"Gig Work" Being Phased Out?

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Hello all,

Like some of you I've noticed a sharp falloff in the amount of work I'm getting following changes that UpWork have made to the platform.

These freelancers have all described beeing quite successful in getting projects until suddenly . . . tumbleweeds. Some of these are new, but doing everything they can to polish up their proposals and profiles, and some are veteran freelancers.

Gagandeep S
YOU RAN C
Jonathan H

Laura R
Lindsey M

I'm quite sure there are others.

Here's a quote (That Cristine pointed out on another thread) from UpWork CEO Stephanie Kasriel

"The goal for the Company focusing really on long-term trends is to say, we don't believe that gig work is the future of this business ... all of these changes are really designed to make these more professional freelancers, more successful and make the bigger companies more successful in Upwork, which may have, as a result, the impact that we're seeing a little bit more churn in the slightly less professional, less reliable freelancers, as well as some of the smaller companies that struggle to justify the cost."

In the interview, she refers to UW's Q2 statements, which show that "gig work" (any project under $1,000) represents only 15% of their market, with "larger engagements" (work above $1,000) and "agency engagements" making up the rest.

This still represents about $11.1M in fees anually from the "gig-work" segment (someone check my math ) , so I don't think they're seriously thinking of doing away with the segment alltogether.

What does concern me (and others) is that my business model apepars to be affected by this "churn". I cater to a wide variety of clients but many of those clients will only ever need the service once. Read as: how many times do you need to buy a toilet seat

Some freelancers have noticed a marked improvement in the quality and quantitiy of the projects made available by clients. This is excellent. UpW's stated intention with these changes is to improve quality, which appears to be working. For some.

That's the context.

Here's my question and what I'd like to discuss:

Assuming, as I do, that UW is not simply cutting off a 15% segment of their business, what can we, as freelancers, do to position ourselves on the platform so that the system does not flag us as "less professional, less reliable".

final thought:

I'm sure the senior management at UW realize that "small" does not equate to "less professional, less reliable" although do doubt the former contains the latter. "small" can also get to places that "big" can't.

In the mid 2010s the Personal Care industry was able to reach 98% of India's billion-strong market by selling the same products they do in the US and Europe, but in containers the size of ketchup sachets. By targeting a vast market that was geared towards smaller unit sizes, they were able to penetrate an maintain a market share that would have been impossible if they stuck to a larger unit-size, smaller volume approach.

I'm cool with being a ketchup sachet. So are my clients. I'd like to keep working with them

mendespaul · ‎09-27-2019

This is my first time visiting the upwork community blog and I am here for this very reason.

I've been on Upwork for about a year now doing small jobs with the occasional bigger job in between... (without a formal definition of 'Freelancing' i'd say this is pretty close to it.) I never had an issue getting gigs and I frequently had to turn down invitations, sometimes daily, because I was too busy on other gigs. This has all changed now, and for the first time since joining Upwork I have used all my connects applying for gigs. In fact, previously I never used connects because I was always being invited by prospecting employers!

Recently I became a top rated freelancer and got that shiny new badge on my profile; I thought for sure I would be getting more, higher quality jobs because of this. But almost exactly around the same time I became "top rated" I started recieving far fewer invitations to jobs. This timing might have coincided with the new changes Upwork has made, but either way I am not happy with the results.

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Thanks for chiming in Paul. You're not alone and I'm becoming more convinced that this is a trend vs. an anomaly. Very worrying that it's affecting even "professional" freelancers who were previously enjoying success.

quick FYI, your profile has been set to "Private". UW are doing this automatically for freelancers who haven't been paid in more than 30 days.

A quick request to the mods should have this sorted within 12 hours. It shouldn't prevent clients from reading your proposals, but it will mean that you're not appearing in search results atm.

mendespaul · ‎09-27-2019

Where are you seeing my profile has been set to private? This has happened once before, so I am aware of how it works, but there is no indication this is happening now; especially considering I have been paid in the past 30 days.

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

nvm. Just checked again and it's accessible now.

Paul M wrote:
Where are you seeing my profile has been set to private?

petra_r · ‎09-27-2019

Chris P wrote:
nvm. Just checked again and it's accessible now.

Paul M wrote:
Where are you seeing my profile has been set to private?

Is was not set to private previously

It was set to "Upwork users only" and the field showed "profile not public" (which is not the same as "This profile has been set to private and you need someone to do something to fix it.")

