Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Anyone here ever hire a VA / PA? (self.Blind)
submitted by Envrin
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Have you ever hired a VA / PA (virtual / personal assistant)? I just posted this:
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$1
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If any of you have ever went this route, any stories to share, or pitfalls to watch out for? Should be fine, but thought I'd check in anyway
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Cheers.
Have you ever hired a VA / PA (virtual / personal assistant)? I just posted this:
​
$1
​
If any of you have ever went this route, any stories to share, or pitfalls to watch out for? Should be fine, but thought I'd check in anyway
​
Cheers.
Amonwilde 2 points 2y ago
This is really interesting. I hope you'll consider reporting back on your experience. I'd consider doing this, I'm kind of a cheapskate but if I'm honest with myself I can afford it.
Envrin [OP] 1 points 2y ago
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Sure, will update in a few months once everything is humming along.
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For me at least, being cheap vs. spending needlessly is irrevalent, as it just makes financial sense like this. I'm self employed, so say I'm billing out at $50/hour on a project. Why would I spend 3 hours on some easy, mundane task when I could just pay an assistant to do it for $15 in a third of the time? If I do it myself I lose out on $150 worth of revenue plus have a headache out of frustration at the end of it, or I could spend $15 to have it done for me, be up $135 in revenue, and skip the headache altogether. Kinda makes sense.
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Plus I guess I don't know just yet, but I'm suspecting the alleviation of some mental and emotional stress of feeling blind and isolated is also going to be well worth it. Waking up every morning knowing there's an assistant around who has my back is going to be quite nice, and I'm guessing will reduce stress and anxiety.
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Not to mention there's tons of things I miss, and many times don't find out about them for months, which is quite aggravating. For example, was chatting with a friend over the phone a little bit ago, and mentioned my new cover letter is getting good responses from potentials. He took a look at my resume, and proceeds to say, "you do know there's a full blank page in the middle of your resume, right?". Damnit, no... I didn't know that, and it's been like that for months!
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Or another time I remember I forgot to turn bold off, and sent out a proposal that had three pages all in bold. Well, that looks stupid... It takes me about an hour to properly check a document for simple errors like that, where for someone with a working set of eyes, it takes about 10 seconds. So that part will be nice as well.
Sure, will update in a few months once everything is humming along.
​
For me at least, being cheap vs. spending needlessly is irrevalent, as it just makes financial sense like this. I'm self employed, so say I'm billing out at $50/hour on a project. Why would I spend 3 hours on some easy, mundane task when I could just pay an assistant to do it for $15 in a third of the time? If I do it myself I lose out on $150 worth of revenue plus have a headache out of frustration at the end of it, or I could spend $15 to have it done for me, be up $135 in revenue, and skip the headache altogether. Kinda makes sense.
​
Plus I guess I don't know just yet, but I'm suspecting the alleviation of some mental and emotional stress of feeling blind and isolated is also going to be well worth it. Waking up every morning knowing there's an assistant around who has my back is going to be quite nice, and I'm guessing will reduce stress and anxiety.
​
Not to mention there's tons of things I miss, and many times don't find out about them for months, which is quite aggravating. For example, was chatting with a friend over the phone a little bit ago, and mentioned my new cover letter is getting good responses from potentials. He took a look at my resume, and proceeds to say, "you do know there's a full blank page in the middle of your resume, right?". Damnit, no... I didn't know that, and it's been like that for months!
​
Or another time I remember I forgot to turn bold off, and sent out a proposal that had three pages all in bold. Well, that looks stupid... It takes me about an hour to properly check a document for simple errors like that, where for someone with a working set of eyes, it takes about 10 seconds. So that part will be nice as well.
Amonwilde 2 points 2y ago
Yeah, the math definitively works out on that. I think it's a great idea. Really wish you luck with the next few months. I'm lucky to have a partner who can do basic spot checks, it's not even that often but she will catch stuff like bold that is just really hard for me.
annibear 2 points 2y ago
Haven't had anyone for this express purpose, but have worked with readers a good amount (much less so now that I'm working in a more accessible field than the one I studied in college). I think key for me is a few things--
1) Putting up with directness. When I work with readers I tend to be very blunt--"faster", "slower", "read again". I'm not intending to be rude; I just want to be efficient with my time.
2) No horrific preconceptions of blindness. Obviously no one's perfect, but this is someone you're hiring. It's not your job to educate them on all aspects of blindness. Obviously there's some amount of educating in all situations, but if it seems red flag worthy, I'd really listen to what someone is saying about themselves.
3) Being willing to be honest. Like, if something sucks or is formatted horribly, just say so. If someone is hesitant around that, that would be a concern for me.
1) Putting up with directness. When I work with readers I tend to be very blunt--"faster", "slower", "read again". I'm not intending to be rude; I just want to be efficient with my time.
2) No horrific preconceptions of blindness. Obviously no one's perfect, but this is someone you're hiring. It's not your job to educate them on all aspects of blindness. Obviously there's some amount of educating in all situations, but if it seems red flag worthy, I'd really listen to what someone is saying about themselves.
3) Being willing to be honest. Like, if something sucks or is formatted horribly, just say so. If someone is hesitant around that, that would be a concern for me.
Envrin [OP] 2 points 2y ago
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OMG, did KoVid really wipe out this many people's financial security? Within 72 hours I'm probably going to have minimum 500 applicants for a shitty part-time $15/hour VA job that nobody in their right mind would generally want. I asked people to give me a little background on themselves, and many of the stories seem to be from really good hearted, down to earth folk who are genuinely hurting right now.
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And here I was in my little blind bubble of a world thinking I'm struggling and that I have it hard trying to run a software operation blind via screen reader. I have to figure out a way to help these folks out. I should be able to hopefully come up with something that creates a decent number of low paying jobs like this.
OMG, did KoVid really wipe out this many people's financial security? Within 72 hours I'm probably going to have minimum 500 applicants for a shitty part-time $15/hour VA job that nobody in their right mind would generally want. I asked people to give me a little background on themselves, and many of the stories seem to be from really good hearted, down to earth folk who are genuinely hurting right now.
​
And here I was in my little blind bubble of a world thinking I'm struggling and that I have it hard trying to run a software operation blind via screen reader. I have to figure out a way to help these folks out. I should be able to hopefully come up with something that creates a decent number of low paying jobs like this.
gumbygirly 1 points 2y ago
You aren’t from the US, I’m betting? Minimum wage is $7.25 where I live. This would be a sweet gig for a lot of people.
Envrin [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Not from the US, but also /r/forhire only allows minimum wage of $15/hour to be posted.
siriuslylupin6 1 points 2y ago
No don’t see the need of it personally. And I am quite physical any such person would probably get in my way.
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