Where's the Hired Help?

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With seventeen people coming to dinner and so many things on the Christmas to-do list, my wife was clever (usually is - but don't tell her I said this) and almost two months ago, ordered a Christmas cleaner. They would come in and vacuum and mop the floors, dust a bit and that kind of thing - nothing too strenuous but in this house, quite time consuming. This would free up our hands to do other tasks, like cook an 8 kilo (17lb) ham on the bone, which will take around 28 hours in the oven.

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So, after waiting for a call to confirm times, my wife got a little worried and called the service yesterday to ask what was going on. As it turns out, the person they had "booked" to do our place, QUIT almost four weeks ago! When asked why they hadn't called us the answer was, "We didn't know who that person was meant to service" - apparently, they had farmed the work out, but had no records of who got what. Brilliant administrative work right there!

So now, after planning around having a few extra hours to prep, we have to clean our own house - like poor people! Well, that is not true. This would have been the very first time we have ever hired anything like this service before and so far, we aren't going to do it again anytime soon. It is funny how experience affects future decisions and feelings, especially if it is the first experience.

Our home-cleaner virginity was taken and, it was very disappointing.

No satisfaction at all and we are going to have to get to then by ourselves. I am just glad that we didn't pay up front for it - it was going to be more a "leave the money on the bedside table" affair.

In Finland, there is actually a tax rebate for using these kinds of services and quite a few people I know are starting to have home services themselves. Things like spring cleaning help, a bi-weekly carpet banging (that's a thing here), or bi-yearly windows clean. This is quite a good thing as while perhaps not necessary for everyone, it does create employment and frees up time for other things too. It is still a bit weird for me to pay strangers to come into my home and do what I (my wife) can do for free.

However, I would far prefer there to be more decentralization in the process, where people would be able to get additional income from doing these odd jobs on the side in their local community, if they choose. I imagine that there will be localised neighbourhood application or suite of apps for this, allowing people to find the person to change the light bulb or a babysitter, with verification and track record inbuilt, like an Uber.

With the growing need and drive for "side-hustle" businesses to add supplementary income streams, I think it would be highly valuable and well supported. This would tie into other aspects of experience too, where people will get paid to do heir hobbies, whilst getting the sense of accomplishment through creating something and, the good feeling from helping people out - leading to potentially, a healthier outcome and stronger community.

I know that for me, I don't mind helping out the neighbors from time to time, but I know them. There are plenty of people around here who would need help, but wouldn't actually ask for it, because they don't want charity from strangers. However, when they have to pay for it, it gives them license to be a customer, and customers are allowed to ask for help and service and, there is an accountability aspect to it, meaning that the relationship between supply and demand is more formalized. This means that people will get the help they need, but still have some of that local connection, since the help will be provided by paid locals.

This might seem weird in some respects, but if your neighbor was an electrician, you knew they did good work and wanted them to work on your house, do you expect them to do it for free? You might want it, but it is unlikely to be free, however "mate's rates" might kick into gear and it will be a bit cheaper. This means that everyone benefits and it is a win-win in the community.

There are so many things that could be serviced in this way, where for example, if someone is looking for a family photographer, a hairdresser willing to do house calls on short notice or, someone to cut the grass or water the plants, it can be arranged, verified, tracked and paid for through a largely autonomous DAO, without having to have middleman services to organize the handshakes between provider and client. And, from a tax perspective, it cold also be calculated locally and other legislation adhered to if necessary for some industries, like for a plumber or electrician to qualify the work done and cover for insurance purposes.

I do think that these types of applications are going to explode in number and utilization over the next few decades in the same way that the "food delivery" services have done over the last few years. This also taps into the current conditions with more people staying at home and looking for additional income streams. Not everyone can build digital content, but this would close a gap to those who have real-world skills that are in demand, without them having to travel too far from home.

Once up and running and part of the normal daily practice, this could expand into all kinds of goods and services, as well as encourage people at a local and practical level, to see what kinds of skills they have, that others might be willing to pay for. For now though, this doesn't exist in my area at least, so I am going to have to go and do all the cleaning by myself.

