Option to hide jobs from certain freelancers

[andersonle]

I don’t like freelancers I’ve worked with in the past getting notified that I’ve posted a new job. It seems like they get an actual notification about it because one freelancer messages me immediately about it. Although nothing terrible happened between us, the work just wasn’t that great and I don’t want to hire him again. Yes, I could just block him, but that seems...unnecessary. It would be great if there was an option to hide my job posts from particular freelancers. Will this ever be an actuality?

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Lauren,

Thank you for your feedback, I will share it with our team.
I would also like to clarify that freelancers are not receiving a notification when one of their clients posts a new job. At the moment, you can post your job as private and invite freelancers to apply on your job. 
If you have any additional questions or feedback you would like to share, feel free to follow up here. Thank you.

[jmaghen]

Thanks for that info Goran.

One follow up though for clarity as I can't find a clear answer anywhere.

As a client, if I post a job as private and invite only, does that mean any of my currently active contractors would be able to see the job posting on my account, even though it is invite only? Further to that point, I'm asking at the stage of soliciting offers with the invite only job posting and I have not hired or accepted anyone yet.

I'm asking bc I'm just checking the market out for a similar job and don't want hard feelings from my current contractors, especially if I end up not hiring anyone.

[prestonhunter]

re: "As a client, if I post a job as private and invite only, does that mean any of my currently active contractors would be able to see the job posting on my account, even though it is invite only?"

If you create a job post and set it to invite only, then nobody can see it except the freelancers you send invites to.

[jmaghen]

Great, thank you.

Is that still the case if I end up hiring them also? Let's say I end up
hiring 2 or 3 VAs or other professionals, would they all be able to see
each other on my account or at least be aware that I have other people
doing something similar that they are doing?

[prestonhunter]

No. Freelancers you hire can't see your list of contracts or jobs or hired freelancers. They can't see your communications unless you proactively create a shared room in the Messages tool.

[jmaghen]

Sorry, but you are wrong on that last part. I wanted to believe you, but I
had to test it to just be sure bc I know how Upwork can be so I'm happy I
tested it.

Once you hire as the Client or accept the job and are an active Freelancer
for a Client, you can access and see all the active contracts the Client
has.

Not only can all your existing Freelancers see any and all of your
currently active "Jobs in Progress" as the Client, but they can also see
who the Freelancer is, their profile (if public which most are), the title
of your active contract with them, and get this...... it even shows the
Freelancer how long the contract has been open with these other
Freelancers, hours worked, how much they have been paid on the contract
to-date and the HOURLY RATE they are earning!

THIS IS QUITE RIDICULOUS especially when you are hiring many people
for similar roles!!!

On top of this all, the active freelancers can also see and be aware of
related job openings similar to theirs that the Client has open or in
progress (even if it was set as an invite-only private job).

All freelancers can access this info the same way. If you go into any of
your contracts and open one up, then click the Terms & Settings tab, then
at the bottom right corner you have 2 hyperlinked options, View Offer and
View Original Job Posting. Clicking the first one will show you Related
Job Opening with hyperlink to the job if available. If you click the
second link it will take you to a similar page, however, this time at the
bottom of the page it will show all of the Client's recent history, in
addition to an option to expand and look at their Jobs in progress. From
there, you can then look up all the other freelancer contract details, $$$,
terms, etc....

[teapeng]

Indeed. As a business owner it's breach of confidential data to competitors, they could know what project we are heading next. Can Upwork think this thru and hide these sensitive information? 

[petra_r]

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Lauren A wrote:
I don’t like freelancers I’ve worked with in the past getting notified that I’ve posted a new job. It seems like they get an actual notification about it because one freelancer messages me immediately about it. 

---

They don't, but they can filter their job feed by "previous clients".

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Lauren A wrote:
 Although nothing terrible happened between us, the work just wasn’t that great and I don’t want to hire him again. Yes, I could just block him, 

---

You don't have to block him. You can be honest and say "Thanks, I don't think this would be a great fit, I'll let you know if something crops up in the future". Alternatively, you can just ignore him and his message.

---

[andersonle]

Thanks Petra. I’m aware of those options but would still prefer to have a ‘hide’ option. Just a suggestion for Upwork.

[prestonhunter]

Lauren, you make a good case for why you would like this. It isn't an unreasonable request.

If I was in charge of making this decision, I would say let's go ahead and do it. It seems like a small enough change that it wouldn't upset the apple cart, yet it would please some clients.

Of course... I am just an Upwork user and certainly NOT on charge of making any decisions. So as a practical matter, I don't expect to see this change actually implemented.

On the other hand, I have been using Upwork long enough to see many changes actually implemented which originated as user suggestions and/or discussions in the Forum.

[1msf]

This is a much needed feature

[sajal36]

Why are you so desparate to hide the job from freelancer. No one is falling back on shoulders of anyone to get the job. Everyone is professional here and they bid for the job that is posted.

If freelancer are mesaging you for the job you posted than you can just let them know that you are looking for some other skills. I believe Freelancer are just running there sales process. And you can also ask them to not message regarding job and you will contact them, if required.

Even after above mentioned if they do not adhere to professionalism just block them. I mean what so big thing here.

[00fbb7e4]

Hi,

It would be ideal if platforms offered an option to hide job posts from specific freelancers. Blocking seems a bit drastic in situations like yours, and having more control over who sees your job postings could prevent awkward situations. Hopefully, this feature will be introduced in the future.

Regards,

Ammar