Are you an ethical VA?
Recently, I've been reading and hearing more and more about VAs that are not being ethical in their business practices....and this is mostly between one VA being unethical towards another VA they were working with. This includes reading about a VA who subcontracted with another VA and then stop responding to emails about final payment for work completed. Then I read today about a VA who had subcontracted and signed a non-compete clause, then indicated she was closing her VA business and ended up "stealing" a client from the VA she was working with.
I've also heard several complaints recently about flaky VAs that don't return calls or follow through with completing their work.
As hard as so many of us work to legitimize the VA industry and to get the word out that we are worth what we charge as well as how working with a VA is the better option, I find it very disheartening that there seems to be so much professionally unethical behavior occurring AND that it's primarily occurring between VAs that work together!
I realize that it's always going to be a few bad apples and the majority of VAs out there are professional, ethical and working hard to promote the VA industry. I also think that as this industry continues to grow, we are going to see additional unethical behavior. This is unfortunate and it's completely unacceptable. I've always felt so welcomed by the VA industry and the VAs that I know and have become "virtual" friends with have always be so extremely supportive. So, it's a mystery to me that there are VAs out there who actually mistreat others in this industry.
There have been many discussions about formalizing the industry and setting standards and of course, there are organizations out there that offer certifications. I've mostly been against many of these concepts as I don't necessarily believe needing to have a badge or meet a standard to prove my worth or my professionalism. (I do think some basic standards would be helpful though and I know there are veteran VAs who are working on putting these together.)However, as I hear more and more about unethical VA behavior, I'm beginning to wonder if we do need to have these for our industry. This could easily lead to some sort regulation in the industry, which in my opinion, would be unfortunate because that is basically saying we've become an industry that is unable to regulate ourselves individually.
This concludes my rant. I'd love for others to chime with their thoughts about VAs and ethics. How do strive to work ethically in your business and in your business dealings with clients and other VAs? How important do think professional ethics are?
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