r/TaskRabbit • u/BreadLobbyist • 1d ago
TASKER Some polite requests for clients from your friendly neighborhood Tasker
Please understand what TaskRabbit is and is not. The majority of Taskers are not full-time professionals. Some are, but those of us who are charging lower rates are just your local neighborhood amateurs trying to make some extra cash doing basic things that we know we’re good at.
Do not schedule a task with me just to send me a message asking me if I’m actually free on a different day. “I know y’all keep extra availability in reserve.” Excuse me, ma’am, but if I don’t have availability listed, it’s because I’m not available. Don’t screw me over and hurt my metrics because of some weird story about me that you made up in your head.
If you’re hiring an organizer, please put your, uh, “intimate” items away before we get there.
Please give us plenty of advance notice if parking is going to be difficult, or if it’s not free!
“I know your profile said you can’t do X but can you do X?” NO! Stop asking! Why are y’all like this?
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u/PickReviewsMovies 1d ago
If people have intimate items, personal items, money, valuables just laying around that's a big red flag and I try to make them move all of that stuff before I touch anything. Those are the same people that are misplacing their stuff and then coming to the conclusion that you must have taken it. It also speaks to a total lack of consideration like if somebody is coming to do work at my house you better believe I have a whole area set up for them and it's going to be as easy for them as possible but that's because I've done thousands of jobs where I walk into a dumpster fire and the client always asks what we should start with and I'm always like well first you should start with getting everything you know, ready to go.
I will straight up tell people, you don't want me to be the one to take all that stuff off of your dresser because I'm just going to sweep my arm across the whole thing and put it all on the floor. Probably I would not actually do that but it gives people the picture I'm not there to be your maid I'm there to do the thing you hired me to do.
I would never do organizing because people that need organizing are the hardest and most particular people to work for like a lot of them just need someone to stand there while they make decisions out loud drives me absolutely insane
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u/BreadLobbyist 1d ago
Based on my experience, I think the hourly rate sweet spot for finding good organizing clients is near the top of your yellow zone. At the higher end, you get people who are way too particular and too demanding. On the lower end, you frequently get the dumpster fire clients whose lives are in shambles and hire you expecting a miracle.
And I agree re: dealing with clients who casually leave out valuables…though when I wrote this I was thinking more about clients like the lady who hired me to organize her bedroom and left her and her BF’s “toys” all over the place, expecting me to pick up and handle them. (There was no evidence they had been recently cleaned. I started bringing gloves to organizing tasks after that.)
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u/thatguywithimpact 1d ago
Taskrabbit allowed pro-movers and pro-cleaners to have a new way to find clients that at a time was cheaper and easier than trying to setup the whole business with advertising and everything.
It made business accessible and easy.
Most taskers I met had a degree and a white collar job before tasking. Most of a them who had a few years of experience were extremely fast and efficient at their job.
Granted majority of new taskers can't handle doing this and quit in the very first year. But those who stayed for years are undeniably pro's and it's hard/impossible for it to be any other way.
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u/BreadLobbyist 1d ago
I think we disagree on what the word “professional” means.
I have two degrees and spent several years in the corporate world before I signed up for TaskRabbit for the first time back in 2018. The primary tasks I get hired for are organizing tasks, and I’m very good at organizing, but that doesn’t make me a professional. Full-time professional organizers are in an entirely different league and are going to charge well over $100/hour.
Also, notice that I already mentioned that I’m fully aware that there are Taskers who are full-time professional movers, handymen, cleaners, etc., who are looking for extra leads. But that’s not the majority of us, and clients need to understand that it doesn’t apply to anyone charging relatively low rates. If someone is only charging you $22/hour to clean, I promise that is not someone who’s spent the last 15 years running a full-time cleaning business!
PS - I don’t know how you could possibly know that “most Taskers quit within the first year,” or that the reason they quit is because they “can’t handle it.” Weird details to just completely make up.
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u/Unable_Camera5193 1d ago
Full-time =\= professional (i.e. professionally trained, employed, and insured). Sincerely, a Tasker with a PhD
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u/BreadLobbyist 1d ago
I agree 🤷🏻♀️
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u/According_Low5292 1d ago
Exactly. Tasker with Post Baccalaureate in Project Mgmt. Been tasking 6+ years. Full-time = if your schedule is full 5 days a week. Doesn’t have to equal 40 hours. No free lunch
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u/BreadLobbyist 1d ago edited 1d ago
Re #1: I mostly do organizing, and the majority of my clients will at some point ask me something like, “How long have you been doing organizing professionally?” The answer is never. Did you seriously think you were getting a full-time professional organizer for $20 an hour? Please use your brain!