Limiting employee hours

[9ea0bb1a]

I need help. I hired an employee last November. I've been very satisfied and like her very much. Recently, circumstances make it necessary for me to cut back on hours. I told her to discontinue certain activities, but her claimed hours have not gone down. I'm seeing low productivity on her claimed time. I set a meeting to discuss it, but she didn't show up. This is very unusual. I need for her to stop loggin hours until we have a chance to discuss the matter. I sent her an evaluation today for her to review. It was very positive in all respects. I only pointed out that we need to improve productivity and discuss limiting hours. On the agreement, the only limit is 40 hours but it has never been that much. I need to keep it under 15 for now, but it has been 25-30. I can lower the limit, but it appears it won't be until next week. I have limited funds and I need to get this under control ASAP.

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Doug, I'm sorry if you are experiencing some frustration.

I have hired over 180 freelancers.

I don't experience the same frustrations because I am familiar with the client-side tools.

YOU have the SAME client-side tools that I have.

Perhaps you simply weren't completely familiar with them.

You can PAUSE an active contract at any time, INSTANTLY BLOCKING the freelancer from logging time.

You can CHANGE the maximum allowable hours per week AT ANY TIME. And when you make that change, it goes into effect as soon as the new week starts.

You can CLOSE a contract any time.

Clients essentially have TOTAL CONTROL. Freelancers have no way around any of these client-side actions.

ALSO: One of the most powerful tools you have is COMPARISON.

I have hired 4 different freelancers to do essentially the same task: Arnold, Barry, Carl, Dan.

Arnold does great work, but is very expensive.
Barry never does anything.
Carl's work is inexpensive, but I can't use it because the quality is so low.
Dan's work is really great, and costs about half of what Arnold's work costs.

I keep Arnold on the team for a few rare tasks. I assign most of the work to Dan.

I save a lot of money.

When you compare YOUR CURRENT freelancer's work to the work done by OTHER freelancers you hired... How does her work compare? Is she particularly expensive? Is she a good value?

You should FIRE ALL OF THE FREELANCERS YOU HIRE except for the ones who provide you with the most value.
Simple.

[luqman_mak]

To add on to what Preston has said, these articles might help;
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062418-Set-a-Weekly-Limit-for-Freelancer-Hours
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062218-Put-an-Hourly-Contract-on-Hold
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062368-Switch-Contract-Type-Hourly-or-Fixed-Price

For productivity, you could switch to fixed price contracts with fixed milestones and deadlines.