Well, I will help my wife a bit.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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(Edited)

However, when they have to pay for it, it gives them license to be a customer, and customers are allowed to ask for help and service and, there is an accountability aspect to it, meaning that the relationship between supply and demand is more formalized

Here, I would say, people will willingly take this side of the offer without restrain because there would be a fair exchange. Everyone goes home happy.

By the way, I am sorry you and your wife had to do the service of the hired help at the last minute. Sorry for the disappointment and the stress

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Everyone goes home happy.

Makes a difference in the community.

Not the end of the world for us of course, more annoying than anything, since we have to spend a few more hours working than we had planned for :)

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Makes a difference in the community.

Absolutely.

Not the end of the world for us of course, more annoying than anything, since we have to spend a few more hours working than we had planned for :)

I completely understand, it's okay that you both were able to fix it afterall.

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Sounds like you should create an app called Cleanr. Quick before Uber takes that idea as well (noticed they're getting into food delivery now as well and taking a large cut from the actual price of the food and a fee from the drivers part for this service which is basically just connecting drivers to restaurants and fast food chains).

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Good idea indeed. These days food home delivery is popular specially in occasion. Ubar is also available here and it seems available world wide as blogger belongs to Finland.

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Yep, these large players are taking it all - which is why I think something at the local level would do okay as an alternative. Tailored DAO that can be applied with locals in mind.

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Oh man, you had me at 17lb ham! (thanks for converting it from kilos, you know our American brains get mushy when we see metric...lolol).

I have begged my wife to let me hire some help to free up some free time for her to work on art projects and such. Once, I booked it and I swear she worked me harder than anyone ever has so the house would be "ready" for the people to come clean...lolol It was absolutely spotless before the people ever showed up. There was literally nothing for them to do but look busy wiping stuff down! Well, needless to say that was the last time I tried that.

You have proposed an interesting concept with obtaining services. It really plays into my philosophy of trying to spend my money as closely to home as possible. I use local hardware stores, farmers markets, etc whenever possible, because these people are my neighbors, my family, my friends. I would absolutely love to do the same with other services as well.

Best of luck with the ham and cleaning!

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Once, I booked it and I swear she worked me harder than anyone ever has so the house would be "ready" for the people to come clean...lolol

This is what I think my wife would have done anyway - can't have the cleaner seeing all the mess!

It really plays into my philosophy of trying to spend my money as closely to home as possible

And, I think more will adopt this philosophy ,especially since they or people they know will be doing side business work. Supporting friends, while getting what is needed too.

I would absolutely love to do the same with other services as well.

Me too and most of my friends would be similar in this regard.

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Gladly supporting the inner circle economy, meaning buying from friends. Feels good. In a way, it's not so different than what the ruling classes are doing...but with public funds. I guess that makes it a bit different.

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Oh yeah - the ham is huge! :D The largest we had earlier was only 6kg :)

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Yes, some people have started my neighborhood home services

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Have you used them?

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I have a small house, we do not maintain our own, using them is a far cry.

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(Edited)

I agree with @acidyo you can try out the idea of creating app that offer services like cleaning and something like home services.

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Perhaps I will propose it to some app devs :)

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(Edited)

Thank you so much sir, it will be a great. 😊

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Oh man that sucks! You popped your cherry and got burned all in the same, that's one you're going to convert to nunnery for!

My wife keeps wanting to hire help to do these things but sadly, what often happens is they do the easy surface cleaning and charge an arm and a leg to do it. I'd rather save the money and do it ourselves, with the added benefit of purging or not wasting time doing the easy stuff. If we had a bigger house, sure, but it's not that big of a deal right now lol.

I think the best thing to do for this stuff would be a DAO but importantly one that we as consumers and citizens create, not waiting for the blessings upon high to help us with it. If we wait for scraps from them, then there would definitely be fees and kick backs for them, which isn't the worst if it's a local developer or something but it's going to the evils instead of the average folks.

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I feel dirty... didn't even get dinner and a movie out of it!

I think the only reason my wife chose this time was because she suspected (rightly) that we will be swamped prepping. My five year old is useless!

I would like a lot of ground-up local development to start happening and with some tokenization, it is possible to finance and keep it ticking in various ways too.

If only more people were crypto enabled mentally.

