Remove the 'UK Only' feature

[Steven T]

Upwork has recently added localised jobs, 'UK Only' in my case. However, doing a UK search with my skills produces no jobs. All of the work I have done through Upwork has been outside of the UK. So this feature is counter productive in practice.

When I search for one of my skills, the result page turns on 'UK only' by default and shows no results until I turn it off. 'UK only' is active when I go to the Find Work page so it only shows work that is not relevant. Can I turn this localisation off or make it not active somehow?

[Preston H]

Steven:

This wasn't created for you.

This was created for the clients.

[Avery O]

Hi Steven, 

As a freelancer living in the UK, your job feed will default to jobs with a U.K. requirement. And you should still be able to check your regular job feed by clicking on your "My Job Feed" button on your Find Work page, or turning the U.K. toggle off, on your job search pages. 

You may read more about this initiative here.

[Steve G]

Hi Avery,

I do not work for UK clients through upwork because of Upwork's complete inability to handle VAT. Having to switch back to my job feed every time I look for new jobs posted is a complete waste of time at best and could mean that I miss jobs that I might otherwise apply for.

I have been a top rated freelancer for over a year now and this development is not helping. Please remove it or allow me to turn it off.

Steve

[Jess C]

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@Avery O wrote:

Hi Steven, 

As a freelancer living in the UK, your job feed will default to jobs with a U.K. requirement. And you should still be able to check your regular job feed by clicking on your "My Job Feed" button on your Find Work page, or turning the U.K. toggle off, on your job search pages. 

You may read more about this initiative here.

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As many US-based freelancers have also complained, this default setting is NOT WANTED. We should have a choice as to how our job feed displays.

[Steven T]

A month later I come back to the site to find this issue has not been addressed in any sense. My profile still shows the useless UK Only category and its still useless. My comment has been shunted into a shared discussion so that everybody's concerns can be ignored at once.

[Annette E]

I'm not the least bit excited about this new "feature", on the contrary.

I am in the UK and have the exact same issue: the default setting "UK only" renders 1 single job post.

It is annoying that "UK only" is the default setting rather than an "opt-in" by clicking "UK only". If this also applies to clients when searching for freelancers, then I suspect that a whole lot of freelancers living abroad will experience a major decline in jobs, both offered (invited to) and available through the job feed.

I'm Danish and live in the UK. The vast majority of my clients are physically located in Denmark and only a single of my clients on Upwork has been located in the UK. If my profile doesn't appear by default in "search freelancers" outside of the UK, and if clients start restricting the physical location from where they accept freelancers' proposals, then I might as well shut down my Upwork profile and look elsewhere for less restrictive options.

In a globalized world, I find it highly questionable to go local rather than international. I do not see the benefits of this restricting "feature" except where a difference in time zones could be an issue - it seems more like a way to avoid the "undesirables" and I really don't like the connotations of that...

Furthermore there is the issue of providing ID for location confirmation. I can't prove my location with any ID or passport in my possession as these are all Danish. With free movement within the EU, I suspect that this is an issue that will continue to grow as you add other "country only" countries.

[Vladimir G]

Hi Annette,

Thank you for your feedback. At this time there isn’t a way to change the default. This toggle is designed to make the location filter easier to find and to turn on and off.  We welcome feedback on this design, and I’ll be sure to relay your comments to the team.

Regarding your concern about how this feature might affect your future contracts. If we do expand this option to clients in other countries, each time they post a job it will be their choice as to whether they’ll only accept proposals from freelancers in their country or from freelancers worldwide. We know from testing this in the U.S. first that taking this step will likely increase the number of projects available for Upwork freelancers globally. Why? Potential clients who can, when needed, easily find freelancers within their country are more likely to use Upwork for all their freelancing needs, including work where freelancer location doesn’t matter.  

[Annette E]

I am all for choice, but when the default setting is "UK only" it is less of a choice, it is the default.

If you let freelancers and clients actively choose, rather than force it through with a default setting, then it would probably provide better results and be more appreciated.

[Jess C]

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@Annette E wrote:

I am all for choice, but when the default setting is "UK only" it is less of a choice, it is the default.

If you let freelancers and clients actively choose, rather than force it through with a default setting, then it would probably provide better results and be more appreciated.

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A THOUSAND KUDOS. US-based freelancers have been making the same arguments for as long as these location-based filters have been in use. We should get to choose our own defaults.