Client Offer Inquiry

[leadwithaheart]

I was offered a Full time contract initially.  On my first day of work, the client told me that due to budgetary reason they can only keep me part time.  I already declined 2 interview invites because of the contract I received.  It's quite disappointing.  My question, is this a normal scenario that clients do? Do freelancers have protection from these scenarios? Can we raise this issue to Upwork?

[petra_r]

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@Kenneth A wrote:

 Can we raise this issue to Upwork?

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 There is no "issue" and nothing to "raise." The nature of freelancing is that both client and freelancer are free to renegotiate terms or even end the contract at any time, for any reason.

[leadwithaheart]

I understand. To clarify, When I accept a full time contract, I should still accept other invitations/jobs for work because an offer and contract from a client is not an assurance that what is on the contract will be followed by the client and can be changed anytime?

[petra_r]

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@Kenneth A wrote:

I understand. To clarify, When I accept a full time contract, I should still accept other invitations/jobs for work because an offer and contract from a client is not an assurance that what is on the contract will be followed by the client and can be changed anytime?

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 It depends on your availability and capacity - Freelancing often means weeks where you have too much work and weeks when you don't have enough.

Many of use juggle several contracts at the same time, which can be really tricky because everything always seems to roll in at once.

Putting all your eggs into one basket is always dangerous because your "full time long term contract" can turn into a "it's ended" contract sort of at any time.

You are the only person who can know how much you can take on at any given time without something suffering (the quality of your work or your health or your spare time.)

[mondayding]

Your best bet for protection from this kind of unexpected rug-pulled-from-under-your-feet is to be sure that any payments that wil be due to you are already placed inside the scrow management system.

it's taken me a few different gigs, and a number of promising discussions with likely clients who then inexplicably don't even bother to follow up after saying "Yes, we want to work with you" to understand this.

It's not a solid rule of UpWork, but you can use it as a rule for yourself, don't begin working on any project until you see the money has been paid into the escrow system. If you let all clients know that you start working on the day that money is paid in, then you have yourself a buffer whereby you've not done any work or made any commitment until the client has.

[vjujee]

Hi, this is normal because client and contractors are free to end contract any time on upwork for any reason. My advice to you is trying to give some bonus to your clients and add value to your work to get long-term clients. Hope this will help you.