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haydenb
Community Member

We are here for you- COVID-19 Update

In troubling and uncertain times like these, we find more meaning than ever in our company mission, which is to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. It is through this lens that we are responding to the current COVID-19 crisis.

 

There is no higher value than the well-being of our team members, our customers, and our global community. Upwork is monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our team members, while proactively driving business continuity plans to ensure that we continue to deliver for our customers. 

 

To ensure the safety of our team members as well as our business continuity, we’ve moved from a hybrid to a fully remote model. Upwork was built on a strong distributed team model, with the majority of our 1,700 team members already working remotely from their home offices in more than 800 cities before this crisis. Those who regularly work in one of our three corporate offices have shifted to working remotely as well. 

 

As Upwork’s CEO, I’m very aware that self-employed individuals and small-business entrepreneurs often face heightened risks in economic downturns. Upwork is committed to supporting you through this trying time, and we are working hard to ensure that clients know that your skills and talent may be exactly the thing they need to get through the current crisis. 

 

We have received some questions about Upwork’s approach and want to keep all our customers equally informed, so in addition to sending out emails, we are sharing information here in the Community forums on the steps we are taking and the ways we can help you.

 

The ways we are all connected have never been clearer, and Upwork remains committed to helping all our community members however we can. In particular, we are working to:

 

  1. Help you maintain business continuity. We are working hard with our clients around the world to ensure that their changing business needs are translating into work opportunities for all of you—particularly in this time when the need for work done remotely is at an all-time high. We are investing in developing new job pipelines for you so that you can find meaningful work opportunities on our platform even as this crisis unfolds. We are also helping our clients successfully adapt to remote work.

  2. Support freelancers in a time of need. We are a Founding Partner of the Freelancers Relief Fund, established this week by the Freelancers Union to assist independent workers in the United States who are experiencing financial hardship as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For more information, visit here.

  3. Facilitate your earnings from non-Upwork clients. We are testing a program that gives you the ability to leverage our escrow services and directly invoice your non-Upwork clients. We are here to help you get paid at a time when prior solutions such as cash and checks may not be viable. If you are interested, please sign up here.

  4. Accelerate receipt of payments. We have heard from many of you a heightened desire to expedite payments from your Upwork clients. We have established an internal task force that is working on how we might do this, and we will keep you posted on these efforts here in the forums.

 

Our team is working around the clock to develop new resources for our customers and community, and we will continue to share more as the situation evolves. In the meantime, our thoughts continue to be with each of you during this challenging time. Please stay safe, stay healthy, and stay connected—and let us know how we can help.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hayden Brown

President and CEO, Upwork

173 REPLIES 173

You have to do a one-time setup to get started. From what I remember, I had to enter my debit card number. After a day or two the setup was complete, but after that the payment was literally instant. Very helpful during tight times.

ridens5
Community Member

Agreed. In this climate, getting paid more quickly would help. It’s becoming difficult to wait for five days in order to get funds released.

I would be grateful that there is an options for clients to release payments in 24 hours. yes, my fiancee supports me when money is not enough, but sometimes she gets short of money and bills come as rain.

marigold_lucente
Community Member

It would be great if the fee will be 2% for >$20,000


Marigold L wrote:

It would be great if the fee will be 2% for >$20,000


While the crisis goes on it is important to remember that Upwork is a business, just like you, trying to stay in business.

While a fee reduction would be most welcome, a 2% fee would be too much of an ask.

It costs more than 2% of your fees to bring in clients.

For >$20,000 means for my client since 2016. I have new clients which is not qualified for 5% fee and I'm fine with that. 


Marigold L wrote:

For >$20,000 means for my client since 2016. I have new clients which is not qualified for 5% fee and I'm fine with that. 


If you've had a client for more than two years, you can simply take them off the platform and not pay any fees.

Oh. Are we loyal to Upwork here? 

We're navigating uncharted waters. Other companies have changed policies.
Upwork can too, at least temporarily.



Marigold L wrote:

Oh. Are we loyal to Upwork here? 


Oh, I'm sorry - you asked how you could get your fees reduced to 2%. If you want to show your loyalty, why not continue paying 5%?

Thank you for your arrogant and edited reply. 

 

Upwork asked us how they can help in crisis like this. I post here to raise my concern as little amount matters to us this days. 

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

museofwords
Community Member

Hayden - it would be a great help if Upwork at least temporarily reduced the 20% job fee. I'm already noticing a trend where some jobs are receiving super low bids, making it difficult or impossible to compete. Alternatively, go back to providing freelancers a certain amount of free connects per month to avoid having to pay for them.  

alihaiderch
Community Member

Release the Fund Early, when the Client Approves them, there is no need to keep them under review for 5 days, and Lower the fee from 20% to 10% overall 

I agree. I've always felt the 20% job fee is too high, especially when compared to Guru. And it would be nice to see the hold period reduced. 

Cut down the pending period for approved funds. This has always seemed weird to me; I thought Client approval for the funds to be released means the funds are ready and they are okay with the work done. Why the long hold up period??
w62n
Community Member


Kellen N wrote:
Why the long hold up period??

Likely becuase Upwork earns interest on that money while it sits there. when you're talking millions of dollars. 5 days of interest adds up.

Hi Wayne,

 

I can confirm that there is no interest earned on money held during the security period. That hold is in place for security reasons. That said, we have established an internal task force that is working on how we might shorten the security period. 

