{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"What Works","title":"EP 364: The Abundant Value of Virtual Assistants with Janice Plado Dalager","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3296,"description":"\n\n\n\n\nIn This Episode:\n\n\n\n* Consultant and virtual assistant Janice Plado Dalager joins Tara for a conversation about the unique skill set that virtual assistants and other support professionals bring to small businesses* How VAs end up mistreated by entrepreneurs—and the gendered and racialized components of these relationships that make mistreatment more likely* Why emotional labor is an undervalued skill for support pros, as well as why it should be a key part of how this work is compensated* How small business owners can check their own behavior to make these working relationships more humane\n\n\n\n\n\nBack in 2016, the odd-job platform TaskRabbit ran a series of ads in New York City subways.\n\n\n\nImagine a photo of a thin, white woman in upward facing dog pose on a yoga mat. She’s blissed out. Above her, the poster reads “Mopping the floors” in trendy, pseudo handwriting script. Below her, the TaskRabbit tagline reads “We do chores. You live life.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe ad campaign communicates the promise of letting your chores disappear into someone else’s workload.\n\n\n\nWe do chores, you live life: Who is “you?” And who is “we?”\n\n\n\nDo the folks who are mopping floors ever get to be the “you” who lives life while someone else does the chores?\n\n\n\nI’m Tara McMullin and this is What Works, the show that explores entrepreneurship for humans.\n\n\n\nIndependent work, the gig economy, online business—they’ve all been sold to us as ways to transcend old class divides. They promise a more level playing field for offering your time and skills. No fancy resume needed, just a willingness to put in the work.\n\n\n\nOf course, this is far from the truth.\n\n\n\nMichael Zelenko puts it this way in an article for The Verge:\n\n\n\nInstead of establishing partnerships within a community, the gig economy and TaskRabbit’s ads reaffirm a class divide, between the “You” — whose life is defined by recreational activities — and the “We,” whose lives are devoted to doing your chores.\n\n\n\nRather than leveling the...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/AmfGeDL96-fhMaeOcqmX7TK_eWrvTLco6OJj2QpZtZI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80NGUx/OWY5ZDg1M2E5MmU3/ZjEwOWVmNDM3MWVh/ZjZlOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}