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vanessalamaro11
Community Member

Hiding a job post from a previous freelancer

Is it possible to hide a new job posting from a previous freelancer?

32 REPLIES 32
AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Vanessa, 

 

The platform doesn't have a feature to block freelancers from seeing your job posts. However, if this freelancer applies to your job posts, you may simply archive their proposals, or block them in your messages room by clicking on their name and clicking on the option to block them. 


~ Avery
Upwork
2758ad33
Community Member

Avery O, best explein 👍 

mtngigi
Community Member


@Vanessa L wrote:

Is it possible to hide a new job posting from a previous freelancer?


 You could also do an "invite only" to freelancers of your choice.

Why would you want to hide a post from a previous freelancer?

 

Much better to BLOCK the freelancer from contacting you, but let them see the post.

 

Then they can see the great jobs you are offering to OTHER people, and there is no possible way they can apply to your job or contact you through Upwork.

this is actually quite an essential feature. if you've hired a freelancer, it didn't go super well, and you want to find another one for the same task, you may not want the original freelancer to see the re-post, as you don't want to hurt their feelings / get into a debate about why you're looking for someone else. 

I'd suggest moving it up the roadmap pretty quickly.

really? Why? what do hurt feelings have to do with good business?

" The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth will ever be "

Not even sure what your response means, but, anyways... I have a freelancer who is doing work for me and I would also like to post the same job again, without this freelancer seeing it (regardless of anyone elses opinion of why or if it's good business or yada yada) - so this feature would definately be useful to some, even if it wouldn't be to most.


Doug R wrote:

Not even sure what your response means, but, anyways... I have a freelancer who is doing work for me and I would also like to post the same job again, without this freelancer seeing it (regardless of anyone elses opinion of why or if it's good business or yada yada) - so this feature would definately be useful to some, even if it wouldn't be to most.


I'm not sure why you think it's a good idea to spare their feelings. Actually, if a client didn't like my work, I would want to know so I could do better. Also, it's business. You don't have time to worry about their feelings. You aren't being mean, you're just posting a job. You have work to do. Don't waste time worrying about their feelings. I'm not saying be cruel to people, but they'll feel how they feel, it's not for you to change. 

I'd also like to see this feature for the same reason. Got someone now, but looking for a better option. Dont't want to cut one person before finding the replacement.


Mike R wrote:

I'd also like to see this feature for the same reason. Got someone now, but looking for a better option. Dont't want to cut one person before finding the replacement.


Go down the "invite only" route. Find people who look like good options and invite them to apply. That way the person doing the job now won't see the job post.

AND - I don't want that **Edited for community guidelines** Upwork freelancer leaving negative feedback on social media or Amazon / Ebay, etc...  

I often apply to jobs offered by clients I have worked for for before. Most of the time, they give me the job. Sometimes they don't, and I don't think about it for more than a minute. I have more interesting things to think about, and I'm used to have to deal with all sort of weird situations.

As a freelancer, there are situations where I'm invited to work with a previous client I'm not to keen on working with. I try to find some polite way of declining the job, that's all.

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi All, 

Thank you for your feedback, I will share this with our team.

~ Goran
Upwork

However much you may consider this an "essential" feature, it is impossible.

 

If you want to post a job and set it to PRIVATE, then you can send invitations ONLY to people of your choosing. And, theoretically, only they will see it.

 

But if you set a job post to PUBLIC, there is no way to pick one specific person who can't see it. How would that be accomplished?

 

Even PRIVATE job postings can't guarantee privacy. If you send an invite to John, how do you know John won't forward that posting to Nancy? How do you know John won't post the job on Facebook, Twitter or Everywheregram?

Doug, the best way to achieve what you want is to follow the advice given -  Invite Only RFP.


@Preston H wrote:

If you send an invite to John, how do you know John won't forward that posting to Nancy?


 They live on different continents...


@Baris A wrote:

@Preston H wrote:

If you send an invite to John, how do you know John won't forward that posting to Nancy?


 They live on different continents...


 So?  There are no boundaries any longer between freelancers

I would be interested in their engineering's team's take on my proposed solution:

 

Middleware: It seems that Upwork already offers the option to block someone from being able to perform certain actions, so there's already some kind of authorization middleware in place. Either add the "am I allowed to see this job post?" logic there, or create a separate middleware. 

 

UI: In your job posting form, have a "Hide This Post From" multi-select input which pulls freelancers with inactive and active contracts. The client could use this to optionally hide the post from one or more of these freelancers.

 

Model: The ids of any excluded freelancers are stored upon submission of the job posting. Even if you have to create a separate pivot table for this purpose, it's trivial.

 

Obviously, the job post privacy would need to be set to "logged in Upwork users only."

so what's the update on this feature? 

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Shahab, 


Please know that we do not have any update on this feature request. At this time, you have the option of blocking the freelancer, and/or, setting your job post to private. I apologise if we don't have any significant update on this feature request.


