Quality of projects down- is it due to US onl;y feature

[rolludesig]

hi all,

i am wondering that the quality of projects are going down ..is it due to US only feature?

and clients also seem to be unresponsive on the proposals..

and no idea but my clients are really slow in responding to ongoing projects these days .. a project which can be done in 2 days is taking a week..cant something be done about such clients..it hurts when it takes so long and you in the end have to wait for another 5 days for the payment to get credited into your a/c:(

[augustosampaio · Accepted solution]

I'll really like if Upwork put the same pressure under their clients as they put on us, freelancers. You can lose your account if you apply for too many jobs, but I don't know what happens if a employer creates too many jobs without responding freelancers. Actually, there are a lot of jobs that ends up without hiring anyone.

I think that we should be able to see the employers' profiles as they're able to see ours, and they should also have a responsiveness score.

[petra_r]

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@Augusto S wrote:

I'll really like if Upwork put the same pressure under their clients as they put on us, freelancers.

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 Where does 100% of the money come from?

What does Upwork have way too much of? (Freelancers)

What is a direct and immediate loss? (Losing a client)

What makes no difference at all? (Losing a freelancer.)

Want to demand "putting the same pressure...." again?

[augustosampaio]

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@Petra R wrote:

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 Where does 100% of the money come from?

What does Upwork have way too much of? (Freelancers)

What is a direct and immediate loss? (Losing a client)

What makes no difference at all? (Losing a freelancer.)

Want to demand "putting the same pressure...." again?

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 Yes, all the money comes from employers, but the key-element are we, freelancers. Without freelancers, there would not be employers nor Upwork platform at all. So, valuing all the elements involved does not seem exaggerated to me, and this includes freelancers, that works, concludes the projects and, well, makes contractors get their projects done and, through it, they achieve more money and better results in their business.

The fact that Upwork has many freelancers does not mean that freelancers themselves are worthless. What makes Upwork a great platform is precisely that it offers employers a great workforce, even if it's a minority within a majority.

Yes, the main direct loss can be the loss of a contractor for Upwork, but losing good freelancers also means losing one of the main "products" offered by the platform: great workforce.

If the freelancer itself is worthless and his/her loss is indifferent to the platform, then it should stop creating a market image based precisely on the supply of good workforce. In no way is the good freelance professional dispensable. I respect if this is your opinion, but I disagree frontally.

I correct myself: it may not be necessary to put exactly the same pressure on the employer and the freelancer, but there's definitely a way to create more equitable tools. Having access to the contractor's profile and creating performance results based on your responsiveness are good ideas (to me, at least). I'm giving ideas and I think that it's welcome to a growing platform - and they can be accepted or not.

And if it's not done, fine. But the platform should not punish freelancers who apply for many vacancies and do not get answers if it does not require the advertisers themselves to respond to the vacancies they open.

[wlyonsatl]

Augusto,

As you an see on Page 70 of this 234-page document Upwork just filed with the US government...

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1627475/000119312518291879/d575528d424b4.htm#toc575528_10

...Upwork figures about 80% of its revenue comes from 20% of all clients. Yes, there would be no revenue without freelancers, but clients actually bring nearly all the money to the table and freelancers directly provide a tiny fraction of Upwork's revenue (primarily with monthly fees), especially compared to this 20% of "core" clients. And there are far more freelancers than Upwork feels are needed to service clients, so Upwork isn't going to do anything that lowers client interest in using the platform and losing freelancers is not seen as a signifificant negative by Upwork management.

In relation to your complaint that too many jobs appear never to be assigned by clients to freelancers, one thing Upwork would surely like to do is prevent clients and freelancers from agreeing to go off-platform. So, I would think clients who have a pattern of listing projects on Upwork without actually hiring on the platform would eventually be removed by Upwork, but there is no reason Upwork would make this information public. 

I think there are things Upwork could change to make life better for honest freelancers, get bad clients to leave the platform and not put off good clients, but making clients happy will always be Upwork's priority.

[rolludesig]

yeah totally agree on this:) i think when upwork has everything avaliable from messeging/video chat/voice chat what is the need to share contact details before acceptance of proposal....

about 50% of projects gets closed without anyone being selected 😞

[augustosampaio]

Rahul, I find it quite reasonable to review some of Upwork's features. The openness to positive changes is what allows a platform to be constantly improved, and I really like working at Upwork. What killed off other freelancing platforms was the thought strictly focused on how much money the client is injecting - and a zero consideration for the freelancer. As far as I can tell, Upwork is what manages to equalize this relationship a bit (and growing) better.

But I don't think it's fair that a professional's performance is affected by the employer's lack of communication. And, I believe, there are ways to change that positively.

[augustosampaio]

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@Will L wrote:

In relation to your complaint that too many jobs appear never to be assigned by clients to freelancers, one thing Upwork would surely like to do is prevent clients and freelancers from agreeing to go off-platform. So, I would think clients who have a pattern of listing projects on Upwork without actually hiring on the platform would eventually be removed by Upwork, but there is no reason Upwork would make this information public. 

I think there are things Upwork could change to make life better for honest freelancers, get bad clients to leave the platform and not put off good clients, but making clients happy will always be Upwork's priority.

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I agree with you, Will. And I fully understand how Upwork cares about its customers. And I also understand that one of the ways to do this is to invest in freelancers that, after all, as good professionals, are a positive indication of the platform's respect for its own customers.

I chose Upwork just because, it seems to me, the platform does not treat freelancers the way other websites (already doomed to failure) do - among other features.