Employer's sudden lack of communication

[majormoore]

Hello all,

I wanted to run a current situation by you that has mystified me a bit, and get everyone's opinion.

I have started working with a large and very well known travel website, writing best of list articles. I have written a couple so far, both turned in before deadline and the employer was very happy for the "excellent work". 

He assigned me two more at the begining of the month, and the deadline is in three days.

The way that the job works is that they assign me, for example a best of list article for, say,10 best neighbourhoods or 10 best restaurants, etc, at which point I research and come up with the addresses, send them a bullet point, and they say yes or suggest changes, and then the article is written and turned in.

For the first two articles, everything went perfectly, and my editor responded to the bullet point the same day on and gave me the go ahead to write.

The latest mission however (assigned April 1st), has gone differently. My editor assigned two more articles, and an April 19th deadline. I responded within a couple hours, giving my 10 best addresses, and since, absolutely no news. As I need their go ahead before doing the work, it's a bit frustrating.

I've written three polite messages on the UpWork platform, with no response, and have begun work on the articles, even though I haven't gotten their final go-ahead,hoping there won't be any changes.

As the deadline is in three days, I guess I'll just do my best and turn in what I've done.

I don't understand why there is such a lack of response. I thought perhaps the editor went on vacation and forgot about having assigned me the job...can't really understand why else there would be this lack of communication on a confirmed contract......

Any advice? Thanks for reading!

Adrian

[eliclaire · Accepted solution]

Hello,

There may be a situation where the client is in an emergency or doesn't have contact with Upwork for whatever reason.

Honestly, you're probably doing the best thing. Especially since you have gone through their system of approving the bullet points before, you have a clearer idea of what your client expects. Worst case scenario they don't like a bullet point or two, you can always do a revision. You offer good work and they are returning clients, so they likely won't cancel the contract or give you a poor review, even if you need to make a couple changes.

[prestonhunter]

There is nothing at all interesting about a sudden lack of communication on the part of a client.

It's NOT MY PROJECT.

It is the client's project.

So if I have followed the clients instructions and done the tasks I was assigned to do and let the client know that I have done those tasks...

Then that's it.

If the client doesn't respond, that's fine.

If the client wants to take a break, that's fine.

A client may reply to my message within a few seconds after I send them an update.

A client may not reply for two or three months.

Their project. Their choice.

[majormoore]

Understood. However the project is due in two days, and I still do not, following their guidelines, have the final accord, and have been obliged to do work which, perhaps, will have to be rewritten because of this lack of contact. 

[richard_wein]

---

Preston H wrote:

So if I have followed the clients instructions and done the tasks I was assigned to do and let the client know that I have done those tasks...

---

It's not so simple in Adrian's case because he apparently has conflicting instructions: (1) Don't write the article until the list has been approved; (2) Do write the article by the deadline. If the list is not approved before the deadline,  these two instructions are in conflict (unless Adrian is a time-traveller),

[majormoore]

Exactly! So, as I don't know why the client hasn't been communicative (perhaps vacation and he went "offline" or sickness, family problems, etc) , I'll do my best and just turn in the work with a message saying I'll be happy to modify if need be. In any event, they were super happy with previous work and always approved my bulletpoints. No biggie, just a little worrying. Thanks for the advice!

[martina_plaschka]

---

Richard W wrote:

---

Preston H wrote:

So if I have followed the clients instructions and done the tasks I was assigned to do and let the client know that I have done those tasks...

---

It's not so simple in Adrian's case because he apparently has conflicting instructions: (1) Don't write the article until the list has been approved; (2) Do write the article by the deadline. If the list is not approved before the deadline,  these two instructions are in conflict (unless Adrian is a time-traveller),

---

I don't see a conflict here. If (1) is not happening, it cancels out (2). 

[majormoore]

Yep well my client's boss jumped in today (luckily as it's my deadline) and said his colleague had been sick and he was taking over for the meantime....

[ceefaeca]

---

Preston H wrote:

There is nothing at all interesting about a sudden lack of communication on the part of a client.

It's NOT MY PROJECT.

It is the client's project.

So if I have followed the clients instructions and done the tasks I was assigned to do and let the client know that I have done those tasks...

Then that's it.

If the client doesn't respond, that's fine.

If the client wants to take a break, that's fine.

A client may reply to my message within a few seconds after I send them an update.

A client may not reply for two or three months.

Their project. Their choice.