It shows for one of several reasons:

The freelancer set his profile to "Upwork users only"
The freelancer set his profile to "private"
Upwork set the profile to "private", in which case they know because they received an email telling them that it happened and how to remedy it.

petra_r · ‎09-27-2019

Chris P wrote:
quick FYI, your profile has been set to "Private". UW are doing this automatically for freelancers who haven't been paid in more than 30 days.

A quick request to the mods should have this sorted within 12 hours. It shouldn't prevent clients from reading your proposals, but it will mean that you're not appearing in search results atm.

Will you PLEASE stop telling people that their profiles have been set to private when nothing could be further from the truth?

Paul's profile is set to Upwork users only.

Because the forum is public, such profiles can not be clicked through to from the forum, that does NOT mean they were set to private and there is no need for such people to end up all alarmed. They also do not need to contact any moderators and they don't have to ask for it to be reset.

He's earned in the last 30 days, so would not be set to private anyway.

Paul M wrote:
Where are you seeing my profile has been set to private? This has happened once before, so I am aware of how it works, but there is no indication this is happening now; especially considering I have been paid in the past 30 days.

It isn't, Chris likes to alarm people telling them their profile is set to private simply because it can not be clicked through to from the forum profile, the same as all other profiles that are set to Upwork users only are.

Your profile is fine.

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Hi Petra,

Thank you. I stand corrected. You obviously have more knowledge and experience than I do re: platform interface.

I did assume that if I couldn't see his profile then it might be set to private. It didn't occur to me what other reason there mgiht be that I was able to see some profiles and not others. I'm an Upwork User. I could see some profiles, but not his.

Also, if I have a fault here, it's ignorance. I really was simply trying to help. I'm sorry that you feel otherwise.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎09-27-2019

Chris P wrote:
Hi Petra,

Thank you. I stand corrected. You obviously have more knowledge and experience than I do re: platform interface.

I did assume that if I couldn't see his profile then it might be set to private. It didn't occur to me what other reason there mgiht be that I was able to see some profiles and not others. I'm an Upwork User. I could see some profiles, but not his.

Also, if I have a fault here, it's ignorance. I really was simply trying to help. I'm sorry that you feel otherwise.

Alas, ignorance is no excuse. If you undertake to dispense advice or instruction about how to use the platform, you really need to be sure you know what you're talking about. This is a moderated forum but the mods can't be everywhere at all times and furthermore, we all benefit when they focus on real problems. Therefore, experienced FLs carry a lot of the water helping newbies learn the ropes. If you want to be one, then do your homework.

feed_my_eyes · ‎09-27-2019

Chris P wrote:

Here's a quote (That Cristine pointed out on another thread) from UpWork CEO Stephanie Kasriel

"The goal for the Company focusing really on long-term trends is to say, we don't believe that gig work is the future of this business ... all of these changes are really designed to make these more professional freelancers, more successful and make the bigger companies more successful in Upwork, which may have, as a result, the impact that we're seeing a little bit more churn in the slightly less professional, less reliable freelancers, as well as some of the smaller companies that struggle to justify the cost."

Chris, I understand your frustration but I think that you're sounding the alarm a little prematurely. I don't think that any changes are going to take place overnight; the job feeds are still filled with one-off gigs and Upwork has continued to auto-accept loads of new freelancers at every level of experience. The main reason that I posted that quote was to illustrate that none of us can afford to be complacent or make assumptions about where our future work will be coming from; but as freelancers, this was always the case.

tlbp · ‎09-27-2019

Christine A wrote:
Chris P wrote:

Here's a quote (That Cristine pointed out on another thread) from UpWork CEO Stephanie Kasriel

"The goal for the Company focusing really on long-term trends is to say, we don't believe that gig work is the future of this business ... all of these changes are really designed to make these more professional freelancers, more successful and make the bigger companies more successful in Upwork, which may have, as a result, the impact that we're seeing a little bit more churn in the slightly less professional, less reliable freelancers, as well as some of the smaller companies that struggle to justify the cost."

Chris, I understand your frustration but I think that you're sounding the alarm a little prematurely. I don't think that any changes are going to take place overnight; the job feeds are still filled with one-off gigs and Upwork has continued to auto-accept loads of new freelancers at every level of experience. The main reason that I posted that quote was to illustrate that none of us can afford to be complacent or make assumptions about where our future work will be coming from; but as freelancers, this was always the case.

I think it is also worth noting that correlation does not equal causation. Upwork's business model does not exist in a vacuum. Economic, social and other shifts are occurring on a daily basis that impact everyone's business--including those who hire freelancers. Anyone who thinks last year's strategy will succeed this year and fails to continually make adjustments is putting themselves and their business at risk.

feed_my_eyes · ‎09-27-2019

Tonya P wrote:
Anyone who thinks last year's strategy will succeed this year and fails to continually make adjustments is putting themselves and their business at risk.