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Hahaha yeah, our son is about the same, little stinks! "Can you please clean up your toys?" moves one toy then starts playing with it in the place he moved it to 😤

The mental side of it is definitely an important one. We have two friends that we know of that are into it and the aspects of things like DAO's etc. but the others aren't going for it, only one I know of bought some Doge but nothing else lol

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Well maybe if you didn't have a white glove house your wife wouldn't have to be all Taraz about it and plan months in advance.

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Taraz is definitely retentive about some things - though a clean house is not one of those :)

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The problem with some of those side hustles is you never quite know who you are going to get... If they are trying to pick up extra work, you would hope they are going to have a good work ethic, but then again you just never know. I am sorry that you have to go through this though. It has to be really frustrating and hectic.

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Yep, but as it matures, there would be the track-record of the rating system and, they are local - so who wants a bad local reputation with the neighbors for shoddy work? I think it might increase quality due to social accountability... perhaps :)

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That is a good point. I think we have some services like that over here in the states. I remember seeing some commercials for apps you can download. I can't remember the names now though.

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What I envisage is something like using Hive for the blockchain and then a sencond-layer app on top that can have "communities" built into it, with plug and play "service" points for genre. all need a Hive account (masked by the app if wanted) and then can just use the one portal as the gateway to everything else. If a local has a skill they want to offer, they can just register into one of the skill ranges or, select a few and be auto registered for what they can serve.

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That is really cool. I think there could be a big market for that too if the right person were able to throw it together. Perhaps one day...

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We should give priority to a business that has a lot of people's livelihood. Like now millions of people are earning on the hive and the owner is also benefiting.

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Only if they offer services worth paying for.

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I like cleaning, I like everywhere in my house to be tidy. Thus, I would like to clean my house on my own. No need someone else as long as I am able to do it.

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I don't mind the cleaning of most things - I dislike doing the windows. There is 4 sides to do on every window here, because of the cold. I'd gladly pay someone for it.

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Clean them in a warm season then :)

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I mean, because of the ways the windows are made, they take ages to clean. For our place, it is probably a day and a half of work :D

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I know, windows is a real trouble for cleaning. If any streaks left, you should clean again :)

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Industrial home kitchens is going to happen. Order and pay online.
When the house is only a few streets away, pickup or delivery are both simple. It's like we're destined to become overlapping villages.

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Yep - this is definitely one of those services i think will pick up - lots of people can do a decent meal or pie, cater for work lunches or dinner parties etc. Would be pretty cool I reckon.

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I love the fact that you saw opportunities from the whole thing you explained.. such as creating an app to take advantage of these essential services needed by people around us.

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I miss the Ham on Bone baking. It has been several years since my wife and I cooked a small one for ourselves. Other than time it was a pretty simple thing to do. We liked it plain, just put it in the big baking pot, put it in the oven, add a little water to get the juices going, then just wait. No cloves, no basting, no honey, just plain old ordinary Ham.

We have gotten to the age where we simply can not eat much of one, we would be lucky to finish a chicken off between us in two days time, and that is with puppy and cat help eating it.

Enjoy the times of being able to really enjoy a big meal, I don't know if as people age they just do not or are not capable of eating a big meal, but my wife and I are at that age, but I sure as heck loved those big hams, and left over ham sandwiches and ham and bean soups.

Merry Christmas to you your family, and your guest.

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I feel for you! I have never hired a cleaner to clean my house, but my mother-in-law gets someone to tidy her house once a month and it is a dream to some day be able to afford that luxury! Maybe I'm just too cheap to just let someone do it every now and then so I can get a well deserved break?!

I also love the idea of decentralizing the connection. I think there's an app like TaskRabbit or similar that connects people with local work that others are willing to do. It would be neat to have something like that on Hive where I can pay in Hive (once I earn some lol)...great idea!

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(Edited)

I like that you eventually treated that in a positive way. I must add that these things were inclided in regular cleaning in London when I ordered it last time about a month ago: tidying up the rooms, wiping surfaces in kitchens and bathrooms, cleaning floors, taking out the rubbish. Here are more details in case you wonder https://www.emop.co.uk/regular-cleaning

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:)

Thanks!

It seems you are digging around the past a it - good to see!

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