When I first started in the offshoring game, the Philippines felt like an untapped goldmine. Talented professionals, competitive rates, and what seemed like endless possibilities for businesses looking to scale efficiently. Fast-forward to today, and I'm witnessing a seismic shift that's caught many employers completely off-guard.
The landscape has fundamentally changed, and if you're still approaching Philippines offshoring with the same mindset you had five years ago, you're likely setting yourself up for disappointment—or worse, contributing to a cycle that's harmful to both your business and the very people you're trying to help.
Let me introduce you to a concept that was virtually non-existent when I started in this industry: overemployment. It's become one of the fastest-growing trends in the Philippines, and it's fundamentally reshaping how offshore talent approaches work. Overemployment is exactly what it sounds like—talented professionals holding down multiple jobs simultaneously. But before you write this off as simple greed or dishonesty, you need to understand what's driving it.
The brutal reality is that many employers entered the offshoring space guns blazing, making grand promises to desperate freelancers, only to leave behind a wake of broken commitments and shattered trust. The aftermath? A generation of offshore workers who've adopted a "survivors" mentality, hedging their bets by working across multiple clients because they've learned—often the hard way—that relying on a single employer is a risk they simply can't afford.
If you're considering jumping onto Upwork or similar platforms to hire directly, I need to be blunt with you: you're essentially playing Russian roulette with your business outcomes. Don't get me wrong—exceptional talent absolutely exists on these platforms. The challenge is that for every genuinely committed professional, you'll encounter multiple candidates who are either overemployed or operating under circumstances that make long-term success nearly impossible.
Here's what most employers don't realise about the freelance landscape in the Philippines: Freelancers can't access the meaningful healthcare coverage that's essential in the Philippines. When someone's worried about medical emergencies, their focus isn't entirely on your project—it's on survival. Without access to government structures equivalent to superannuation, freelancers can't build long-term savings. They also can't access lending for property or even emergency funds, creating a constant undercurrent of financial anxiety.
In Filipino culture, family influence carries enormous weight. Freelancing is often viewed as unstable work, and families who've invested heavily in their children's education expect the security that comes with formal employment under an incorporated company. When you hire a freelancer, you're often hiring someone whose family considers them to have "tried and failed" at securing proper employment—regardless of their actual skills. The underlying sentiment from the family will be one of your job is unstable and you should look for work with an incorporated company.
