Job Offer Outside of UpWork

[72ef3fb3]

Hello!

I am just wondering, let's say if I have finished a contract on UpWork with a client. And I gave this client my e-mail address (to give me access to any gdocs). If someday, maybe a few months later, the client contacted me and offers me a job in a real company.
Let's say that this client has a big company, and then got interested in my work progress during the time that I worked with the client through UpWork. And then the client contacted me via e-mail to work with the company outside of UpWork (real job/ job in a real office).

Will this violate the UpWork TOS if I accept the offer?
Thank you

[petra_r]

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Marya A wrote:

Will this violate the UpWork TOS if I accept the offer?

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Only if you or the client do not pay Upwork the conversion fee.

The conversion fee is 12% of your hourly rate x 2,080. 

If 2 years have passed since you first met the client on Upwork, you can work with the client directly.

[72ef3fb3]

Thank you for the reply! So what if I close my UpWork account and decided to accept the job offer from that client? Will this still be a violation?

[petra_r]

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Marya A wrote:

Will this still be a violation?

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Yes, of course. And the client will be suspended as well.

[72ef3fb3]

Okay, thank you for the answer! 

[prestonhunter]

It is a ten percent fee between $500 and $10,000, with only a five percent fee after that.

If you want to manage payments outside of Upwork after two years, you may do so. I think most of us don't even bother to move off platform when we are allowed to. By then trying to avoid the fee isn't worth the trade offs.

[72ef3fb3]

Okay, so in order to work outside of Upwork after 2 years, this means that I can't engage in any contract with the client on UpWork after the last contract?

Or is it still possible if the client hires me for 2 years on UpWork and then after that period of time make a contract outside of Upwork?

Thank you!

[a_lipsey]

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Marya A wrote:

Okay, so in order to work outside of Upwork after 2 years, this means that I can't engage in any contract with the client on UpWork after the last contract?

Or is it still possible if the client hires me for 2 years on UpWork and then after that period of time make a contract outside of Upwork?

Thank you!

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Yes, you can work with the client through Upwork across multiple contracts for 2 years, and then go off of Upwork with no problem. 

[72ef3fb3]

Noted. But is it okay if there's only one contract with the client (the client will give the payments in this one contract with me) that lasted for 2 years? Can I finally work with that client from a contract that lasted for 2 years on UpWork?

Thank you for the answer! 

[AndreaG · Accepted solution]

Hi Marya,

Yes, it's ok if you only have one contract with the client lasting two years. The important thing is that you and your client need to have met on Upwork, two years before accepting any payments off the platform. Or, as has also been pointed out, pay the Conversion Fee. You can check out this help article for information on how to Move Outside of Upwork the right way and avoid Circumvention.

Thanks!

[72ef3fb3]

Thank you for the detailed answer! Have a nice day 😄