The freelance sites Elance and oDesk have a spy cam facility so that buyers of your work can see if you’re really working. It’s a bit like having an employer looking over your shoulder.
So, is this okay, or is it really terrible as some freelance writing sites are saying? Should you work for the freelance sites if they’re going in this direction?
Well, I have no experience with Elance, but I did have some experience with oDesk last year when I finished my University degree and started to get serious about making real money instead of the peanuts I was getting for page views at places like Associated Content (although this is also a great site for establishing your name, and for marketing yourself and building a portfolio).
I was first appalled at the miserly amounts most of the “jobs” were paying, but since I was treating it as a marketing exercise and a way of getting my name “out there” I persevered and kept looking. I did find some okay fixed rate jobs, and this has led to better paying work outside the freelance sites as the clients told their friends, and word spread. It also gave me some feedback stars and testimonials to use on my website. So it has been good in that sense, and if you’re starting out it’s still not a bad way to break in.
So what about the spy cams? I did a couple of hourly jobs on oDesk, again as a marketing exercise, but also just out of curiosity. What I learned was you install software on your computer, and when you’re working on the hourly job, you turn on the software and it takes regular screen captures. You can turn it off any time, pause it, or whatever, so you are in control. When I’m being paid by the hour (very rare, but sometimes editing jobs pay by the hour), I don’t charge the buyer for time I spend doing anything other than working, so I wasn’t too upset with the fact they could see I was working. A downside is that as I’m a fast worker, I was paid less than a slow person would be paid for the same job. Another downside is that not all work is done on the computer, so they could think if the screen stays the same I’m not working, whereas I might well be proofreading a printout.
Overall it was not quite as sinister as some are saying (because you can control it), but it did make me feel like an employee, which goes against all the advantages of being a freelancer. On oDesk at least, the advantage is that hourly paid jobs are guaranteed whereas fixed rate jobs are not. You can work on a fixed rate job, deliver the goods, and then not get paid. Ask me how I know this.
I then hired some people myself on hourly jobs, and as a buyer I could definitely see the advantages, but I liked it even less. Two of the people I hired were very slow, and checking the screen shots I could see that one was just slow, but the other was sending emails, applying for other jobs, and watching YouTube videos on the time I was paying for. Naturally, I stopped his hours straight away. So an advantage for me, but I did feel like a spy, as I could see pictures they had on their wallpaper, and other stuff they had open on their computers. I didn’t like it, even though I could fire the guy who was slacking off on my time.
I don’t do anything at oDesk any more, but I have done a little at Guru, which doesn’t have the spy cam.
In summary, if you’re starting out and use the sites as marketing exercises, then it can be okay, and your pay is guaranteed on hourly jobs (on oDesk at least). If you’re not cheating, you may not be too bothered by the cam, but make sure you don’t have anything open you don’t want anyone else to see. If you’re a true freelancer, you will probably hate the whole idea.
I wouldn’t use that system again, as I don’t want the feeling of an employer staring over my shoulder, and I didn’t like feeling like an employer staring over someone else’s shoulder either. Guru so far has no spy cam, and if it gets one I won’t do any work involving it.
Fortunately, at all these sites almost all writing jobs are fixed rate, so the spy cam doesn’t affect us as much as others such as programmers, but if you do want to go ahead with one of these jobs, at least now you know what you’re in for.
