With blinding speed, the novel corona virus has slammed Hawaii’s businesses into the work-from-home world.
Hours slashed, laid off, and stuck in quarantine, local folks are turning to online jobs as regular income dries up.
This is not at all the way I’d hoped for Hawaii to embrace remote working! In fact, frustration and desperation may harden some people against remote working. “See? This working from home is so buggy! I can’t wait to get back to my office when all this is over!” Many IT staff are overwhelmed from trying to hastily slap together remote work procedures, at the same time dealing with everyday business, increased emails/phone calls, and setting up online payments to replace in-person inquiries and transactions. So workers at home might be getting a bad introduction to remote work.
For some, particularly government workers, this will sadly be a mere glimpse into the future of work. Honolulu’s bureaucracy, already groaning under 20th century stresses, cannot yet handle the 21st century reality. Once the pandemic is under control, many office workers will run, relieved, back to paper, ink stamps, and fax machines. The same may be true of thin-margin businesses who hear the alarm sounding on the remote future, but hit “snooze” because they feel they can’t invest resources in remote work implementation (in reality, oftentimes they can’t afford not to invest).
But for the folks who are experiencing working remotely for the first time and see its larger potential, the COVID 19 pandemic has been a red pill, an alarm without a snooze button.
Certainly, that old saw about diversifying Hawaii’s industries away from tourism has been dusted off again. But more deeply than that, regular folks are looking squinty-eyed at their work — the infrastructure, tools, and benefits of remote work are getting…scrutiny.
For example,
“Can’t you email it to me? Scan it to PDF.”
“How can I log into my work computer from home?”
“Look at this – no traffic!”
…are no doubt phrases from conversations you have overheard last week (before the stay home order).
Hopefully, many who can work remotely will strive to maintain their remote tools and procedures after the pandemic subsides. The savings from streamlined, leaner, remote-friendly Hawaii businesses will be sorely needed during the economic fallout from the seizing up of the global economy.
What though, about today? What can folks who’ve seen their hours slashed do? What can managers who have had to tearfully lay off staff do?
Share the below list of links! It’s a work in progress, so I’ll be updating it regularly.
Monster List of online gigs
appen https://appen.com/ human-annotated training data for machine learning and artificial intelligence
abodoo https://www.abodoo.com/ matching jobs to each remote worker’s specific skillset
bloggingpro https://www.bloggingpro.com/jobs/ Job Board updated daily with fresh paid blogging jobs
ChatShop https://www.thechatshop.com/ managing onsite customer service & AI conversations
clickworker https://www.clickworker.com/ micro tasking marketplace – small tasks for small payments
DionData http://www.diondatasolutions.net/opportunities.htm Data entry firm
EducationFirst https://education-first.com/ remote-friendly education consultancy
fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/ freelancers offering digital services in 250+ categories
Freelancer https://www.freelancer.com/
freelancewritingjobs https://www.freelancewriting.com/jobs/ network and community for freelance writers
Gigbucks https://gigbucks.com/ Micro jobs online ($5-$50)
i.materialise https://i.materialise.com/en sell 3D printing designs – hire a designer to build your art into 3D, then you sell it
Journalismjobs https://www.journalismjobs.com/index.php (select “Telecommute”)
Krop https://www.krop.com/creative-jobs/ Creative jobs board (search “remote”)
lionbridge https://www.lionbridge.com/ translation and localization remote gigs
Uncubed https://uncubed.com/remote Jobs board (select “remote”)
problogger https://problogger.com/jobs/ Writing jobs board
proofread anywhere https://proofreadanywhere.com/category/proofreading/how-to-resources/ Bit affiliate-heavy, but they are up-front about it, good resource list
simplyhired https://www.simplyhired.com/search?q=&l=Remote&job Standard job-search board (enter ‘Remote’ for location)
peopleperhour https://www.peopleperhour.com/ Freelancing platform
Qkids https://qkids.com/us Earn about $16 – $20.00 /hour teaching kids English online
quicktate https://quicktate.com Work-from-home transcription company that hires home workers to transcribe recordings
resume edge https://resumeedge.com/work-for-us “must have a strong background in one or more of our 40 job industriesor have past experience writing and editing resumes and cover letters. Certified Professional Resume Writers (CPRW) and National Certified Resume Writers (NCRW) certification is preferred, but not required.”
More coming soon…