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I am a first-time employer, and recently hired a freelancer for a full-time job with the job title "Need assistant for a monthly contract requiring stock trading/finance-related work".

In the job post, I said the job would consist of is assisting me in stock-trading, financial research, tracking my portfolio all day long, sending me constant alerts related to my portfolio and market changes, and grunt work related to trading.

I also added a small point in the work description "Any other personal assistance work."

Now I'm wondering where I draw the line in personal assistance. I have many personal assistance tasks that I need frequently like "Running my dating profile", "Look who is a good doctor in my area for X health issue and book an appointment", "Call everyone and find who has this product available", "Look for best and cheap flight connection between these 2 countries".

Although part-time work, these tasks are completely unrelated to finance. I know a lot of white-collar workers don't like to do such thing and believe they are being treated like a servant.

How do I know if my freelancer employee is okay with such work? I can try asking but I am not sure if he will say yes anyway since after all, I am his boss.

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If your intention is to treat your financial services freelancer as a Personal Assistant then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand that they'll almost certainly quit if you don't give them warning them in advance and gain their agreement.

Holding someone to the fine print of an employment contract is notoriously difficult and with the small sums of money involved, the individual is most likely to just smile, politely do a half-assed job of whatever scutwork you've set them, then quit as soon as they have any opportunity to do so.

I'd broach it in the following way.

  • Schedule a dedicated meeting with them to discuss the terms of their contract.
  • Ask them how they think things are going. Hopefully they'll say that they're happy.
  • Tell them, in no uncertain terms, that you want to change their job description to include some Personal Assistant work. Make sure you outline the sorts of tasks and how much of their time they should expect to be spending on this.
  • Consider offering them an incentive to their agreement (e.g. if they're likely to be spending an additional 1-2 hours a week, maybe consider adding this to their monthly salary).
  • Don't rely on that clause in their contract. It's far too vague and they probably didn't notice it. They won't appreciate you trying to hold them to it, especially as this is a new thing.
  • Be prepared for pushback. As you've correctly identified, they may simply say that they're not interested. Decide whether you're willing to lose them over this by insisting.
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  • Thank you. Personal assistance work is very optional and not a requirement of the job. It's up to them if you want to do it or not. I am trying to figure out the best way to know if they are okay with it or prefer not to do such work. I just don't want them to say yes to personal assistance work and resent for asking them to do it.
    – CodePanda
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 16:47
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    If it's entirely optional, you might want to go with a more casual approach such as dropping them an email to say "Hey, are you ok doing a few PA type things for me?", perhaps with a small incentive if they agree to it.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 17:19
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    It's me again after few years. Back then, I asked if he is open to other kind of work and told him some example tasks that I need him to work on. After discussing, he agreed. We still work together (albeit part-time)
    – CodePanda
    Commented Sep 13 at 8:59
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    @CodePanda - Glad my advice was of use :-)
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 13 at 9:01
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As a freelancer who provides "Financial Planning" services, that is, stock, precious metal or cryptocurrency trading consultancy and direction to my clients, I definitely won't be happy about it. What you want is:

"Need assistant for a monthly contract requiring stock trading/finance-related work".

That means, you have not negotiated with your freelancer to give him "any other personal assistance work."

You should talk with your freelancer to know if he is okay with it or if he wants to charge you a little more.

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  • I definitely agree that talking with them is essential. I think you're perhaps too pessimistic about them saying "yes". After all, money is money and they may not really care how they earn it.
    – Valorum
    Commented May 12, 2021 at 19:31
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If you think that freelancer are capable to fulfill your requirement then you can do that. But you have to check that weather they are really capable or not. Some of them are really skillful but some are not. So verified that before you handover your project.

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    Welcome to Freelancing.SE! This answer doesn't really answer the question the poster has asked. I would suggest you edit it to try to answer the question.
    – Canadian Luke ♦
    Commented May 16, 2021 at 15:19

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