~ Avery
Upwork
browersr
Community Member

I think Nathan's reply is a very good one. This sort of thing comes up in the world beyond freelancing. Certainly in the corporate space I have had employees or contractors whom I needed to replace but had to do so discretely. Alerting them to this too early would jeopardize the business. This doesn't mean they would necessarily do anything malicious, but at the same time it was unlikely I would receive even the lower value I felt I was getting if they knew the situation. This is mostly about someone currently working for you and not about someone who worked for you prior. This isn't a "feelings" thing but a need to protect current business. It is not an unreasonable request and could be facilitated by entering the freelancer you don't want the post to be visible to and the system will filter it from the freelancer's view. Of course this is not perfect as they could still see it if they were looking from someone else's account or perhaps via other means but it's not a perfect process elsewhere either. People talk, something is overheard, etc. The idea is to mitigate the risk to an acceptable level so business can do what it needs.



I think we freelancers see having a set of go-to freelancers as pretty much standard (or I do, anyway...I suppose I can't speak for other people). Many/most larger clients want to diversify. They don't want to put all their eggs in one basket, even with a really great freelancer.

 

My husband is in marketing and he does this all the time for another reason: he wants more than one "voice" on his company's site, and people specialize in different things, with some better at writing about one subject than another.

 

I have had clients who hired additional freelancers for long-term jobs. I have times when I'm not available and they wanted to fill in those times. That made total sense to me. These clients continue to return with new jobs/keep jobs open with new milestones. I think if your freelancer panics, you can state that you're diversifying (provided that's the truth, obviously).

 

gbalint
Community Member

I don't really get why some people are so politically correct.

 

If somebody did a bad job, tell them. If you want to be the good guy, tell them why it was bad. How can anyone evolve if we are only praised?


@Gabriel B wrote:

I don't really get why some people are so politically correct.

 

If somebody did a bad job, tell them. If you want to be the good guy, tell them why it was bad. How can anyone evolve if we are only praised?


 He might want two good guys (or gals) for the same job - anyway, he's the one to call the shots . . .

This feature is absolutely vital in cases where you need to quietly replace a freelancer, and don't already have a list of candidates to look to. 

 

Sure, you could do an invite-only job and spend hours trying to find people to invite, but that's a terrible solution. It wastes the client's time and reduces new/unknown freelancers' ability to find new jobs.

 

It seems that Upwork already offers the option to block someone from being able to perform certain actions, so there's already some kind of authorization middleware in place. It could easily be updated to include "am I allowed to see this job post?" logic. 

 

It's also a fairly trivial UI adjustment. In your job posting form, have a "Hide This Post From" multi-select input which pulls freelancers with inactive and active contracts. The client could use this to optionally hide the post from one or more of these freelancers.

 

Then any excluded freelancer ids are stored upon submission of the job posting. (Obviously, the privacy would have to be set to logged in Upwork users only.)

 

---

 

 

Those who claim that clients never encounter such a situation, where replacement candidates must be sought completely without a freelancer's knowledge, are not living in the real world.

 

Here are just a few situations where a client needs the utmost discretion:

 

  • Replacing a freelancer who has access to your or one of your own client's production systems, which may include proprietary data, trade secrets, or PII. (Could be a developer, database admin, server admin, etc.) 
  • Replacing a freelancer with access to modify client advertising campaigns (budget, ad copy, targeting, etc).
  • Replacing a freelancer who is acting as a project manager, with access to a wide variety of credentials and sensitive information.

What are the odds that a disgruntled freelancer, knowing they're on their way out, will do something malicious? Slim - and in 15+ years of hiring freelancers, it's happened to me only once.

 

Yet if something does happen, I would be liable to my client(s), and they would possibly be liable to their customers and clients!

 

If this feature is not already in the works, please consider it.

 

I'm in a situation right now where I need to replace someone, but am afraid to post the listing because they could easily see it. It would absolutely change the dynamic of our collaboration.

bela_i
Community Member

Nathan J - explained perfectly the reasons why such a feature would be useful! 

It can make it much easier for clients to handle contracts which are not going as planned due to freelancer's lack of skill, and need to find a replacement fast and quiet. 

7f98a8f5
Community Member

Is this feature in the roadmap? I'm experiencing this exact problem on Upwork right now. I'm trying to replace a freelancer and the person who is doing the job currently applied to the new job post! And of course is now concerned that their job is in jeopardy -- which it is! But I would have preferred to interview potential candidates and had a replacement lined up before they knew, and then ask them to stay on for a fixed period and assist with the transition.

Please add this feature. Of the clients who hire on Upwork continually over long periods of time, a significant proportion will run into this issue eventually.

Hi Hassan,

 

I certainly understand your situation and concern. Your feedback really means a lot to us and we always respect your opinions/suggestions to help us improve our service. Please note that you have the option to set your job post to private and invite freelancers to apply for your job. I'll have this reviewed by the appropriate team and we'll keep you posted on any updates we may have. Thank you!

 

~ Arjay
Upwork
dd17fa64
Community Member

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276b3873
Community Member

i have same problem here, and don't have time to invite all of the freelancers, I will be obligated to make new account and submit my job post 

 

this is tough pleaseeeeeee upwork service improve this things i' encounter same problem everytime I found a bad work from a freelancer 

 

 

 

Oh! Really it is very bad for you! you can try to find new professional freelancers for your important projects.

jeremiah-brown
Community Member

Go to your messages and just block the person.  Find their message string, select it to open up the prior conversations, then go to their name in the upper right (where the red box is), select their name, select block.

jeremiahbrown_0-1671493711178.png

 

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