The employee mentality
I used to have an employee who came in every morning and answered my cheery “How are you this morning?” with “I’m not dead…yet.” in a deadpan monotone. When he handed in his notice and gave us his company mobile phone back we actually found a diary entry saying “March 15th: Get a life”. Um, yeah. He was a little ray of sunshine in the office and my mood improved significantly just by not having him there.
My next “employee” was in fact not an employee at all – in came Emma, my VA. Oh, how much do I love Emma: Not only is she a breath of fresh air, she also kicks my butt when I’m not doing what I should be doing, grabs hold of any task that floats past her nose, comes up with fabulous ideas both for our internal organisation and for marketing externally, and she does it all with intense loveliness and fun. I can honestly say that without her, I would have given up years ago.
So what’s the difference between Emma and my former employee? Well their skills are comparable, in fact I’d say my former employee’s skills were slightly better. But their mindsets were entirely different.
Emma is paid by the hour, so it’s in her interest to generate business and find tasks to do for me. She creates her own to do list and her motivation remains sky high throughout each task until it’s completed to perfection.
What have you noticed is different about being an employee to being a VA?