John Jonas (host) presents episode 28 of the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing Podcast, recounting that one of his overseas Filipino staff (OFS) — a volunteer firefighter named Ben — appeared in a local news Facebook post (Davao Today) carrying a baby during Davao river flooding. Jonas praises the worker for balancing volunteer rescue duties with his regular job, encourages listeners to ask their teams about volunteer activities, and describes volunteering as part of his company culture (onlinejobs.ph).
Questions this episode answers
Episode 28
December 1, 2021
Chapters
Hello and welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing Podcast, the podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing your work. My name is John Jonas and this is episode 28. One of my ofs was on the news this week. So I always try and help people. It's one of the things that I have made. One of my life goals is to help whenever I can, which is pretty, pretty often that I'm able to help. And I love it. I can see a little bit of that culture being put into onlinejobs, PH and our company. So I don't look at Facebook ever. But Julia of my OFS sent me a Facebook post this week from Davao Today, which is their local news. And it was. There's a picture on their. On their Facebook page. And I don't know if this made it in the newspaper, I don't know. But it's one of my workers holding a baby during a flood. He's a volunteer firefighter and for the past few days there's been. The Davao river is flooding and he's been helping to evacuate people affected by the flood. And there's a picture of him carrying a baby in knee deep water. And you can just see people all over the place, helmets on, knee deep, water everywhere. It's a mess. And this baby in his arms, he's carrying it to safety. So I would never have known that he was doing this if someone hadn't pointed it out to me on Facebook. And he's still been doing his work like he's been getting his job done. While he's also out volunteering as a volunteer firefighter and helping out in this rescue. He's been evacuating people during the day and getting his work done at night, which I don't, I don't know because typically when you help, you don't go talking about it. And Ben is just, this guy is really awesome and I love that he's doing this. What are you doing to volunteer and help? Like, are you helping in your community? Are you helping with your OFS team? Are you asking them, hey, what do you need help with? That's a big deal. And then have you talked to your people about what they do outside of work? What do your OFS do to volunteer? Have you asked them that? You might find that they're. You might find that they don't do anything and that's acceptable. You might find that they're really involved in a lot of things. I've talked with quite a few of my team members about this, and I always get interesting answers like, oh, I help teach at the local school. I help teach other VAs how to be better at their jobs. I didn't know you were doing that. Just really, really good stuff. Volunteering is part of my life, and we try and make it part of our culture. When there's a need, we try and help at onlinejobs, physical.
