responses to “JOBS: V-Speak (How Home Based Virtuals Converse…and Meet)”

JOBS: Work from Home and Earn Money (UPDATED) : The D Spot on May 20th, 2008 11:33 am

[...] V-Speak: How Home Based Virtuals Converse…and Meet, Skills needed, benefits, etc: Learn more HERE [...]
julie on May 22nd, 2008 11:38 am

Wow, interesting. I should ask you about this, Dine, when we finally have a better isp in our area.
Ingat–Just What Does It Mean? : The D Spot on May 24th, 2008 3:47 pm

[...] as she has a lot to share. Then I met Mica who does part time work with us and and one of my virtual assistants for some bonding moments. Last stop was Krispy Kreme where we checked our emails (cool, as they [...]
lisaflor on May 24th, 2008 10:48 pm

With the politics and all sa work, great option talaga to. Esp for parents. Scary lang kasi bago and unusual. I’m very open to this option! Thanks for giving us a glimpse of it.
Christine on June 7th, 2008 2:41 am

Ang cool! Parang real office yung set-up… with the greetings and stuff. And regarding the meet-up na nangyari, if it was the first time, parang ang awkward. Haha! You’ve been dealing with each other for quite some time pero parang ang awkward parin. nyehehe.. or ako lng ung may feeling ng ganun pag ako yung andun? nevertheless, cool parin. thanks for sharing Ms. Dine. =)