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d878412d
Community Member

Covid 19 Effect on current projects

 HI All,

 

With recent outbreak of covid 19 in india and its terrible effects, many of us freelancers have been directly affected with it with loss of life in family or family memebers in critical situations. Many clients with existing projects have understood the situation but some have not and despite due to severe problems they are ending projects with bad rating. Although these delays are not in control, freelancers from india should not suffer due to these bad projects outcomes. Can upwork please suggest or give one time exception looking at past records or anything so these bad outcome projects dont count towards Success score. This will really help freelancers already suffering in their personal life.

11 REPLIES 11
colettelewis
Community Member


Radhika A wrote:

 HI All,

 

With recent outbreak of covid 19 in india and its terrible effects, many of us freelancers have been directly affected with it with loss of life in family or family memebers in critical situations. Many clients with existing projects have understood the situation but some have not and despite due to severe problems they are ending projects with bad rating. Although these delays are not in control, freelancers from india should not suffer due to these bad projects outcomes. Can upwork please suggest or give one time exception looking at past records or anything so these bad outcome projects dont count towards Success score. This will really help freelancers already suffering in their personal life.


_____________________________

 

Radhika, 

 

Having seen on the news the appalling situation in India due to the third devastating Covid wave, I think your request is more than justified. And the news doesn't even come close to what the Indian people must be suffering at this moment.  

 

However one of the problems with your request is that a lot of unscrupulous people (who have not been affected by the pandemic) will use the virus as an excuse for not delivering work as promised, and I think Upwork will be incapable of spotting genuine tragedy and chancers who are using Covid to their own ends. 

 

I see from your last feedback that you may have been affected by this. There are two things you can do: You can respond to the client's feedback (but if you do, make it brief and very professional) or you can ignore it. The feedback is not wonderful, but I think you will soon get other jobs that will push this one right down the leader board. 

 

I am so sorry India is having such a terrible time. Please stay safe and best of luck with your work during this extremely difficult period. 

 

Hi,

Thank you. But I may have a solution. How about if freelancer can submit
medical documents like covid test report or hospital report for themselves
or closed one along with relationship proof. In my case my 7 months old
child, my husband and my father in law got affected with my father in law
still in ICU care and my husband suffering from lung infection. It's not
just one project but obviously in this situation my other projects also
getting delayed.
petra_r
Community Member


Radhika A wrote:
Thank you. But I may have a solution. How about if freelancer can submit
medical documents like covid test report or hospital report 

How does that make the client's experience any better? (It doesn't)

1fcd77be
Community Member

Covid 19 is a big chance for freelancers! Is it right?

 

among us png

I dont understand. please explain

d878412d
Community Member

offcourse it doesnt, but dont you think everything is not about client experience. when the whole world is suffering from this problem, things can go out of control and that is not a good experience for both freelancer and client.  I dont think its fair to look from client side and not the freelancer side. 

petra_r
Community Member


Radhika A wrote:

when the whole world is suffering from this problem, things can go out of control and that is not a good experience for both freelancer and client. 


So both sides can freely express how the contract went. There is no medical dispensation. There shouldn't be, either.

 

Either a project is delivered on time and with the correct quality, or it isn't. And Upwork MUST pay particular attention to the client experience. There are many times as many freelancers as are needed, but a very finite number of clients with a very finite amount of money. 

 

All the money from any contract comes purely from the client.

I honestly think you should only start projects you can finish. Or inform your clients of delays. It's awful what's happening in India. It's also awful in other countries with less exposure. I've finished projects while my relatives were in ICU or after a night spent in ICU. Or in between ICU and a funeral. Yes, indeed.

I don't plan to inform my clients. It's none of their business. You can always do this differently but it's not Upwork's job to interfere.

 

Due to Covid, effect businesses, I just move on my personal  **Edited for Community Guidelines** website. This is a big change to everyone with their own business regarding all freelancing skills. 

kinector
Community Member

Radhika, I think the term you're looking for is risk management.

In normal times, whatever project we do, we have a very small or tiny risk of getting seriously sick, getting into a car accident, getting abducted by aliens, etc. facing totally unexpected events.

Most of these things become reality so rarely that we don't really count them in our plans when promising things to our paying customers.

However, sometimes some risks become more likely than in other times. Right now, that bl***y COVID-19 screws up many people's plans.

As the risk of getting sick is now significantly higher than earlier, your business needs a mitigation plan. In case there is an ongoing project, how can your business ensure delivery to every client even if you've personally out of the picture for a while? What's the Plan B for making sure your clients don't end up in a situation where their contractor is missing?

One obvious mitigation plan is to do short projects only. Even if you get a little sick today, you can finish things before you're completely unable to work tomorrow night.

Does this thinking help you figure out what you could and should promise to your clients?


PS. The project I'm working on (not on this platform)... my teammate got tested positive on Covid a few days ago. He's fine right now, but I am his Plan B as he is mine. If that person gets really sick, I need to work double time. And wise versa, and it's OK. 👍 We will beat this thing together!!
lucioric
Community Member

I think that the solution is to inform timely the client when there is a delay in the project due to COVID-related issues. You can also document that situation with COVID test results, evidence of relationship with the ill person, etc. The COVID affectance may not be only because of the sickness itself, but bacause of delayed supplies, delay or incapacity to travel, etc, and the clients should have a drop of understanding.

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