Stephen S wrote:
Hi Nicola,
Your comments show a complete lack of understanding of the hiring process.
You have no evidence of this but you are free to believe what you like.
I travel to spend time with a freelancer precisely because it is the best way to hire the correct person,and your suggestion that I hired the worng person is very insulting.
Why is it insulting? This is what this thread about. You did hire the wrong person!
Our projects are very complicated, and often the best way to have them come to a succesful conclusion is to spend time making sure the person I am working with fully understands the project. This is not micromangement, it is the sensible thing to do when you are spending a large amount of money on a project. When you commit to a large software/hardware design you need to do your due dilligence.
If you needed one on one interviews, you could have hired someone who was well qualified, who was closer to your home, and spent less time (and money) on travel.
This feelancer was part of a bigger team, and his actions had consequnces. I have never had a contractor complain of "micromanagement", they are always appreciate the chance to get an understanding of the project, as this ensures the job is understood, and actually menas that they are not blamed by a client who has failed to understand the project.
Well that is good, but it would seem in this case, that the the client is blaming!
I have spent 10 years project managing product designs, so I do think I know what I am doing.
Well no, you didn't know what you were doing in this case.. If you hire someone on a platform like Upwork, then it is always best to read about the platform and how it works before hiring.
This, by the way, was not a fixed price contract, I know enough about my projects to understand that in this type of development, there are unforseen issues that take time to figure the solutions to. It is better to have it done properly instead of someone rushing the job because I have squeezed them on time.
So if it wasn't a fixed-price contract, how come you said you didn't know about the 14-day review period. This only applies to fixed-rate, escrow-funded contracts?
The financial cost to me is not so much from the travel to see him, that's a cost of doing busines, but from the need to hire extra people to try and finish the project on time, not to mention the amount of time I have spent finding other people.
That is why I mentioned that you needed a project manager to free you up to concentrate on your business.
I am not sure why you think I want this freelancer "hung, draw and quartered", if read my earleir emails, I feel that Upwork has not taken this compalint seriously. As a freelancer, you should also be upset about this type of behaviour.
I have already said that I feel the freelancer has not behaved well, and should not have made those absurd excuses. However I daresay, the freelancer is already suffering from a very bad rating and a significantly lowered JSS. This is a pretty bad punishment.
This experience has seriously affected my trust in Upwork as a hiring platform, and as a result I will no longer be using it. If this person had behaved like this in any formal employment situation, or even a more traditional contracting agency, do you think that he would not face some sort of disciplinary action?
Whether or not you continue with Upwork is entirely up to you. If the freelancer had behaved like this in formal employment, I expect they would have had their wrists slapped and told that if they did it again, they would be fired. This is also a specious argument. You chose to hire from a freelance platform. You chose badly. Suck it up and move on.
Why should he not have consequenses on Upwork?
I have already said, he probably has.
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