interview declined

[hshores]

I just had an interview declined because I said that I wouldn't do the interview outside of Upwork. According to Upwork policy, all interviews have to be in Upwork to keep everyone safe. I told them I would be happy to interview inside Upwork as per policy, but they declined the interview instead. What should I do? Is this going to hurt my reputation? I am new to Upwork.

[NikolaS]

Hi Heather,

Thank you for flagging this to us. Rejecting an invitation to interview does not affect your profile reputation on Upwork. In a case like this you can let them know that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork’s Terms of Service and that all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. We also encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the “Flag as Inappropriate” option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here. I'll make sure to share your report to our team for their review.