~ Valeria
Upwork

Have there been any discussions on reducing the job fee or providing
free/additional connects?

Hi Diana,

 

Thanks for the question. The safety and well-being of the Upwork community is our number one priority. At the moment, we aren't aware of any plans to make changes to Connects or offer free ones. We'll continue to monitor developments with COVID-19 closely and certainly notify our users if there are any changes.

~ Joanne
Upwork

You emphasize the community's safety and wellbeing. How does this translate
to the community's ability to make a living? Can you provide some hard
reasoning why the job fee can't be reduced even to 15%? You can grant
freelancers even five extra connects?


Diana K wrote:
You emphasize the community's safety and wellbeing. How does this translate
to the community's ability to make a living? Can you provide some hard
reasoning why the job fee can't be reduced even to 15%? You can grant
freelancers even five extra connects?


The fees pay for advertising. I'd rather them kick everyone who doesn't understand the cost of advertising. I don't want to see Upwork go broke. They need to keep the fees the same and focus on bringing in clients. I make $$$$ from them and live very nicely because of my fees and their advertising. It's win-win for both of us.

Hi Diana and others,

 

We don’t plan to adjust fees. Upwork fees help to cover the costs of acquiring new clients and providing services like payment protection, customer support, and platform infrastructure. We'll continue to monitor developments with COVID-19 closely and notify our customers if there are any changes.

 

Thank you!

~ Valeria
Upwork


Ali H wrote:

Release the Fund Early, when the Client Approves them, there is no need to keep them under review for 5 days, and Lower the fee from 20% to 10% overall 


Yes! Makes a lot of sense.

Even Soundcloud reduced fees by half in the name of COVID-19. Many other businesses. The desperation to scrape in anything is real. The recession is real.

Upwork, do something now! Beg us to stay by reducing your service fees or else...

 

And no, don't delude thyself, o Upwork, into thinking you can hide under the cloak of giving us a one-time bash of free connects, all in the name of COVID-19.

Free connects would be neither needed nor helpful - it doesn't help the problem of spam.

Bring down the service fee! Now!

mgmason1975
Community Member

The security period could come down. I've never understood why it sits there for five days after the client has released the milestone. In the old days of Elance, this release of funds by the client was seen as immediate authorisation and acknowledgement of work completion and (unless I'm mistaken in my memory) it took mere minutes.

 

I can only assume Upwork somehow profits from the interest that accrues by keeping our money in an external account as long as possible.

I agree. I remember when Elance released fees immediately. Waiting five days is really a burden, especially as I rely so much on Upwork income. At least reduce it to two or three days. 

afrim-idrizi
Community Member

I'm proposing three steps for helping us. 

 

1. Decrease the job fee to 10%

2. Give proposals free

3. Not calculate this time to job score and Top-rated talent badge

 

Thank you 

carrillo_isaac
Community Member

Would be a nice change if the Upwork staff started thinking of us freelancers for once.

Either reduce service fees to 10-5% or give free connects.

Oh , and please reduce the ridiculous amount of time needed to pay us.

Agreed. Do something to help hardworking freelancers. Reduce the fee, reduce payment release time, or provide free connects, but do something. 

Dear Upwork,
I think it's very important to renew the free connects policy, it's a crucial time for many freelancers in the whole world!

for the free bids, freelancer.com is suck and messed. you want to make upwork them?

I totally agree. It's very sad Upwork's atitude. At the end there is always a self-interest.

Other companies/utilities have moved to eliminate late fees, penalties, etc. Upwork still hasn't  taken action beyond discussing reduced payment release times. So what happens when freelancers are forced to stop using the platform because no one can earn anything? 

Hayden, you're such a chad. I like you.

 

I think you should keep it all the same and keep advertising so we can all make $$$$. More advertising to bring clients in and keeping freelance fees the same is my vote.

 

I will take faster release of my moneys though. That would be rad.

meelydelgado
Community Member

Thanks for considering us on this hard times.

 

Free connects and reducing the waiting time to get paid would help a lot.

amusawale
Community Member

I totally support shortening the time between having a milestone approved and having funds available. I really don't see why it can't be instantaneous because the money is in escrow from the moment the job is set up so you have plenty of time for security checks.

I prefer the payment system Elance had where funds were released without the extended wait. At the very least, it should be reduced from five days. 

daniel_ikimi
Community Member

Very thoughtful plans from Upwork management, kudos!

I’d like to suggest reducing the payment times, like the 5-day lag (for fixed-price jobs) from when a milestone is approved up until when a freelancer can withdraw it.

I believe doing this would be very helpful for enabling freelancers access funds in a timely fashion.

Cheers!
bidelski_mike
Community Member

Wow what happened? Expedite payments, is business so bad you’re willing to dial down the nickel n diming of contractors?
J/k, cool idea w/ the escrow, would use.
elyannie
Community Member

Hi Hayden, Thanks for your message and for looking out for us freelancers. I think freelancers and the Upwork community might benefit from some new ad campaigns. I haven't seen many ads on youtube lately and wonder if that could be a reason why there seems to be less client traffic on this site. This has just been my personal observation but perhaps others out there might feel similarly? Perhaps others can weigh in with a kudos? 🙂

 

 

I've also noticed a slowdown on the site, though I assume it's to do with
the virus.

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