by Jomvie
(Virtual Assistant from the Philippines)
These past few weeks I have been experiencing a power interruption. It occurs at any given time of the day or night. Lights fluctuate without any given advisory.
Maybe a little heads up will do a little better, unlike shutting you off at the middle of doing something such as one time I was doing some revisions on an infographics and it suddenly turns pitch black and there’s nothing that I can do about it. It’s truly a pain, especially when your main job is on the internet.
And it didn’t happen for just a day or two. It happened for two consecutive days or during at night or alternatively like there’s a power interruption today and it will happen again two days after. And this has gone on since last July until now at random hours.
During the months of March until May we suffered from El Nino Phenomenon that dramatically affects our weather. And since these months are summer time in our country, the temperature is typically hot, but it rather gets hotter that caused drought in some parts of our country and in the city I lived in and our source of energy is greatly affected and so are we.
For some people who are lucky to acquire a box of generator, they don’t suffer this much. And it’s not like we can get it just pulling off some goods out of the grocery store. The cheapest would probably cost about $250+.
In that case, every local power plant decided to have a rotational brown out that lasts for 3 to 4 hours and worst is 6 hours. That’s how bad our situation is during those months and we can’t do anything about it since rain comes very seldom that often we suffer for a month of no rain.
The good thing is, there’s this cloud seeding and we’ll be lucky if it’s successfully seeded.
The most probable reason would be the lacking of power supply due to the unlikely summer-weather in the previous months and now (August), since we do rely on hydroelectricity as a source of energy.
One day, I was so glad that there’s a storm coming because we’ve suffered enough from too hot and very humid surroundings for days and weeks. I know it’s selfish to think that way since other parts of our country will truly be affected.
But this is truly affecting me and my work which I rely on for providing my basic needs.
Do let me know about your thoughts about this.
You can check my other post so that you’ll have a better idea to where I live in Philippines.
Comments for Power Interruption: An inevitable event for a Virtual Assistant from the Philippines
| Aug 18, 2014 | Very interesting to me! It’s great to “see” a sneak-peek behind the scenes of a VA’s life in the Philippines. The conditions truly sound very different to those here in Germany.I can’t wait to experience all of that first hand! Sharing your perspectives freely of how life for a VA from the Philippines really is helps us employers understand and adapt to you VAs – and encourages other VAs from the Philippines that they can be successful. Even with power outages! |
| Aug 23, 2014 | VA living throughout the inevitable circumstances As a VA, you will be asked to find the perfect time to work even with those power interruptions. If the brownout happens to be in the morning or in the afternoon–I can pretty assure you that I will be able to make it at night. But, if it happens at the late hours of night, it would be impossible for me to go out or go to a friend’s house or to a cafe.Last time, when this power interruption occurred like 7 in the evening, I called up my friend an hour after the light is not yet back on, he told me that they are experiencing it too–just minutes after I called up and to think he’s just a 30 minute drive away from my place. In cafes’, they have this emergency light and only that. So, in other words, they don’t want to spend on generators because it will just add another loss of income or just too expensive–I think most cafes (internet/coffee shops) do this kind of practice. They will just wait for the power to go back. And as of the moment, my mini laptop is not in good shape if ever I will go to a coffee shop 😀 it’s OS is still on Window XP–I am still looking for some time to clean this mini-machine and so once something will come up un-invited, I’ll be able to make it up right away. |
| Sep 02, 2014 | imma VA as well But it’s not all the time you can find a way to get online during power outage. Internet and coffeeshops are often out of power supply also. I hope ul get considered on that if not exempted.. Prolly just get a postpaid plan on lappy’s or an ipad. Ciao ~,* |
| Sep 03, 2014 | Hi Liana,I am actually thinking about getting a postpaid plan on either a laptop or tablets. But, I am thinking about the monthly cost also. In other words, the monthly cost outweighs the need, so I don’t think I am going to consider on getting a postpaid plan 😀 By the way, thanks for dropping by—looking forward to hear more about your thoughts on this matter.. |
| Sep 03, 2014 | Postpaid plan one of many alternatives It’s good to show your employer you do everything you can to stay online even during power outages. Just be upfront about the situation and objectively describe the situation.If you show you tried a, b and c before giving up, your employer will most likely respect that self-motivating attitude and be patient with you. An alternative is to show your employer how much it would cost to pay for such a postpaid plan. He might consider it as a solution for urgent matters. How much does a postpaid plan cost in the Philippines? |
Hello All!
I definitely agree with the article, most of the months that the rotational brownouts occur are summers around March to July since the season is hot.
It’s a good thing now that they release their schedules a week before so that we can plan ahead. However, for us part-time workers, it is still a bummer since our schedule is not that flexible.
Home Broadband DSL post-paid plan costs around 1,300 to 6,000 Php depending on the speed. It is good since the internet connection is still up even on brownouts, however, if there is no power, nothing would power-up your modems. So still, you cannot get internet on your laptop.
The best solution for me, obviously aside from a generator of course, is a laptop and a mobile broadband connection. Since it needs only a power from the USB port. It works on post-paid or pre-paid plan, just the speed is relatively inferior to the DSL internet.
What do you guys think?