John Jonas (Secret Thoughts of Outsourcing podcast, Ep. 360, Feb 23, 2024) tells an anecdote about hiring a content writer and asking for photos of her home office. The writer first sent an aspirational, Instagrammable image (green walls, two-tiered desk, Mac monitor) but later revealed that was a Pinterest-style ideal — her real workspace is humbler (concrete walls with cracks, Dell laptop, spare monitor, simple wood desk and small shelves). Jonas uses the story to discuss the meaning of having a dedicated workspace for remote Filipino virtual assistants (OFS), notes that many Filipino remote workers set up desks in shared house spaces, and suggests managers ask team members for workspace photos to better understand their setups.
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Welcome to the Secret Thoughts of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at working with OFS online Filipino specialists. This is episode 360 describing my OFS workspace. So a while back, I hired a content writer and I talked about how I did it, and I talked about how many good candidates I had. I ended up hiring someone really great. We've been really happy with her work. It took a little bit of time to get her into our style, but once she got there, she's been really, really great. So Julia, who I work with very closely, asked our new writer to write something about her workspace. And what we got back was a lie. It was really, really interesting. So if you're watching this on YouTube, I'm going to show you some pictures. If you're listening to the podcast, I'm just going to describe these things for you. So Julia asked her to write about this because they bonded over having created a home office workspace for themselves. They each have it. Apparently having an Instagrammable office is something that they aspire to in the Philippines. And our new writer is working on that. So here's what she said when Julia asked her to write about it. She said, hey, I need a workspace that gets my creative juices flowing. So I rolled up my sleeves and converted a spare room into my ultimate work nook and sent us this picture, which is spectacular. Like green walls and a really nice window with shades and a really nice two tiered desk and a Mac monitor on it with nice shelves and plants. And she wrote this really long email about how this is her office and how great it is and it's really nice. And when I saw it, I was like, wow, that is amazing. I mean, it's. This is, this is super duper nice. It's definitely nicer than my office at home, which is pretty nice. And this is like, artistic. And so we pushed back a little bit and it turned out it was a lie. She. It was the office that she wants, but it's not the office that she has. But she was embarrassed to say what her actual office looks like. Not that it's bad, it's just not what she was hoping for. And so now I'm gonna show you her real office. At least if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll get to see pictures. Now her real office is actually pretty nice. It has concrete walls and the walls have cracks in them. And she says, no, that's not my office. It's a picture from Pinterest. But when I Saw that I hoped it would be my office someday. I'm in the process of getting up to that point. Our house is being renovated and the office I have right now is a work in progress. So the concrete walls with cracks in them, but she does have a MacBook Pro and a spare monitor and a nice wood desk along with a nice chair. She has some shelves on the wall. They're probably like this big of an like a one foot by two foot wall, mountable shelf with some small plants on it in the corner. She has a light and she has some pencils and stuff. I'm not sure how much of that stuff was set there for the picture that she sent to us, but it's there. In general, the office looks really nice, but it's definitely not what she sent at first. Okay, wait. As I look in more detail at the pictures, it's not a MacBook Pro on her desk. She has a Dell. Looks like a Dell computer on her desk. I do know that multiple people on my team have MacBook Pros or MacBook Airs. It's not uncommon. Dell did a pretty good job of making this one look like a MacBook Pro. So here's what she says about her home office and her space. She says, why is it so important for me to have this space? As I assembled my desk, I envisioned it. I envisioned it as my mission control center. The place where I'll be managing tasks, coordinating projects and delivering top notch work. She had a job before us. So this all happened before. This is why this is a recent thing. And that's why even as a recent hire, she already has this space. She continues, it's a space that reflects my commitment to professionalism and attention to detail. Now, whether or not this is all true, I don't know because. Well, I mean, the first thing she sent us wasn't. It wasn't correct, right? But you can tell she took some care in creating the this office. She continues transitioning to the world of remote work as a Filipino virtual assistant was a game changer for me. It offered the freedom to escape cookie cutter cubicles and that oh so flattering fluorescent lighting just like the one I'm currently fine tuning. In creating this inspiring workspace, I didn't just build a physical nook. I crafted a symbol of the flexibility and potential that remote work offers to employers and dedicated ofs like me. So over the years, I've seen a lot of opportunities, offices, a lot of, I mean, workspaces, right? Not very many people in the Philippines have an office. They usually have a desk set up in a bedroom or in the kitchen or some. Somewhere in a. I mean, in a definitely used part of the house where they work. And I've seen a lot of these over the years. I've seen a lot of pictures, I've seen some videos, and it's been, it's been really good for me to see them. This My Content writers is a really nice workspace. You might want to consider asking your team for a picture of their workspace. It might be good for you to see what they're doing, where they work, what their setup looks like, what their computer looks like, what their desk is, what their chair is. It's nice to see the things that people we work with, how they work.
