So, you started your virtual assistant business. Congrats!!! Remember we are not an employer and do not have a company's paid leave. As a virtual assistant, you are no doubt familiar with the dreaded ?sick day,? or the ?day off,? which you take to recover from an illness or injury. So you?ve taken the day to rest or recover. But what if you were really sick? What if you were in an accident? Being sick is one thing, but when it happens to you, the effects can be far-reaching. For example, missing a few days can hurt your clients in the long term. When it comes to providing clients quality service, even when we get sick, we need to plan and know the expectations from the client side so that we don't have any surprises when we cannot complete a task.
How to Approach Your Day if You're Sick
Sickness is the worst, but it's even worse when you have to work. This blog will show you how to approach your day if you're sick and take the necessary precaution to ensure it does not interfere with client work. When you onboarded your clients, you should have a welcome guide addressing your VA company expectations, including hours of operations, holidays, and how you manage your sick days, whether you will work or take off. The sickness section should address the steps you will take to ensure that it will not affect the quality of work they will receive. If you are doing this solo, it may be less productive depending on how you feel if you have a backup system, such as a team that will handle it.
Communication is important because it shows your professionalism and willingness to ensure they picked the right VA or team to work with.
If you're feeling under the weather, try not to lie in bed all day. If you want to spend some time in bed, take care of yourself by drinking fluids and resting. If possible, avoid working on high-impact tasks like writing or working on a website because they will only worsen your sickness. Although we do get sick from time to time and when you are self-employed, we do not get paid for sick days, and our clients are humans as we are, so, understandably, days like this will happen. However, the important thing is that we should always over-communicate to ensure all is in control on your end. You don't need to go into the office if you're sick. There are several ways to communicate with your clients that you may be less productive on the day you are sick.
There are many benefits to communicating with your clients when you are sick. They can appreciate that you cared about their business enough to let them know ahead of time, and they'll be able to better prepare for the work. If you're feeling under the weather, remember your health is first. If you can work while you are sick, try not to lie in bed all day. If you want to spend some time in bed, take care of yourself by drinking fluids and resting. If possible, avoid working on high-impact tasks like writing or working on a website because they will only worsen your sickness.
1. It's always best to communicate with your clients as soon as possible whenever illness or another event may prevent you from completing a task on time. Let your clients know what's going on and how it may impact their project, some tasks, and timeline.
2. If possible, work on files offline and upload them once finished instead of working online for an extended time.
3. Provide an estimate of when the project or task will be completed
It is important to take care of yourself and let your clients know that they should not worry about expecting a lot from you on this day.
Have a backup plan for the backup plan
Your backup plan should be to have a backup plan. What you are trying to achieve is to have somebody who can take over when you are sick or on vacation. There are many ways to find someone who can help you out when you're not feeling well. One way is to find a VA intern from an online internship site. Another option is to hire someone on Fiverr for a short-term project or as a freelancer with long-term commitment.
You may also consider hiring subcontractors as they provide the perfect balance between cost and quality, which will allow your team to grow with ease as your business grows.
Handling Difficult Clients
?????????I would love to say that it's enough to be polite, professional, and firm in your boundaries, but sometimes people are difficult. When this happens, I remind myself of the things that make my work worth it.
Virtual assistants set boundaries with their clients to protect themselves when they need to take time off for sickness or leave. But there are still some clients who don't expect their time offs. Virtual assistants need to find the right balance between taking care of themselves and setting clear boundaries with clients who give them hard times while sick.
One of the most challenging things for a virtual assistant to do is to take time off. This is often because they feel like they are putting their client and the work itself in jeopardy. However, if you set clear boundaries and expectations with your clients, it should not be difficult to understand that you need time off. As stated above, communication is important to know what is going on and what to expect. If you face clients who do not respect you as a human and get sick and do not have any empathy, then it is time to reevaluate the partnership agreement and let them go. It may be difficult, and it may put a dent in your income, but your health should not outway losing a client. You can always get on board with another client.
In conclusion, we all understand the importance of taking care of our health, and sometimes that means taking a sick day or two to rest and recharge. When you are taking sick days as a virtual assistant, have a backup plan to ensure your client's project is not held up, but also ensure your backup plan has another backup plan in place if you cannot fulfill that obligation. You may never need it, but you will be glad that you have it.
Let me know in the comments below how you handle sick days.
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Teekwa Scarborough
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