It's definitely true that most people don't bother to answer questions. They just focus on putting forth their own advertisement. I haven't had much bad experience in hiring though. Even I don't get answers I leave and go to another market place. It's a little time consuming but I get satisfactory workers so far.
I always remind my employees to harvest my trees when I want them done. In my first farm I have a few fields hidden by trees, and I can immediately tell if someone's had their trees hidden just by observing whether they've harvested those fields. In the second farm there are so few trees that it's easy to overlook them even one doesn't have trees off. When I clearly state what I want I usually get what I wish, especially when I hire people who at least pay SOME attention to the chatting box in the first place.
When I'm hired I usually enter the farm, I will hide the trees if they cover some fields that need harvesting. I also always check whether the trees are harvestable before doing the fields. Then, after I do the fields, I always get my trees on again. It's partially done to double check if I've missed any trees, but mostly I just always play with my trees on. My farm simply looks hideous without trees and I can't stand that.
