Aira Employee Reviews for Agent

People say, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life". I fell in love with this job, and that love hasn't waned.Aira Agents provide visual interpretation for the blind and low vision community via proprietary tech and the user's cellphone camera. It is a fully remote 1099 job with a very flexible schedule. I move with relative frequency, and not having to give up my job when I do so is a huge relief for me. There are hour minimums, but no maximums. You're only limited by how many hours are available and what you can pick up/get assigned.Being an agent is a highly dynamic role. No two calls are the same, and there is an excitement in never knowing what your next task will be. Some are very simple, while others are more complex. Some require a deep breath. Some touch your heart in ways you can never quite forget and rewrite you, if only just a little. I have never been bored, and I end the day knowing that I have made a positive impact somewhere. The Agents have built a strong internal community despite being separated by remote work. I really like how engaged everyone is, and how you can develop friendships and find support from people all around the country and the world. It's a very diverse team, and you can see how every one of their contributions empowers and improves the company.Aira has gone through many changes in my tenure. Schedulers and other tools, management, policies and procedures, and long term goals have all shifted with time and the complex climate of the world around us. I believe that this is true of any startup finding its way, but -

Pros

meaningful work, engaging day to day, high paced learning environment, supportive coworkers, enjoyable

Cons

pay is a bit low

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Fun, Flexible, Rewarding

Agent (Current Employee) - San Diego, CA - December 23, 2022

It's a rewarding job, with a flexible schedule. Pay is decent for low requirements, entry level job. The job itself is fun, every call is different, and you learn new skills every day. It's what you make of it, you can get on every day and do your job and clock out, or you can get on, do your job, socialize with coworkers via chat, put effort into making the company better with your ideas, and eventually could look at growing within the company. If you're looking for something flexible and remote, this would be by far the best decision vs working in a call center for an insurance company. The job is more rewarding and a lot more fun, and people aren't calling you to complain like most call centers.

Pros

Flexible, Fun, Decent Pay

Cons

Can be mentally demanding

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Aira insights

Based on 16 survey responses

What people like

Energizing work tasks
Ability to learn new things
Clear sense of purpose

Areas for improvement

Fair pay for job
Support from manager
Sense of belonging

Good job

Agent (Current Employee) - La Jolla, CA - June 3, 2022

It’s an independent contractor position. You have to be prepared to help explorers with any task. Get to see lots of interesting things. Super flexible schedule. They have hour requirements now though. Day shift has to work 20, weekends 12. Pay is low for all you’re expected to do. You have to use your own approved laptop. Shifts are 1 hour each. You set your availability and they schedule you based on their needs. Hours available vary. Some months you’d get few, others you’d get them all that you requested. Currently super short staffed. No raises unless you go into management and even that is low pay as well, not a career job. Lots of connection issues that affect how well you can do your job. They can fire you for that if you get multiple bad reviews for not being able to see/read because of a slow and blurry connection that’s due to the client’s location, not your own wifi. They expect you to be perfect and will nitpick at you. Managers will focus on your mistakes more than your successes. Clients are angry because of long wait times and expect you to make decisions for them when you’re just a visual interpreter. Company loyalty isn’t rewarded. The high volume of calls can be stressful.

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Extremely poor management

Agent (Current Employee) - Remote - May 27, 2022

The work itself is very fulfilling. Working with members of the BLV community is rewarding, and you are always, always kept on your toes about what the next call might be about.Unfortunately, management is TERRIBLE and is only getting worse. They keep making bad decision after bad decision, and there is zero remorse or accountability. It's not going to get better. It's only getting worse.Management chased out dozens of good agents with these recent changes. And one by one, they'll keep leaving. Absolutely no one is shocked at how short staffed we are.Claims that Aira is a "family" are blatantly lies. Management will tell you they're on your side, and then they will turn around and let you down every single time.

Pros

truly meaningful work, make your own schedule

Cons

management, poor pay, pay raises do not exist, nepotism

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Overall great

Aira Agent (Current Employee) - Work from home - September 26, 2021

As an Aira Agent you work from home as a contract 1099 employee, which has its own positives and negatives. There is a lot of flexibility as you set your own availability and you are assigned shifts based on it. Sometimes your availability will be full, sometimes you'll have to rely on picking up shifts dropped by others or added in by management for busier times. Overall the atmosphere is great. Very friendly and supportive work environment.

Pros

flexible, supportive

Cons

odd break schedule, not always reliable for getting hours desired

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Flexibility

Agent (Former Employee) - San Diego, CA - August 15, 2021

Aira allows you to be flexible around your life and needs. You make your own schedule, you work as often or as little as you like. You receive training and updates constantly.

