24 Nov 2025 · 4 min
John Jonas explains why asking direct questions solves problems when managing Filipino staff. Cultural norms around privacy and power distance mean workers won't volunteer issues like second jobs or discomfort with tasks. One manager's simple reassignment after asking the right questions turned a struggling hire into a strong performer.
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 37, asking solves a lot of problems with OFS. So over the years, I have figured out that the culture of the Philippines is different than the culture of the US where they're actually a little bit more private than we are. But because of the power distance with you being the boss, you can actually ask them questions about things that they are then willing to talk about, and it can really solve a lot of problems in a working relationship or in their personal lives. There's a lot of things that you can really help with where you can solve the problem by asking. And this includes when you think there's a problem, like they're not getting stuff done, how quickly you think they should, or you think they have a second job, or there's a problem and it's super easily solvable most of the time by asking. So here's an interesting email that I just got from someone who is having some issues with her second ofs. She says, I have concerns that she's working for someone else and it is interfering with her performance. She gets her basic work done, but when I try to add more, she's resistant and reluctant. Things that should take two hours to do take all day long. She was able to make calls but not answer with our UMA call system. Do you have any advice on that? So my advice to her, Ask. It's just a critical piece of communication with the Philippines. You think there's a problem? Ask. Ask. What other jobs do you have? Ask. You seem hesitant to do phone calls. Is it something you're uncomfortable with? Is there something else wrong? Asking will solve a lot of problems. And especially in this situation where they seem hesitant to do something or you've asked them to do something and you think it's a simple thing and they're not doing it. Ask. Because there's a reason and they're just waiting for you to ask what's going on for them to tell you, and then they're gonna tell you, oh, I actually hate making phone calls, and this is giving me anxiety every night. I don't wanna get out of bed in the morning because I know I have to make phone calls. Oh, well, like, that's an easy problem to solve, right? And I don't know that's the case here, but things that should take two hours to do take all day long. Well, maybe she does have Another job and she's actually not doing her work, in which case, if you ask then like, hey, who else working for? Yeah, then you can, you can take care of the problem. Either let her go or maybe she's going to tell you, hey, I don't have a second job, but this thing is holding me back. And here's this problem and you'll probably find out, oh, well, I can solve that super easy. I've seen this so many times. So let me give you an example. A few years back, I hired an OFS manny to help with customer support via social media. And he was doing great, but couldn't seem to do more. And we had asked him to do more, but he only did the bare minimum. And even with training, it looked like he just couldn't do more than what I initially asked him to do. And I was frustrated, so I asked him, hey, is there a problem? Do you have another job? So it turned out he didn't have another job. He's just not that into social media. And what he's good at is customer support. He worked in a call center for years before I hired him and so I just assumed all of customer support is customer support. And I put him on customer support and social media. But then I also wanted him to do other stuff in social media and he hated it. So after that he helped start our social media customer support and then beyond that, he didn't, he didn't know what to do, he was afraid to do anything else. So I gave him a shot at doing more customer support and here's what he's done since. 1. He helped us set up a team schedule so that we have 24, 7 email support and social media support. 2. He improved the knowledge database for our customer support team, making it easier to use. 3. He helped our user interface team by giving feedback taken from customer emails. He compiled a whole bunch of stuff and gave it to our UX user experience team to help design better. 4. He assisted in improving backend processes like verifying job seeker accounts so that we're more efficient at it and we're better at getting rid of bad job seekers out of online jobs. Ph. And then, I don't know, five or six. He helped strengthen our data privacy protocols so we're just a better company with him. And it turns out this is what he loves to do. He just doesn't love to do social media. So I don't need to ask him to do social media stuff anymore. He's the one who comes up with ideas for what he can do to improve our customer experience now. And I wouldn't have gotten all of that that if I didn't bother to ask and just, I probably would have just given up on him five years ago. So moral of the story, just ask. Super simple. And you can solve so many problems with it.
