Add Freelancers Internet Speed

5aab637f · ‎07-24-2019

Upwork should totally have an internal engine that constantly checks the internet speed of the freelancer and automatically updates it based on their profile.

Main reason is we want to know as clients who we are hiring, if this freelancer has an unstable internet connection to accomplish the work. Web developer especially are building using an online framework. Many cases freelancers say their internet was down and they use this excuse so often when in reality they are just taking vacations.

In the internet space, online stability and speed is equivalent as someone showing up for work in a corp office. What value is it to a client if a pro developer has constant low connection or unstable internet speeds.

Recorded IP addresses should also be internal to avoid someone claiming they are from the US when in fact they are from somewhere else.

prestonhunter · ‎07-24-2019

That is a very interesting idea.

I wonder, though... how much it really matters if a freelancer's Internet was down, or if his mom died, or if he binge-watched the latest season of "Stranger Things" on Netflix.

If he didn't finish your project, then he didn't finish your project.

If somebody's Internet access really is unreliable, then for some clients, that may not be "a legitimate excuse." That may be a reason to work with somone else, if your dealine is critical or something.

chadworth · ‎07-25-2019

I have always wondered if there are people here who feel this way.

I wish UpWork would figure out a way to educate clients like Edwin A, here.

A freelancer is not an employee.

Starting out is rough, but I'm pretty happy with where I ended up. I rent a place in a Caribbean island that I regularly fly to. I like the idea of working near the beach, and I'm doing well enough in my career that I can afford it. More importantly my wife loves flying to Jamaica, and fussing around our place there, and you know the saying: "Happy wife, happy life."

It doesn't matter if I'm working from my office in Dallas, or our place in Jamaica. You hire me to do work, I tell you when I can deliver and you pay me when I do.

When I hire freelancers on UpWork, I don't care about their internet connection, I don't care about their power grid, I don't care what country they're in. All I care about is if they can do the job I need done, and can do it well, to spec, and on time.

I'm not hiring an employee. The law makes very clear distinctions between a freelancer and an employee. It doesn't appear that Edwin A understands that what he's asking for is inappropriate in a freelance relationship. You are in employee territory now, Edwin. This is not where UpWork wants to be, and this isn't the perspective clients should have.

I don't care if the freelancer is smarter than me. In fact, I hope every person I collaborate with is smarter than me. I'm hiring them for their skills. So if they figured out how to make more money than I do while sleeping half the day on a beach in Thailand I couldn't care less.

They do the work they contracted to do, I pay them money.

I don't hire employees, I don't fill out W2's.

How my freelancer does the job is not any of my business.

See e.g. the contractual agreement that sets out the nature of the relationship between a client, and a freelancer they hire on Upwork:

You also acknowledge, agree, and understand that Freelancers are solely responsible for determining, and have the sole right to determine, which Projects to accept; the time, place, manner, and means of providing any Freelancer Services; the type of services they provide; and the price they charge for their services or how that pricing is determined or set.

https://www.upwork.com/legal#CONTRACTUALRELATIONSHIP