Good question. We could be using Skype or Msn, so that is another possibility. I know if the project wasn’t hourly, then yea, there would be no reason to use it. But because it’s hourly (and there are a certain number of tasks to be done in that timeframe) it makes it a bit easier.

But I definately hear what everyone else is saying. It’s a tricky issue.

I’ll pass.

I trust them to follow through and pay me fair wages for a fair day’s work without insisting they install spyware so I can monitor their accounting and payment process – our contract covers us both if either side fails to perform as per agreement. They don’t need to be ‘all up in my business’ (which is frankly – none of their business).

That software is just absurd and dangerous period.

And some freelancers may work quickly and some may not. That is what makes the world an interesting, diverse world. People are unique.

In terms of the monitoring aspect, when I did work using
Odesk it didn’t really bother me. I still had my email open and
other such things and the company never commented. It was about the
quality of the work.

I now am on contract with them hiring my own team of writers through
Odesk. I like it because it allows me to see who’s online and
working. That way I can estimate when to expect things. I rarely
check the timelog because for me it’s about quality but it is useful
to know how long it took for someone to do a project because I’m
paying them hourly.

Plus, since it automatically tracks your hours, you can be
guaranteed payment, a welcome respite for me since I got scammed a
couple of times in the last few months.

Odesk definately has it’s problems, but so far, my experience with
it has been fairly good.

Hell yes!

Cheryl

I do have one client paying me hourly, though, and I find it is very uncomfortable. I work diligently on that client’s articles and in the end, I never get feedback. In his mind, I should be able to turn out four articles an hour, so that’s how he judges if I’m working hard enough. Usually his articles are easy to do, but two weeks ago he came up with a brand new line of articles and left it for me to decide what fits into his new categories. I did two to start hoping he could tell me if they’re okay or not and didn’t hear a word. I emailed him again last week to ask if the new articles I did were what he was looking for and was told he was going on vacation for a few weeks and would be back in touch but that I should keep writing and he’d pay me in the end if they were what he wanted.

Nothing personal, but I’m not putting in the time without knowing if they are acceptable. I can just see him returning and then saying that they aren’t what he wanted so I’ve spent all that time turning in articles that won’t be used.

I strongly believe that a client should inform anyone they are doing that. If they are persistent in wanting to “check all” and not trust us, my feelings are I probably wont trust them.