Career Advice by Randy

There are a few certification courses that VA’s can take to increase their knowledge in the virtual assistant industry. However, there is much debate on whether or not a person should go for a certification with their business. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of VA certifications:

Advantages

Credibility -

Obtaining a certification through one of these courses can give you some credibility as a professional and help a potential client feel a little better about hiring you for their projects.

Broaden your knowledge -

You can learn more about the Virtual assistant business to help you edge out your competition. You can learn some tips and tricks to provide the best and sometimes quickest services, possible for your clients.

Distinguishes you as a professional -

A certification can take you to a professional level and gives you the opportunity to offer more money for your services to clients who will be more willing to pay for them.

Disadvantages

Expensive -

These courses can sometimes be quite expensive on your budget. A lot of VA’s forego the certification process as they are able to find decent paying work without spending the money for the course.

No guarantees -

While a certification is quite helpful for some VA’s to find work, there is no guarantee that it will bring you the higher paying work you seek. You would need to decide if the money would be well spent for you.

Insignificant to some clients -

There are some clients who aren’t interested in whether or not a VA holds a certification from these courses. They are more interested in whether or not you have either a specific certification in a field, such as accounting, or good standing experience in performing a certain task, l Read the rest of this entry »

Do you always get the feeling you’re being watched at work? Does your boss know a lot more about you than they should? In short, do you think you are being illegally spied on at work?

If you’re working in America then the answer is probably yes, but before you go running to the lawyers everything they are doing is probably all supported by law.

An American Management Association survey of 526 managers found that most managers watched subordinates in some form or another. An amazing 76% monitoring website visits while 50% looked at computer files, and a larger percentage of managers used spy cameras or surveillance equipment to keep track of what staff were up to while they were at work.

However, this type of behavior is, to a large degree, allowed by law in the US with most workplace privacy laws only asking employers to tell staff if they are being watched and to refrain from watching them when they are changing their clothes.

You’re in luck if you’re working in Britain you have a few more rights when it comes to your privacy as employers need to get your consent before they can intercept your emails or carry out internet surveillance.

But why are employers so afraid of staff’s actions while they are at work?

Most of the time your employers are just worried about you wasting time at work. However, there are some more serious reasons for them to watch what you do.

They could be worried about bullying or sexual harassment or poor treatment of a customer which could lead to loss of business or even a sexual harassment suit.

So how do employers spy on their employees?

There are three main types of surveillance that a manager will use to keep an eye on staff.

They could carry out surveillance using surveillance equipment, like spy surveillance cameras, GPS tracking or Read the rest of this entry »