Regarding permissible modes of communication

[bablash_john]

Hi there,

Can anyone please help to clarify the statement "professionals and clients cannot make unsolicited contact off of the Upwork flatform" from the recent updates.   Does it mean as a freelancer I cannot communicate with my employer using private emails anymore?   

[michael_skaggs]

It means you can't make unsolicited contact outside the platform. If you've agreed to use email, then that's not unsolicited.

Unsolicited: adjective. Given or supplied without being requested or asked for.

According to the TOS, if you find out about a client or job on Upwork, that makes you beholden to the two-year "non circumvention" period. Basically, they don't want you tracking down a client and then asking them for a job without submitting a proposal through Upwork. 

[petra_r]

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Bablash John S wrote:

Hi there,

Can anyone please help to clarify the statement "professionals and clients cannot make unsolicited contact off of the Upwork flatform" from the recent updates.   Does it mean as a freelancer I cannot communicate with my employer using private emails anymore?   

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No. That is not what it means at all.

You can communicate with your client any way you and the client agreed to communicate.

You are not allowed to make unsolicited contact outside the platform, meaning you can't google the client and phone them or try to friend them on facebook or go to their house knocking on the door.

"Unsolicited" means contact in a way the client did not previously agree to, that's all.