This might be premature but I’m getting nervous about the second contractor I hired. Other than an hour or so the first day, he’s been missing in action (about 3 1/2 days now). About a day and a half ago I sent him an email he didn’t reply to either. Normally I would not care if a contractor was offline for as long as two weeks. As long as they get their work done in the end that is fine. But for someone who just started I’m not sure how they will work out yet. To simply disappear makes me wonder if they are working, if they decided they just don’t like the job, if they are having computer problems, or what. I made a mistake in giving him his first task with a duration of two weeks. If I knew his work ethic it would be OK but for all I know he could wait until 2-3 days before the deadline and then start, doing the work at the level of quality that would take 2-3 days to do, rather than 14 days needed.
I might be totally off my rocker here. Perhaps his internet is down, he is only online when I am sleeping, simply has no questions, didn’t think a response was required from my last email, and/or is planning to crunch his time on the weekend. I got the impression he was very professional during the interview so I feel a little more confident because of that.
In any case, I have a lot more appreciation for the difficulty of putting together a good team. It takes time, money, and skill to find the really good people.