5 ms·

I want a personal assistant for 5-10 hours a week. Not a virtual one because most of the things I want done are in meat space. Stuff like filling out forms, doi

I want a personal assistant for 5-10 hours a week. Not a virtual one because most of the things I want done are in meat space. Stuff like filling out forms, doing my laundry, waiting in line for me at the DMV, and dropping off my netflix returns in the mail. It sounds petty, but I really hate running errands and filling out forms. I'm considering hiring someone off craigslist.

mstevens 17y ago
Related, there are various indian companies that offer the virtual equivalent, but I've never signed up because of: a) worries about cultural fit b) they all seem to make the signup process that little bit too painful c) there's always a slightly offline feel about the process, I want something more web 2.0, on the level of raising a bugzilla ticket for someone to book me a holiday.
Robin_Message 17y ago
I think most people would like this, if they trusted the person. This is the kind of role a equerry/butler fulfilled in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century, you could expect a secretary to do this kind of thing (maybe not laundry!), even if it was not strictly company related. I think this made sense for businesses since secretaries were cheaper than you, and some things you have to do on work time - e.g. banking, government interaction, mail. Now, personal secretaries are all but gone and personal assistants are only really available at board level. So although companies are paying less for payroll, they are losing out since I know phone the bank at work, on work time. I also hate forms and errands, so the company is further disadvantaged by the ego-depletion doing such things causes. (N.B. I have nothing to back this stuff up, just seems like the way things used to be vs now)
rguzman 17y ago
I've often wanted the same. The main problem seems to be that it is probably hard to make a living as a personal assistant at the prices you and I are willing to pay. There is also the trust issue: would you really trust a stranger enough to do sensitive things?
- thomaspaine 17y ago
  It didn't occur to me that I could hire someone until I saw this: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/bipan/i_used_to_have_a_personal_assistant_it_was_a_few/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/bipan/i_used_to_have_a... It just so happened that the previous day when my girlfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I gave her a list of errands to run, people to call, and forms to fill out. She says I should just pay her instead of hiring someone, since she admittedly does do a lot of this crap for me anyways, but something doesn't feel right about hiring my girlfriend to be my personal assistant. Regarding the business side of things, it might be feasible if you had a central service that could distribute the load of multiple clients among a stable of assistants. You sign up for X hours per week, and you get an assistant on retainer. Maybe you pay a premium if you prefer to work with one person exclusively. Locality could be a problem though, because you would ideally want your assistant to be pretty close to where you work/live.
  - mstevens 17y ago
    Related, I've repeatedly seen companies try virtual office services, and abandon them for being awful. A reasonably priced non-awful option therefore sounds good.
- petercooper 17y ago
  The main problem seems to be that it is probably hard to make a living as a personal assistant at the prices you and I are willing to pay. I'm not sure it's the actual rate of pay. I'd pay $20 an hour for these services no problem, and that's far above minimum wage. The problem is I'd ultimately be paying far more to do all the paperwork, have this person treated as an "employee", taxes, and red tape. If it was just handing cash to someone "under the table" the rate isn't too prohibitive. Labor laws hurt employees as much as they protect them.
  - rguzman 17y ago
    Good point! Taking care of taxes and red-tape should be scalable, though, right? Meaning that it should be possible for a company to set all that stuff up and then contract out the people. A consultancy for personal assistants. New question: is there enough demand and margin to make this worth it for a company to do? Is there enough supply of people who want to be personal assistants? My guesses would be no and yes, respectively.
froo 17y ago
I had one when I lived in Melbourne recently. Its a company called "The Lifestylers Group" http://www.thelifestylersgroup.com.au/ http://www.thelifestylersgroup.com.au/ So, they already exist, you just have to find them. They call themselves a "Personal Concierge Service" so perhaps you could do a search for that in your local area. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find something similar when I moved back to Perth.
keefe 17y ago
Learn spanish and find a mexican. I'm only half joking if you live in CA.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
hajrice 17y ago
Hmm, interesting. I could see this being a service that charges you a monthly fee. I'm sure that a lot of people(migrants mostly) would be more than fine working for fees which we consider really low. In more detail, if you make 100 an hour, giving 10/h actually earns you another 100/h every time that person runs a task for you.

mstevens 17y ago

Related, there are various indian companies that offer the virtual equivalent, but I've never signed up because of: a) worries about cultural fit b) they all seem to make the signup process that little bit too painful c) there's always a slightly offline feel about the process, I want something more web 2.0, on the level of raising a bugzilla ticket for someone to book me a holiday.

