The failure of JSS

d5471b73 · ‎12-28-2022

I am overwhelmingly frustrated by my JSS that just plummeted from a 90% to a 79%. Even AFTER I got a 5star review from a client who lied about the entire job posting, including how long it was supposed to last. They also insulted me in their last message. I can't have the feedback removed because I am not a top rated plus yet, which makes this all the more frustrating. There has to be a better way of the JSS working to help good freelancers and not hurt them. Especially when I have two really great clients going right now and one has been long term. This is not fair to freelancers who are still trying to get their momentum going and make a name for themsevles on the platform.

This sort of shows how flawed this system is, especially when there is nothing we can do to try and rectify the situation. Why should the freelancer be penalized if the company doesn't have the money to pay us, or decides they need to go a different direction and let the freelancer go. It would be appropriate to try and convince a client to try and keep me on for longer just so my JSS isn't affected.

wlyonsatl · ‎12-28-2022

Peter B.,

The primary purpose of the JSS is to provide clients a way to cut down on the large number of proposals they receive on their projects. By selecting a minimum JSS they are willing to accept, clients can easily ignore all proposals from freelancers whose JSS ratings are lower than that minimum number.

Upwork has never shown any interest in changing the JSS system to reduce the influence of unjustly negative feedback by clients, other than to say that feedback from certain consistently negative clients is not included in the calculation of those clients' freelancers. Unfortunately this is an opaque policy; no client is publicly marked as such a client, so a busy freelancer can't avoid working for them and would find it all but impossible to know whether a particular client's feedback will have an affect on the freelancer's JSS. (This is why freelancers should be honest in their feedback for unpleasant/dishonest clients; to warn off future potential freelancers for those clients. We have no other way to know what we're in for with these clowns, other than to accurately judge them in a pre-contract Zoom call.)

Your best bet is to a) do a great job on your remaining current jobs and b) double down on applying to jobs where you feel you are a great fit. You can work your way back from a JSS of 79.

charliedrozdyk · ‎12-28-2022

I can't wait until there is another platform to go to where they care about their freelancers. I don't think I know one freelancer who thinks upwork is fair to them. Am I wrong?

martina_plaschka · ‎12-28-2022

If you don't know one freelancer who thinks upwork is fair to them, then your statement is correct and you are not wrong. This is a statement about your personal situation.

If are talking about other freelancers you don't know and make assumptions what they think, you are wrong. If you expect a business to be fair, you will always be disappointed. Fairness is very subjective and means something different to everybody. No business can fulfill this expectation.

the-right-writer · ‎12-28-2022

"I can't wait until there is another platform to go to where they care about their freelancers. I don't think I know one freelancer who thinks upwork is fair to them. Am I wrong?"

You will be waiting for a long time. When you find the magical freelancer wonderland where the business "cares" about the freelancer, do let us know. I have experience with multiple platforms, as do many of the freelancers here. "Care" and "fairness" subjective terms and relevant to the particular situation.

Upwork provides job listings and earns income from connects and the fees from completed jobs. There is no hidden information. So, yes, you are wrong.

lysis10 · ‎12-28-2022

Charlie D wrote:
I can't wait until there is another platform to go to where they care about their freelancers. I don't think I know one freelancer who thinks upwork is fair to them. Am I wrong?

The people who don't think it's fair just want to be *fairer* for them, meaning they get all the work instead. Then they will think it's fair to them.

wlyonsatl · ‎12-29-2022

Jennifer M.,

I don't think the unfettered amount of inaccurate negative feedback from certain clients is "fair" and I don't think it's a particular problem for me. Upwork doesn't think it's "fair" either or it wouldn't have at least made the token effort to exclude the worst of such clients from the calculation of their freelancers' JSS.

martina_plaschka · ‎12-29-2022

Which is what they have always done. Clients with "a history of bad feedback", whatever that might mean, are excluded from the JSS calculation.

lysis10 · ‎12-29-2022

The more you have in your history and the more long-term clients you get, the less it matters. I get bad feedback but it hardly hits me, but I also don't care about having 100% JSS. I see a lot of people striving hard for 100% JSS and I really don't care. I just want to stay above 90% for the perk, but I guess people think 100% will carry weight.

The only thing I care about is rants, but that's what the perk can be used for. Even if you leave something bad in your history, just get it to the 2nd page and it won't matter anymore. Most people strive for 100% JSS though and I really don't care about that stuff.

wlyonsatl · ‎12-29-2022

I completely agree, Jennifer.

The pursuit of a 100 JSS distorts too much of what too many freelancers do, including providing complete refunds to difficult clients or doing substantially more work than the client has paid for in order to keep them happy. (Both of which, by the way, mean Upwork is missing out on some fees it should be earning for such work.)

But your and my situations are different than for so many freelancers who don't have the TopRated feedback removal perk (which I use a couple of times per year) and are either just starting out on Upwork and don't have an extensive history of good feedback here that can absorb the occasional negative feedback without driving their JSS below the golden "90" standard. (It is interesting that Upwork has never provided any evidence to either freelancers or clients that freelancers with a JSS of 89 or lower provide significantly different quality work than freelancers with a JSS of 90 or above. Without such proof, the opaque JSS calculation has little real meaning other than being a marketing tool that allows clients to decrease their workload finding the right freelancer, which I think is its primary purpose in relation to most clients and freelancers.)

I think Upwork should make it clear to all freelancers if a client has proven to be difficult to work with during their time on Upwork. I expect such clients would get a lower response on their projects from a lower quality/more desperate type of freelancer. Which is what such clients deserve.

lysis10 · ‎12-29-2022

oh yes, I say often that I probably wouldn't make TR or it would have taken me a long long long time if I didn't have my Elance profile to port over. I dropped to 89% though when I first started on Upwork. I think the JSS is not as important as freelancers think it is. The only real importance is in the perk, so striving for 90% is good I think.