Coincidentally after my post yesterday on the lack of respect for professionals by professionals – Looking for a real professional who charges a low price – I was pointed to the Freelancer site.
On sites like this, punters post jobs across a variety of categories like Design, Writing, Data Entry, Accounting etc; and service providers bid to get the jobs.
The design of the site clearly focuses on enabling price comparisons. Design the logo for a big and professional IT firm for around $300 AUD? Or write 5x 500 word articles at $1.20 per piece – which happens to be a “fixed budget” job with “no time wasters please!” to boot. That was clearly one client who will really value real professional input!
Thing is, at $300 for a logo design job, the designer would be making less than half the national minimum wage of $15.51 per hour - assuming they do the work properly, which demands more than just "design" time. How about the design and animation of a 3D character in 3d Studio Max for <$300? How many of those would someone have to do to live, let alone pay for the software at $3500 USD a pop?
Want insult to go with the injury? Some punters even go as far as justifying their appallingly low budgets by glibly dismissing the work as “simple” or “easy.” Hey, that's what I do when I go in to have surgery. It's only my tonsils doctor, a simple job right? I give you $100...
I know sites/services like this targets specific audiences with specific assumptions and needs. And if both the punters and service providers all go in with their eyes open, who am I to deny them that right, right?
My point remains one of respect. Or rather the appalling lack thereof.