---

I wish all clients also think this way. I recently did everything according to a ReadMe file client gave me and when I made the submission after 2 days he pointed out instantly (maybe without even seeing the work) if I did this "xyz" part which he did not mention it in the ReadMe file? And asked me to correct them and "he won't pay for extra hours", I thought why paying extra should be a concern since it is just 2-3 line code I have to add and run the existing script. So I said okay to him.

Soon I realized that what he is expecting me is to download 7 million observations of data through an API (which gonna take days to do!!) and refused to understand, even was not interested in waiting (maybe intentionally as it'd have added too many hours in the sheet!). 

The contract ended with my first terribly bad review - which led to the dropping of my JSS yesterday from 94% to 89% (just one bad contract!!!). 

I am always fine with the clients who face genuine issues and stop communication, but it is extremely hard to deal with the ones who don't make things clear in the description of "what needs to be done". 

[majormoore]

Thanks, Elianna. I just found it a bit strange as the client is one of the biggest operators in their market and they were unltra-responsive and professional in ever other instance. I guess I'll just finish up the work and hope they don't ask for a lot of changes. Thanks for chiming in!

[gilbert-phyllis]

This is why it's a good idea to exchange direct contact info with every new client (once the contract is in place). If/when either party seems to go dark on UW, there is an alternate means of reaching out. Meanwhile, it seems like the client must have had some sort of emergency so I would do what others have suggested: go ahead and submit the article with a note explaining you assume there's been a hiccup and you are doing what you can to help them meet the deadline. Depending on what's happening at their end, they may choose to get spiky about it and not pay for the portion they haven't approved in advance. But they may also be grateful to you for helping them navigate whatever hiccup occurred in their process.

[majormoore]

Ah ok, I would never have thought of asking for direct contact... I've accepted when a client has directly proposed to me, but not otherwise as I thought it wasn't looked upon in a positive way... as far as I can see, most clients have adopted the Upwork platform for it to be an "all services" site for all communications to go through...

[majormoore]

..and I never thought communication would be a problem. Guess I was wrong 

[majormoore]

Yep that's what I did, of course. My client's colleague contacted me today (good thing because today is the deadline!) and apologized saying his colleague had been sick and he was taking over for awhile. If this is true or not, I have no idea, but at least I got an answer and will be turning in work to them.

[lesleyharrell742]

maybe this is some kind of check? will you be able to move on and make your own decisions in such situations? some companies practice this, so don't worry and just do your job well!

Lesley - employee monitoring software

[majormoore]

Oh for sure- will do! I was thinking it might be some sort of test, but don't really see how a professional, worldwide company would play around with freelancers just to "test" them. I'll hand in well done work on deadline and see what happens after. If it works out, great! If not, too bad !

[prestonhunter]

I often advise Upwork users to put themselves in the other person's place, as a way to help them understand the situation better.

If YOU were the client, and if you really had a serious deadline... Then would YOU simply stop communicating with the freelancer whose work you relied on? Or would you make sure you were in contact with him, to make sure you got what you needed? And would you provide him with what he needs to finish the task? Or would you leave him hanging?

When you think about it that way, it can help you understand if the client's behavior is reasonable or not. Because YOU would not act this way if you actually had an important deadline, it can help you realize that the client's "deadline" may not be as important as you believed. It also helps you to understand that if the client needs something done by a certain date, but hasn't provided you with what you need, that you are not responsible for anything that is amiss due to not having that certain something.

So I think your plan - to finish the project as well as you can without the certain something the client needs to provide - is a good plan. If YOU were the client, you would understand that it is your fault that the freelancer didn't have that certain something. YOU are a reasonable person, and YOU would not act in a punitive way toward a freelancer who you failed to provide all necessary input to. YOU would actually feel apologetic toward such a freelancer.

I can NOT guarantee that the client you are dealing with will be 100% professional and reasonable. But this type of thought exercise CAN help you think about what the right thing for you to do is.

[majormoore]

Of course, I've already pondered all this. I'm sure there's a good reason for the delay in comunicating and that we'll continue a good working relationship. I'll let you all know!

[majormoore]

Turns out he was sick and his boss just took over my contracts today. So all good, but things might be slower on their side for awhile.

[majormoore]

As an update, my contact's boss sent me a message today (deadline day funnily enough), saying that his colleague was sick and that he was taking over, but that things might take a bit of time. I thanked him and said yes I was confused by the lack of response and thank you and hope he gets better and that we can continue to work together. Voila.