Andrea Helaine from Adrian, Texas
contact@partnersingrants.com
www.partnersingrants.com
Within less than a week of Andrea starting work for us, she was a problem for us.
While her attitude seemed great, she started to make a few mistakes that I felt someone of her expertise shouldn’t be making. While they weren’t large mistakes, they were enough to aggravate me because I was working directly with her.
She was told to compare & edit a document of questions. These questions had been pulled from a few other documents to create one document. I told her to add in/edit any additional questions. I didn’t think that she would have to be told to clean up the document if there were clear issues with it, but unfortunately a lot of people don’t take a proactive role in their position. If you don’t tell them what to do every single step of the way, they just ignore the obvious.
Instead of cleaning the document up, she left a mess of the numbered bullets. I even commented on how some were numbered bullets & some had been written in, which of course confused me when I made comments about certain questions, & vice versa.
We were using Word Tracking of course, & she also didn’t accept or reject a lot of my changes. I mentioned that to her as well.
I only use Word Tracking, & I make it very clear from the hiring ad to the interview, that Word Tracking is a must. I even send out a file to train people on it if they don’t know it, but she should have known it because she said she did.
I had problems with her spacing of the words (some had no spacing in between words, some had 2 spaces in between words, so I was cleaning up her mistakes & started to get frustrated). Now instead of her just cleaning the entire document up by taking the content & placing it in a NEW Word doc (like my assistant did later on), she just continued to use the file that was causing problems. It’s common sense, if something is causing a problem, fix it, don’t let it cause further problems. She didn’t even ask me if she should do that. I understand that it would have taken more time to do & maybe she wanted to double check with me, but no, she never asked, & I was very very busy with work, so I didn’t realize that the code behind the document might have been causing the problem. She knows Word more than I do, so she should have also figured that out. That’s what people should do, help the boss.
After all this went down with her, I didn’t know what the problem was with the Word document & why she wasn’t accepting my changes because I could see my changes colored & underlined, & later on when I sent the doc to my assistant, he could see the changes as well. I had to waste his time & mine because I thought I was going insane LOL Why wasn’t Andrea doing the work properly?
Andrea Helaine says she couldn’t see what I was talking about (her not accepting my changes) even though she was using the same version of Word. The next day I even sent her a screenshot just to show her how once again she wasn’t accepting my changes.
Other mistakes she made were:
- She also didn’t edit the interview for flow & use the editing tips file I had sent her when she was hired. The file states that EVERYTHING always needs to be edited for flow, but because I didn’t spell it out 1-2-3 to her, she later on said I didn’t tell her.
- She also made other small mistakes, by not naming the files properly even though another teaching file was sent out to her when she was hired giving her these instructions on how we like Word files to be named. I’ve now come to realize that she may not have read any of those files that were sent to her. So that’s another mistake she made.
- Another mistake she made was that I had to actually tell her to retype out a gif (she didn’t know that an image is a type of gif) that had text on it.While I didn’t tell her to do that, I had told her to go through the file & remove all the images (thank god she didn’t take me that literally & delete several images that had text on them). Instead of her asking me if we were keeping those images in there, or typing them out, etc., she just ignored the obvious question, “what do we do with that information?”Fine, no problem I didn’t think much of this because she had just started, but when she finally typed out the 3 images, instead of placing them in the book where they were originally, she sent them to me in 3 separate files. I had to tell her “no, they go back in the book.” I felt like I was talking to someone who had just started working at the age of 19 or something.
Finally when I got a brand new file that she had created herself with numbers hand written in instead of her using the numbered bullets feature that is common practice with Word, & she used 1.5-2 pt. line spacing instead of 1 pt line spacing, I lost it & realized she makes too many mistakes, she isn’t going to work out.
I told her point blank in an e-mail, that there is no way she could be advanced in Word if she doesn’t even know to use numbered bullets, & as far as I knew, the only people who use 1.5 or 2 pt line spacing were lawyers.
She didn’t like my tone (fair enough), so she decided to quit.
That was fine by me, she was on her way out the door anyway.
She later on IMs me to tell me she sent me her timesheet.
She didn’t want to part in a negative way, so we talked out the issues.
She blamed me for not being clear enough when I didn’t see anywhere that I hadn’t been clear. In fact I’m usually TOO clear.
I have NEVER had to tell anyone to use numbered bullets. To me that is common sense when you are using Word. Her excuse (not a very good one I may add) was that she saw the fact that the numbers were typed in on the other file, so she thought that’s how I like them done.
Did she bother to ask me? Nope.
I told her that if she wasn’t sure, she should have asked me questions before assuming I wanted numbers typed out. The original file was created by someone who isn’t an admin person. He clearly never used numbered bullets or knew Word at all, & frankly, I feel that only admin or editor type people tend to know about that feature. I started off as a Word Processor back when I was 19 years old, so while I’m an entrepreneur, I know & expect software to do things the easy way for me.
She knew the people who edited the file weren’t admin people (I told her they were interviewers), & instead of using common sense to say, “maybe Michelle means they only edited the file for its content”, she just assumed I meant they also “edited” for formatting, etc.
This was further proof to me that Andrea didn’t have common sense.
As for the 1.5-2 pt line spacing, Andrea said that because she came from a publishing background, that this is what they often do in the publishing industry, but my point was that she NEVER asked me if I wanted it like that.
After us hiring editors for 4+ years, I’ve NEVER had bullet problems or line spacing problems with any editor type person. I’ve never had to explain myself to them like this. Fine, I took my experience with Andrea & updated the editor’s tips file just to be sure this doesn’t pose a problem down the road.
Now while she wasn’t an editor per say, I had given her the editing tips file anyway. She was hired as a person who has helped others compile books, since I need 2-5 books put together.