This x 1,000.

petra_r · ‎09-27-2019

This is another example of "adapt, abandon, or die"

If you can adapt your Upwork business to fit the changing environment, do so.

If you can't, abandon the platform and source work elsewhere

If neither of those options appeal, create forum post after forum post about gloom and doom, sit in a corner with a quivering lower lip, and let Darwin's law take care of the rest.

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Petra R wrote:
This is another example of "adapt, abandon, or die"

If you can adapt your Upwork business to fit the changing environment, do so.
If you can't, abandon the platform and source work elsewhere

If neither of those options appeal, create forum post after forum post about gloom and doom, sit in a corner with a quivering lower lip, and let Darwin's law take care of the rest.

Hi Petra, thanks for your response. I'm sorry if you find my posts tiresome or perceive them as baseless doom-and-gloom.

In fact, I had hoped that it's clear I'm trying to follow your second suggestion: adapt

If you read some of the comments posted by freelancers experiencing problems, I think you'll see that many of the freelancers experiencing problems had previous success and cannot account for the sudden drop in work.

If the work has dried up. Fine. We'll eventually get the message and stop boring you with our problems.

But I don't think that the work has dried up. As Christine points out: there are still plenty of projects available. I'd like to figure out how I can re-configure my approach so that I'm securing some of that work instead of spending all my time sending out proposals.

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Tonya P wrote:
Economic, social and other shifts are occurring on a daily basis that impact everyone's business--including those who hire freelancers

Totally agree. I am not suggesting or implying that we assume that tomorrow is going to be like yesterday. Both you and Christina raise valid points about keeping a finger on the pulse and not burying our heads in the sand.

What I'm trying to highlight is that something has changed (whether it's the market, policy, etc.) and those of us experiencing difficulties need to find out what it is and how best to adapt accordingly

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Christine A wrote:
I understand your frustration but I think that you're sounding the alarm a little prematurely.

Hi Cristine, thanks for posting. You're probably quite right. I'm really not trying to be alarmist (though, I can see why someone might think that from the title of this thread) and I hope you don't think I'm trying to deliberately mis-interpret the intention of your post.

In fact, this quote shows that change is afoot and, as you quite rightly say, we can't afford to be complacent. We need to change accordingly and what I'm trying to establish here is how best to meet these changes.

Yes, the feeds are still filled with gigs. The thing that's worrying me is that, for some of us, converting those posts to actual work seems to have become prohibitively difficult and we don't know the cause.

tlbp · ‎09-27-2019

Chris P wrote:
Hello all,

Like some of you I've noticed a sharp falloff in the amount of work I'm getting following changes that UpWork have made to the platform.

These freelancers have all described beeing quite successful in getting projects until suddenly . . . tumbleweeds. Some of these are new, but doing everything they can to polish up their proposals and profiles, and some are veteran freelancers.

Gagandeep S
YOU RAN C
Jonathan H
Laura R
Lindsey M

I'm quite sure there are others.

Here's a quote (That Cristine pointed out on another thread) from UpWork CEO Stephanie Kasriel

"The goal for the Company focusing really on long-term trends is to say, we don't believe that gig work is the future of this business ... all of these changes are really designed to make these more professional freelancers, more successful and make the bigger companies more successful in Upwork, which may have, as a result, the impact that we're seeing a little bit more churn in the slightly less professional, less reliable freelancers, as well as some of the smaller companies that struggle to justify the cost."

In the interview, she refers to UW's Q2 statements, which show that "gig work" (any project under $1,000) represents only 15% of their market, with "larger engagements" (work above $1,000) and "agency engagements" making up the rest.

This still represents about $11.1M in fees anually from the "gig-work" segment (someone check my math ) , so I don't think they're seriously thinking of doing away with the segment alltogether.

What does concern me (and others) is that my business model apepars to be affected by this "churn". I cater to a wide variety of clients but many of those clients will only ever need the service once. Read as: how many times do you need to buy a toilet seat

Some freelancers have noticed a marked improvement in the quality and quantitiy of the projects made available by clients. This is excellent. UpW's stated intention with these changes is to improve quality, which appears to be working. For some.

That's the context.

