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mbjelajac
Community Member

The client avoids answering questions

Hi, I need help.

I have an open contract with a client that does not give me enough tasks to meet the norm of 20h/w. Our communication is through another platform. (Skype). The client avoids answering questions, for example when I ask him if he has any task for me. What are you suggesting to me?

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prestonhunter
Community Member

Milan: you may misunderstand some things about hourly contracts. Here are some important facts:

 

1) clients are not obligated to respond to freelancers’ questions 

 

2) clients are not obligated to assign work to freelancers

 

3) there is no such thing as a “norm of 20 hours per week” as far as the Upwork user interface is concerned. There is a “maximum number of hours that a freelancer may work.”

 

4) a freelancer may work on more than one contract at a time; if there is little work on an ongoing hourly contract, it would make sense to look for additional work

 

5) if a freelancer is not satisfied with a current contract, the freelancer may close the contract

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6 REPLIES 6
hoyle_editing
Community Member

Why is the client required to give you 20 hours a week? surely if they are not responding to questions such as "do you have any tasks for me?" then they dont have tasks for you?

 

Not sure what you mean by the 'norm' of 20 hours a week? even if they normally give you this much work, it doesnt mean they are obligated to give you 20 hours every week does it? (If for some reason they ARE obligated to provide 20 hours, then it will be a salary contract rather than hourly wont it?)

 

ETA - I see you only have the 1 job at the moment, i wonder if you are refering the 20 hours to the "weekly limit"? This does not mean the client expects 20 hours to be billed, it is simply a limit so the client can be sure freelancers dont go overboard with loads of hours that the client doesnt want to pay. It isnt a "target" or "minimum" amount.

moonraker
Community Member

If they have something for you then they will give it to you. Asking them if they have work for you is only likely to irritate them. They don't owe you anything, provided they have paid for everything done so far. 

prestonhunter
Community Member

Milan: you may misunderstand some things about hourly contracts. Here are some important facts:

 

1) clients are not obligated to respond to freelancers’ questions 

 

2) clients are not obligated to assign work to freelancers

 

3) there is no such thing as a “norm of 20 hours per week” as far as the Upwork user interface is concerned. There is a “maximum number of hours that a freelancer may work.”

 

4) a freelancer may work on more than one contract at a time; if there is little work on an ongoing hourly contract, it would make sense to look for additional work

 

5) if a freelancer is not satisfied with a current contract, the freelancer may close the contract

tropicany
Community Member

Leave the client alone.

tlbp
Community Member


Milan B wrote:

Hi, I need help.

I have an open contract with a client that does not give me enough tasks to meet the norm of 20h/w. Our communication is through another platform. (Skype). The client avoids answering questions, for example when I ask him if he has any task for me. What are you suggesting to me?


You should assume that the client doesn't have additional tasks for you at the present time. If you need to replace this client with someone who provides more consistent hours, politely ask him to end the contract or end it yourself. 

dsmgdesign
Community Member


Milan B wrote:

Hi, I need help.

I have an open contract with a client that does not give me enough tasks to meet the norm of 20h/w. Our communication is through another platform. (Skype). The client avoids answering questions, for example when I ask him if he has any task for me. What are you suggesting to me?


Preston is right. The 20hours weekly means this is the maxiumum weekly hours a freelancer can work on that contract. Upwork won't let freelancers log in more hours than that. 

 

I think you're doing everything you can. I wouldn't say "leave the client alone." We, freelancers, must be sales people at times...we need to know how to sell ourselves, sell our services, we need to think like a sales person. Politely ask if they need help, explain how you can help them, how you can provide value to them...weekly, bi-weekly...you'll need to test this out....Do this at least 3 times...If no response, then move on. Good luck! 

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