Robin_Message 17y ago

I think most people would like this, if they trusted the person. This is the kind of role a equerry/butler fulfilled in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century, you could expect a secretary to do this kind of thing (maybe not laundry!), even if it was not strictly company related. I think this made sense for businesses since secretaries were cheaper than you, and some things you have to do on work time - e.g. banking, government interaction, mail. Now, personal secretaries are all but gone and personal assistants are only really available at board level. So although companies are paying less for payroll, they are losing out since I know phone the bank at work, on work time. I also hate forms and errands, so the company is further disadvantaged by the ego-depletion doing such things causes. (N.B. I have nothing to back this stuff up, just seems like the way things used to be vs now)

rguzman 17y ago

I've often wanted the same. The main problem seems to be that it is probably hard to make a living as a personal assistant at the prices you and I are willing to pay. There is also the trust issue: would you really trust a stranger enough to do sensitive things?

thomaspaine 17y ago
It didn't occur to me that I could hire someone until I saw this: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/bipan/i_used_to_have_a_personal_assistant_it_was_a_few/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/bipan/i_used_to_have_a... It just so happened that the previous day when my girlfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I gave her a list of errands to run, people to call, and forms to fill out. She says I should just pay her instead of hiring someone, since she admittedly does do a lot of this crap for me anyways, but something doesn't feel right about hiring my girlfriend to be my personal assistant. Regarding the business side of things, it might be feasible if you had a central service that could distribute the load of multiple clients among a stable of assistants. You sign up for X hours per week, and you get an assistant on retainer. Maybe you pay a premium if you prefer to work with one person exclusively. Locality could be a problem though, because you would ideally want your assistant to be pretty close to where you work/live.
- mstevens 17y ago
  Related, I've repeatedly seen companies try virtual office services, and abandon them for being awful. A reasonably priced non-awful option therefore sounds good.
petercooper 17y ago
The main problem seems to be that it is probably hard to make a living as a personal assistant at the prices you and I are willing to pay. I'm not sure it's the actual rate of pay. I'd pay $20 an hour for these services no problem, and that's far above minimum wage. The problem is I'd ultimately be paying far more to do all the paperwork, have this person treated as an "employee", taxes, and red tape. If it was just handing cash to someone "under the table" the rate isn't too prohibitive. Labor laws hurt employees as much as they protect them.
- rguzman 17y ago
  Good point! Taking care of taxes and red-tape should be scalable, though, right? Meaning that it should be possible for a company to set all that stuff up and then contract out the people. A consultancy for personal assistants. New question: is there enough demand and margin to make this worth it for a company to do? Is there enough supply of people who want to be personal assistants? My guesses would be no and yes, respectively.

froo 17y ago

I had one when I lived in Melbourne recently. Its a company called "The Lifestylers Group" http://www.thelifestylersgroup.com.au/ http://www.thelifestylersgroup.com.au/ So, they already exist, you just have to find them. They call themselves a "Personal Concierge Service" so perhaps you could do a search for that in your local area. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find something similar when I moved back to Perth.

keefe 17y ago

Learn spanish and find a mexican. I'm only half joking if you live in CA.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

hajrice 17y ago

Hmm, interesting. I could see this being a service that charges you a monthly fee. I'm sure that a lot of people(migrants mostly) would be more than fine working for fees which we consider really low. In more detail, if you make 100 an hour, giving 10/h actually earns you another 100/h every time that person runs a task for you.