Virtual Assistant Drama
Things are already rocky between Keren and I. Our match is not as perfect as I had initially boasted about. Her politeness and overwhelmingly positive attitude are still as welcome and refreshing as ever, but it is her completed work that leaves little to be impressed by.
To tell you the truth, I think I have to let her go. In reality, she always seems to understand each task at hand quite well, replying to my emails with clear, to-the-point rewording of my instructions. Her regular bi-hourly status updates always help to instill a vigorous boost of confidence that the work is being done professionally and as thoroughly as possible.
And when that email arrives stating: “Task Completed! :)” – I flex back in my chair, smile widely at my brilliant idea of hiring a VA and open the attachment.
Each time though, my face immediately tenses and I plunge into a two minute period of near tears and pretending to kick over every chair in the apartment. I then sit back down and write an immediate reply to Keren, usually starting with the abrupt line of: “What is this? It is not what I had instructed and which you had confirmed!” I proceed to type several more lines that generally fluctuate in tone between amused bewilderment and feigned passionate rage before I delete the whole thing, drink some orange juice, eat a plum and laugh about the fact that I have a semi-useless virtual assistant in the Philippines.
Ordinarily, I would try to stick it out and plod through the tough times. Not one to simply quit on something (or someone) when faced with a slight obstacle, I believe that people must work together through the challenges in order to achieve the success and happiness they both seek. I am just not sure if that success and happiness is possible in this instance.
And to complicate things even further, unfortunately, my sweet Keren has some fierce competition. His name is Sridhar and he lives in Bangalore.
This young Indian man has been emailing me every few days with such enthusiastic phrases as “Awaiting your need for best assistance possible” and “Please write soonest with WHATEVER task you need immediate and most satisfied completion with”. This guy really wants my business.
Any budding entrepreneur would certainly be impressed and intrigued by Sridhar’s eagerness to please and I am certainly no exception.
For now, I have devised what I consider to be a reasonable, albeit risky, solution to my problem. I am using both Keren and Sridhar at the same time. I know what you are thinking and the answer is ‘no’, they do not know about each other. Given the fact that one lives in the Philippines and the other in India, I am hoping that this geographical distinction will enable me to survive this temporary secret life unscathed.
Sridhar is working on his first project as I write. He too seemed to understand my instructions effortlessly and even after the failures of Keren, I remain fully optimistic in Sridhar’s ability to produce quality results. If he succeeds, I will have to free myself of Keren and create a pact with Sridhar.
I have also given Keren one last chance by sending her a simple, yet time-consuming task. Maybe she will redeem herself and create further confusion for me in this dramatic VA tale. Or maybe she will perform poorly once more and consequently set me free in the process.
At the end of it all, I am content in the understanding that life is all about change. If Keren needs to be replaced by Sridhar, so be it. One day, Sridhar will most likely need to be replaced as well, and probably by Svetlana, another assistant out there in the vast virtual world looking for work.
Everything that arises, must someday pass away. Although the great Buddha most likely did not have virtual assistants in mind when speaking those words, I am certain he would agree this concept of existence surely applies in this case. That thought alone comforts me as I await the results from each, knowing that soon, a decision must be made.
Tags: In the USA
dbaron
Very nice infomation !