"Things started promisingly. The saleswoman introduced me to my assistant, a young man I’ll call Mr. F. He sent me an email with his picture—big, slicked-back hair, a boyish face, Bible-salesman suit—and a promise to “put in my best efforts to ensure that all your tasks are executed 100% efficiently.” At 9 a.m. the next day, I shared my Google Calendar and Gmail accounts with Mr. F, and I gave him his first task. I needed a flight from San Francisco to Minneapolis. I gave him my dates. I wanted times and prices. Once he’d found an ideal flight, I planned to give him my credit card number so he could book it for me. But after sending him my request, I heard nothing. After 40 minutes, I sent him a follow-up to make sure he’d received the task. About 40 minutes after that, he responded: “Yes I have received your email and I have started working on it.” Huh. This task should have taken him about 10 minutes; why was he just getting started after a nearly an hour and a half? Around noon—about three hours (and $30) after I’d assigned the task—Mr. F finally sent me an email to say he was done. Now I saw why he’d taken so long: Instead of looking for the best two or three flights that conformed to my calendar, he’d created a spreadsheet listing all the details of 10 flights. This was madness: I could have gotten a similar list myself in 30 seconds on any travel site. What I needed was someone to help me narrow down my options, not replicate a Web search. And why did he think I’d need an Excel version? Why didn’t he just send me a link to his search?" ~jp~ slate/articles/technology/technology/2013/08/hiring_an_online_personal_assistant_a_potential_time_saver_becomes_a_huge.html
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 23:35:56 +0000