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Management needs formal learning on how to effectively do their job

Agent (Current Employee) - Work from home - February 28, 2021

This company is a joke. There is clear favoritism, nepotism, and lack of education by upper management. Being here almost 3 years I have seen it all. If you are friends or family with a manager you will get promoted and on special projects. Be prepared every single year to have the payroll company switched, meaning your pay will be messed up for at least one payday if not more. Also be prepared to have scheduling systems changed yearly. (During the first quarter of the year usually). This meaning that the hours that you were finally able to successfully obtain will no longer be available. All employees are thrown in the same scheduling pool. So seniority doesn't matter when it comes to getting the hours you want. What will matter is how closely you are friends with the Director of Agents. Despite being an independent contractor you will be treated like an employee. Including, monthly 1:1 meetings where managers dig to find something to tell you to fix, company policies and procedures that you will be given little notice of change on, and getting volun-told to test new features despite your reservations. I consider this company the very definition of a posionous work environment. Even if it's work from home.

Pros

Schedule your own hours ( if you can get them from the favorites)

Cons

Poor management, favoritism, inept managment

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Dynamic and Impactful

Aira Agent (Current Employee) - La Jolla, CA - July 15, 2020

There are few roles in life that truly embody the ideals of servicing others. Aira is one of those rare blessings that truly empowers their employees to make positive impacts on members of the Blind and Low Vision community. Scheduling can be confusing at times, but it does not take away from the overall satisfaction of helping those who truly value your efforts.

Pros

Self-scheduling, technology-heavy

Cons

No benefits

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Great Part Time Job

Agent (Current Employee) - Remote - May 15, 2020

This is a great part time job for someone who is customer oriented and tech-savvy. It can be tiring being on calls because they are so busy! Calls come in back to back. It is interesting work, and generally fulfilling. Overall it's great job - good company culture, I like the management, compensation is good for part time extra income. No benefits - this is a contract position. Some opportunity for advancement if you work a lot of hours.

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Great company, love working from home

Agent (Current Employee) - Remote - October 14, 2019

Working as an Aira Agent you feel like you are helping people and making a difference. Working from home is great, and you totally choose your own hours, so it's really flexible.

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Exploitative company

Agent (Current Employee) - Remote - July 30, 2019

Though the work itself was interesting and working from home was a huge bonus, I would never recommend anyone to give their resources and time over to building such a horrific, exploitative company. Nor should anyone with a lick of capacity for independent thought torture themselves by being under the thumb of the nepotism-ravaged, idiotic, inept, backbiting, immature, total and utter joke of an excuse for a management team that just keeps getting worse every day. Examples: Want to get scheduled work hours? Good luck. The manager in charge of scheduling took 6 months to find a scheduling system that could handle the load. Once finally implemented, it turned out to be worse than the previous one, and very clearly had gone through zero testing for how it would actually be used. That manager is never required to answer for their failures. They don’t even have to answer direct questions on Slack, and are usually conveniently off work during “schedule drops,” aka the hour per week that agents have to sign up for shifts (off the clock) in a Battle Royale-style death match. Like to work somewhere where change is executed thoughtfully? Good luck there, too. Aira uses the excuse “We’re a startup and things move fast!” to justify sloppiness and zero preparation or planning or foresight. Not one of the 20-something first job-having managers running the place have ever heard of ideas like change management or due diligence. This affects everything from policies on dealing with customers to getting paid. The best example of this was when we moved to a new paycheck system and no -

Pros

The clients, the tasks you get to work on with clients, working from home

Cons

Management, exploitative and illegal employee misclassification, nonexistent change management, nepotism, lack of accountability, using being a startup as an excuse to implement sloppy and poorly planned changes

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Great if you need something to do

Aira Agent (Current Employee) - Remote - July 7, 2019

Being an agent is a great way to start an employment life or to do after you retire. It’s not a good opportunity if you are looking for a career though. The scheduling is super flexible and great for people who have other things that are more of a priority. There are no benefits as an agent and it is super hard to advance in the company. The other agents are super supportive but this is a fairly new company and the policies do change. Something new is always being implemented and you have to be very quick witted to keep up.

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I thought there was room to grow

Agent (Current Employee) - San Diego, CA - August 8, 2017

I did not want to be a 10-99 pawn for ever. I did enjoy being able to help blind people everyday but I could not continue to work there not have room to grow and make the little bit amount of money i was making.

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