fixed price vs hourly rate

Francis:

Okay. I have a question to you first. It seems to me that you are paying your worker based on a milestone agreement. In other words, you are paying him on a fixed price schedule. Did you ever employ someone with an hourly pay?

Stefan:

Yes.

Francis:

What was your experience with fixed price vs hourly rate? 

Stefan:

What my experience was when I paid my workers hourly was they still did less often after a while. But to me, it seems like they don’t care if they earn less.

They just work less hours. And if I ask them, “What’s going on? Why are you not even working the 10 hours per week?” 

Francis:

Yes.

Stefan:

You just work 4 hours per week. What’s going on? They will just say, “I couldn’t do more.”

Francis:

Didn’t you ever check out the profile of your worker in oDesk and see how many other actual contracts they had going on at the same time? Sometimes people work into several employers at the same time.

Stefan:

Yes.

Francis:

Was this perhaps the reason that they could not work more for you?

Stefan:

Can’t give you a feedback on that, I think, because I don’t know too much about that.

Francis:

Okay. Sometimes this happens and then of course you have to talk about this. And say, “Well if you work for 10 other people, it’s clear you cannot work 10 hours per week for me.”  

Did you make an agreement beforehand that they have to work 10 hours a week for you?

Stefan:

When we had a contract for time, yes.

Francis:

Okay then, in my opinion, that’s a breach of the contract. And that in my opinion you can tell them square and fair, “Well, we had an agreement 10 hours per week, you’re not delivering. What would be the next step?”

Stefan:

Leaving the job. That’s my experience. That’s what the workers are doing.

Francis:

Okay. So clearly you have a problem setting up the initial trust. 

Stefan:

Because just leaving the job seems easier. It seems like an easy escape, “Oh, there’s a problem. I just flee.” You know?