When a Filipino VA's family member dies, expect them to need one to two weeks off due to long travel times and funeral costs. John Jonas recommends offering paid leave and considering financial help ($25–$500) to prevent them from disappearing without asking.
Questions this video answers
One to two weeks.
$25 to $500.
About 14 hours.
Around four to six hours, making the round trip take about two days.
Chapters
What to do when a family member dies. So I got an email this week from someone who said their OFS's sister died and they needed some time off, and they gave him a week off and then emailed me and said, hey, did I do this right?
Yeah, you did it right.
So death in the Philippines is hard.
People often live far apart from each other, and yet family is super important. When someone dies, often it means they.
Gotta take a boat ride to get to the other island where their family member is. Often that boat ride is like 14 hours long.
And then they're gonna take a bus.
Another four or five or six hours. It's gonna take them two days to get back home from there.
Once they get home, they gotta plan.
And pay for the funeral, and then.
They gotta come back back to their house to work. It's just hard. So plan on this taking some time.
If you're. If someone tells you they have, they're probably not lying to you. They might be, but it's unlikely. So here's what happens.
If your OFS doesn't trust you yet, then they know this is going to take forever, and they're worried that you're.
Going to be super disappointed in them.
And rather than disappoint you, they don't want to disappoint you. They're likely to disappear.
Years ago, I hired someone, and within the first week, they didn't even want to email me themselves. They had their sister email me, and their sister said, hey, sir, I'm sorry, she can't keep working for you. Her mom died. We have to go to the funeral. And I replied, and I was like, wait a minute. I'm willing to wait until you come back. She knew that it was gonna take so long, she didn't want to do it, which is really sad. So here's what I do. If someone dies. Number one, give time off and plan on a week to two weeks. Number two, you might consider sending money. They have to pay for the funeral, and there's not. Most of the time, there's not savings for that funeral. Depending on your financial sit, send $25 to $500 just to help them out. Death is a significant burden, obviously, and it's really hard in the Philippines just because of the travel situation and having to pay for a funeral where there's not money for. You're already living paycheck to paycheck. So that's how I handle death of a family member in the Philippines.
