My experience as an independent contractor for the first month of January 2011

January, 2011 is a challenging month for me.    I have accepted a position which entails managing an online office, and practicing my skills in technical writing, business research and human resource management at a maximum level.  It is a surprise that I still managed to accept contract drafting jobs and contract analysis.  In conclusion, I consider this month to be my most challenging and happiest to date.

I got to open my account in Skills Page and started to plug in a lot of my activities related to the skills I specialize.  For more details, please see my skills page at www.skillpages.com/christine.carpio-aldeguer.

For the most part, working online as an independent contract is not bad considering you get to work at home with nothing to worry on other overhead expense such as transportation, clothing and make-up.  The efforts  I have done for the month proved to be very productive.  

Aside from having fun from the work that I  experienced for this month, the excellent feedback from clients provided a bonus for my self-esteem.  This is without prejudice that my profile picture has been featured as a homepage in Odesk,  my official  home for seeking international clients online.   Anyway,  I posted this blog after so many attempts of thinking what kind of article I should post for the day.  I guess this post is a very special post.  It is my way of zoning out for a while so that I can start writing articles for next month.  
 

What is a Non-disclosure Agreement?

A non-disclosure agreement (also known as NDA) is an agreement entered between two contracting parties namely: disclosing party and receiving party, who wish to share confidential information to each other.  The NDA as a legal document is being executed to prohibit the receiving party from divulging such confidential information to any third person, otherwise, damages or any right of action may be claimed by the disclosing party.

Non-disclosure agreements are utilized in employment contracts, independent contractorship agreements, and business opportunity transactions, whereby the receiving party is authorized to receive proprietary information from the disclosing party.  Such proprietary information may include contact information of clients, marketing plans and business plans which cannot be known to outside competitors, trade secrets, marketing and business proposals, intellectual property or inventions that cannot be made public in the meantime.

Executing a non-disclosure agreement is the modern trend so as to protect the interest of the disclosing party from loss of revenues due to the disclosure or theft of proprietary or confidential information which may be claimed by competitors or any interested persons.

The following are the usual items contained in a non-disclosure agreement:

• The parties to the agreement, including their addresses or contact information; 
• Coverage of the confidential information that cannot be disclosed to third persons; 
• Information which is excluded from the coverage; 
• Obligations of the receiving party regarding the use of the confidential information ;
• Circumstances where disclosure of confidential information is permitted (i.e. court order, or order from the proper governmental agency); 
• The duration of the confidentiality, the law governing the confidentiality, and the venue of action in case of breach.

Is there such a thing as Independent Contractors in the Philippines?

There is such a thing as hiring independent contractors in the Philippines.
If you want to hire an independent contractor, make sure that no employer-employee relationship exists between you and your potential employees. In determining the existence of an employer-employee relationship, the following elements must be present: 1) selection and engagement of the employee; 2) payment of wages; 3) power of dismissal; and 4) the power to control the employee's conduct. Of the above, control of employee's conduct is commonly regarded as the most crucial and determinative indicator of the presence or absence of an employer-employee relationship. Under the control test, an employer-employee relationship exists where the person for whom the services are performed reserves the right to control not only the end to be achieved, but also the manner and means to used in reaching that end.

Providing guidelines on company policies does not necessarily mean that the employer has the power to control employee’s conduct. In this regard, an independent contractorship agreement may still prosper if issuance of company policies are merely done to apprise the contractor of company policies and procedures, as long as the contractor is given the freedom to conduct its own operations. The periodic reports that may be required by the company may only be necessary to update the company of the contractor’s performance and business income.

Logically, the line should be drawn between rules that merely serve as guidelines towards the achievement of the mutually desired result without dictating the means or methods to be employed in attaining it, and those that control or fix the methodology and bind or restrict the party hired to the use of such means. The first, which aim only to promote the result, create no employer-employee relationship unlike the second, which address both the result and the means used to achieve it.

In other words, in determining whether a person who performs work for another is the latter's employee or an independent contractor, the prevailing test is the "right of control" test.


References:

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA (PHILIPPINES), INC., vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 87098 November 4, 1996.

INSULAR LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY LTD., vs. NLRC et al., GR No. 84484, November 15, 1989.

COSMOPOLITAN FUNERAL HOMES, INC., vs. NOLI MAALAT and NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION, G.R. No. 86693 July 2, 1990.

My newbie experience in Odesk

I really had second thoughts of writing this article. Why? It is because I may not be an expert yet in sharing my thoughts on this. Nevertheless, as I see a lot of Filipinos leaving their families to go abroad and look for greener pastures, I realized that I have an obligation as a Filipino to write this article.

I just finished my academic subjects for my Doctor in Business Administration. I took a leave as a business law professor in one of the biggest business schools in Manila so that I can concentrate on having a baby. I get bored when I am not doing something. But when a friend recommended to me an online job, I took a good look at it and I thought to myself: "Why don't I try it. You get to work at home, no spending on clothes, but most importantly, you make money on the side."

So I tried it. The business model provides online work to people who prefer working at home. You get to work with all kinds of employers around the world. You get paid in US dollars at an hourly rate or at a fixed price. You only have to log in at https://www.odesk.com/login.php and register.

Right now I am on my first month at oDesk and I am already earning a decent living. For newbies at oDesk, I believe this is already considered as an accomplishment. My gain is that I have learned new things on the web. Laws all over the world is just on the internet..... my experience in odesk gave me that opportunity to learn and know.

With the work in odesk, I just stay at home, working on the internet. I do not spend on clothing, transportation or gasoline expense. I do not have to go abroad to find work. Work is definitely in my home, you just have to be persistent in finding where they are.

It was not easy finding work at oDesk. I had to post a lot of personalized cover letters, think of all kinds of creative writing just to make my cover letter interesting to read. In my spare time, I improve my profile and resume and take all the different kinds of skills test available to help me refresh my skills where I specialize in. I even posted my best photo so that everyone would see how good I look professionally. I provided good foundation in my profile and was obsessed in taking all of the skills test which I am capable of taking. Summing everything that I have done as a foundation, employers and buyers started to trust me on their projects. It felt good that I have been helping employers on Odesk. And I do not need to go abroad to earn money.

I just hope that with this article, Filipinos would try to reflect if it is really worth going abroad just to earn money, well in fact you can work and earn dollars, right on your very own home.