I thought she had at least enough editing experience that she would be okay for small work, but it became clear that she didn’t do well in that area either.
I had her edit 2 paragraphs & something else for me, & I had to end up tweaking 2 out of the 3 things I sent to her which means it wasn’t good enough to pass my inspection.
We finished up the IMing conversation, & I thought that was the end of it.
I proceeded to move money from my bank account into my Alert Pay account to pay her for the 2+ hours she was to be paid for.
2 days later she sends me her invoice which I didn’t need because she had already sent me her timesheet. She said that’s what it said in the instructions. Yet another sign that she never read those initial employment files. They aren’t there for decoration.
I said thank you, & I am just waiting on the $20 to enter my Alert Pay so I can transfer it to you.
This is when things got very ugly.
During the interview I tell everyone that because of previous problems with independent contractors (she is THE typical example of why we have this rule in place), we require 5 test hours to determine if we are a good fit. If they have the skill, communication skills, etc.
If anyone has any problem with this, I stop the interview & call it quits. I don’t look at this as someone “WORKING FOR FREE“, I look at this as a test to see if someone is serious & they are willing to prove their skill & compatibility with our company since these are long term positions. If”s not a long term position, we don’t require the 5 unpaid hours.
This is also a test to see if the applicant has above average communication skills & actually has common sense. Something you just can’t establish in an interview.
Can they understand my written English & vice versa.
Do they have the skill they claim to have (see above all the problems I had with Andrea), or are they deluding themselves or just lying?
Bottom line is, I am NOT about to waste 4-5 hours interviewing & training a person only to have them leave after 4-7 days. My time is worth a lot to me, & for independent contractors that aren’t willing to invest a few hours proving themselves, I don’t want them. They have to put their money where their mouth is.
It’s unfortunate, but I’d say about 75% minimum of all independent contractors online can’t communicate well, & lie about their skillset. I’ve aleady addressed this in my other post, so I won’t go on about it again.
So Andrea starts freaking out on me telling me I NEVER told her they were to be unpaid hours.
I got very upset because so far not ONE other person has every misunderstood that paragraph & if they were unsure about what we mean, they asked. Andrea NEVER asked. In fact she said she understood completely.
Thank god I didn’t keep her on, this is a girl who was supposed to help me compile my book. If she can’t even understand what I’m saying via an interview & during work, how in the world would she be able to understand my book & compile it properly?
Even people from India, Germany, Italy, etc. (we hire worldwide) have understood that one paragraph. I interview approximately 4-6 people per month & so far Andrea Helaine is the ONLY person who hasn’t understood that paragraph.
She then proceeds to blame me because of HER actions/decisions. I tell her off, but because some people just aren’t smart enough & EVERYTHING needs to be spelled out for them, I went in & added the word “unpaid” in the paragraph.
Several e-mails go back & forth & then she starts to threaten & blackmail me saying that if I don’t pay her the full amount, she is going to report me.
I started getting very upset telling her to STOP threatening & blackmailing me.
I take threats VERY SERIOUSLY & I don’t tolerate this kind of behavior & while I wanted to put her on my blog based on all the previous problems I had with her, I had decided not to, because I figured she just wasn’t a very intelligent girl.
I didn’t want to tell the entire world this as I kind of felt sorry for her, and I usually only put independent contractors on my blog who really really upset me, or waste my time, disappear, etc.
But, after she threatened & blackmailed me, I decided she needs to go on our blog.
I also made the mistake of not checking out one of her references. Only one out of two ever got back to me & I’m now realizing that one person who did e-mail me back doesn’t even seem like the type of company who would hire her. She is some psychic. I’m not sure, but it may even be a friend of hers.
I told her even though I don’t want to pay her the 2 hours after how she treated me, I will, because my word is my bond.
Now in her next e-mail Andrea is stating she never threatened or blackmailed me. We clearly have a different opinion about what words in the English language mean.
This is what she wrote:
“Excuse me, but I am being professional on this and believe the situation should be rectified. Otherwise, I will report your business to the appropriate authorities.”
“Perhaps you should just settle this and pay me and then we can go our separate ways.”
I even gave the paragraph I give to all interviewees to my son who’s only 16 years old & he even understood it to mean one wouldn’t get paid. Why else would a person bring it up if it was paid work. That’s just common sense.
Andrea claims she thought it meant we wouldn’t give her ongoing work, but that still doesn’t make sense. If I didn’t like her work, I would just stop giving her work period. I wouldn’t take the time to make sure this was okay with the person during the interview.
Andrea continued to harass me another couple of times via e-mail asking for the money when I CLEARLY told her that I was waiting for it to get into my Alert Pay account.
Just to get rid of her negative energy, I paid her early, taking the money out of the money that was to go to my assistant.
After paying her through Alert Pay, I followed up with an e-mail to her last e-mail demanding the money asap. I told her that I had already stated I was waiting for the money to go into the account. I told her I hoped she would STOP communication with me.
Instead of just thanking me & going away, she insulted me calling me inconsiderate. Then once again she made a statement that made no sense whatsoever. She claims I asked her to clarify that the $19 was going to be sufficient LOL, I never did any such thing. I wasn’t paying her more than I agreed to, why would I ask her permission? That’s the second time Andrea has felt the boss should ask the worker permission for decisions only the boss decides on.
It seems everything I say Andrea Helaine either doesn’t understand, or she just twists around so it’s very complicated, & I feel like I’m chasing my tail trying to explain what I originally meant.
I hope I NEVER hear from her again. It’s been a VERY stressful time dealing with her & I only put this much detail into the post to be clear about how the situation went down (from my point of view of course) & how it wasn’t just one thing with her, it was a multitude of things up until the very last e-mail.