Is There Surety of Payment after Being Hired in oDesk?

by Francis
(April 30, 2013)

Yes, there is surety of payment if you managed to get hired in oDesk. On the other hand, this surety of payment only applies if you actually do the work you’re supposed to do. In other words, you cannot abuse the system or goof off and be paid for it. But as long as you do work on the project you’re supposed to work on, you will get paid for your time.

In which cases will you not get paid?

If for example you are surfing on Facebook while you are logged in and getting money from your employer, this would probably not work out well.

How the System Works To Make Sure Payment Is Given For Your Work

oDesk uses its own screen recording software in the so-called oDesk Team Application. This software will record, as long as you login into your project at a random point in time every 10 minutes, a screenshot from your computer.

As long as those screenshots show that you are working on your project, you will get paid for that.

For example, if you are hired to research and record a report about a certain subject; then, your screenshots will show all sorts of Google research results relevant to the topic. Perhaps, a Word file opened while you copy and paste the relevant information; perhaps, an Excel sheet or something to that nature. All those screenshots proves that you are working on the project.

If a screenshot shows you playing an online game, for example, then the employer has the right to deny you the payment for that chunk of time. Since each screenshot is recorded every 10 minutes, you would lose – and only if your employer points that out – that 10 minutes chunk of time. For the remaining 50 minutes, you would get paid.

Word of Warning – Your Work Quality and Your Reputation Are Of Crucial Importance

As you are working on your projects, you must try to stay as focused as you can. If you feel you are going to procrastinate, log off from your team. Do what you need to do then log back in and work.

The possibility to lose 10 minutes of time paid work is the lesser problem you might have if you don’t work when you’re supposed to work. Your employer could end the contract with you. At that time, he is freed from the guarantee that he needs to pay you for your work. This can happen. Of course, an employer would likely contact you but he’s not required to.

So the best way to guarantee that you are paid is to do what you are actually supposed to do. As long as you do that, oDesk protects you, your work and your payment and guarantees it.

As an employer, if I were to protest against rightfully done work for my virtual assistant; my virtual assistant would be right and he would keep his payment. So, there’s no possibility for an employer to deny you your payment. Actually, it gets retracted from the credit card of the employer automatically.

The Skillfulness of Your Work Is Not Of Relevance for the Payment Guarantee

As I said, the payment is not dependent on the skill of your work, only if you do the work. If you work slowly or if you work inefficiently, you will still get paid. But only, of course, for how long the employer will put up with that.

If at some point in time he will fire you because you work too slowly or too inefficiently, after that you would not be able to earn anymore from this contract. But all the work you have done until to that point, you will be guaranteed your payment.

On the other hand, you should have worry about your work feedback. If you do bad work and your contract gets cancelled, you will get the payment for the work you have done. But you can also risk getting a bad feedback. If you have a bad feedback, future employer will possibly not hire you.

You shouldn’t worry about being ripped off. oDesk is a very big respectable service. Thousands or tens of thousands of virtual assistants and employers are using it. oDesk has an interest in protecting both sides of the contract since they earn on every dollar paid to you by adding an additional fee to the employer.

So, this service protects and guarantees your payment. The more important problem you must solve is to be successful in getting hired.

Bottom-Line

Your payment is guaranteed as long as you work on the job you’re supposed to do.

Focus on worrying about the quality of your work and your online reputation in order to get more and more jobs and also better paid jobs.

And finally, if you ever encounter any problem with payments from oDesk, be sure to come back here and report it in the comments. I’ll try to help you out with advice or any other way I can.

Also, if you enjoyed this article, be sure to leave a comment too. I will love to hear from you.

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