Here's my question and what I'd like to discuss:

Assuming, as I do, that UW is not simply cutting off a 15% segment of their business, what can we, as freelancers, do to position ourselves on the platform so that the system does not flag us as "less professional, less reliable".

final thought:

I'm sure the senior management at UW realize that "small" does not equate to "less professional, less reliable" although do doubt the former contains the latter. "small" can also get to places that "big" can't.

In the mid 2010s the Personal Care industry was able to reach 98% of India's billion-strong market by selling the same products they do in the US and Europe, but in containers the size of ketchup sachets. By targeting a vast market that was geared towards smaller unit sizes, they were able to penetrate an maintain a market share that would have been impossible if they stuck to a larger unit-size, smaller volume approach.

I'm cool with being a ketchup sachet. So are my clients. I'd like to keep working with them

Upwork is not and has never been the only way to reach clients or to work with them. So there is no reason for you to stop working with the clients you prefer. You may just need to find a different lead generation method.

feed_my_eyes · ‎09-27-2019

Tonya P wrote:
Upwork is not and has never been the only way to reach clients or to work with them. So there is no reason for you to stop working with the clients you prefer. You may just need to find a different lead generation method.

Yes - smaller, one-off clients aren't going to vanish from the face of the earth; if Upwork doesn't want them, they'll simply go elsewhere.

tlsanders · ‎09-27-2019

Chris, a lot of us who are benefitting from the changes are just as dismayed by Upwork's "more professional, reliable" characterizations. It's not a surprise, though. Upwork has a consistent pattern of trying to use language to spin something that is going to negatively impact a lot of people into a positive, and they're not good at it, so they repeatedly come across as tone deaf and condescending.

It's a little like when someone comes into the forums and says "My financial transactions are on hold because a client who paid me $50 had some kind of problem they can't tell me about, and now they won't let me access the $2,500 I have available in my account and I'm about to get evicted with my twin babies" and some moderator comes in and says, "We're sorry for the inconvenience."

I'm sure Upwork does want to weed out the less professional, less reliable freelancers. I am also sure that they are well aware that the changes they are making will have a negative impact on a great many high-end freelancers. I don't expect them to care about that--they're here to make a profit. But, their clumsy attempt to spin it does add insult to injury.

And, it creates confusion, because freelancers like you think, "But, I do a good job for my clients. I am reliable. I make money, and pay Upwork fees." And, because of Upwork's repeated emphasis on "professional and reliable" in its talking points, it's reasonable to think those things matter.

But, you have to consider what's involved in each type of business. To bring in the $11 million you reference through small one-off projects, Upwork needs to bring in tens of thousands of clients (just for those small projects, not in total). That's one of the main reasons Upwork spends several million dollars each month in marketing--quite a lot more than $11 million/year.

In addition, that means tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of clients to service, many of whom are newcomers who don't understand how the system works. That's labor-intensive, which means it's expensive to staff.

On the other hand, Upwork could make that same $11 million by bringing in just 55 good-sized companies staffing call centers or that type of positions (based on an average of 500 workers per company and $20k/year to the worker). Each company could have a single point of contact, and would be onboarded and up to speed on how Upwork functions--in other words, very low maintenance compared with the tens of thousands of one-off or occasional clients currently making up that $11 million.

I don't think Upwork is going to suddenly say "We're not taking small job postings"--at least, not yet. What I think (no, I don't have any evidence of this, but it fits both their stated goals and the results many freelancers are reporting) is that they're phasing out the type of advertising that attracts smaller and one-time clients.

One notable change is that they appear to have dropped all of their Google Ads that included words like "affordable." That's probably a good thing (but may explain the dearth of new clients in some areas). My expectation is that those ads will narrow further over time. They may stop running Google ads altogether, because there are much better ways to reach the larger corporations they want to work with.

As that happens--if it happens--a lot of us will see our markets dry up, including some of us who are currently doing quite well after the changes. Most of my clients are small law firms and legal tech start-ups, neither of which fits the target market for the changing model.

chrisprince · ‎09-27-2019

Tiffany, thanks so much for your detailed and well-considered response.

Tiffany S wrote:
Chris, a lot of us who are benefitting from the changes are just as dismayed by Upwork's "more professional, reliable" characterizations.

I try not to get distracted by ham-fisted corporate spin. I don't really care about perception, but I certainly sympathize with people experiencing real problems who don't seem to be getting the help they need.

Upwork does want to weed out the less professional, less reliable freelancers ...

... it creates confusion, because freelancers like you think, "But, I do a good job for my clients. I am reliable".

But, you have to consider what's involved in each type of business. To bring in the $11 million you reference through small one-off projects, Upwork needs to bring in tens of thousands of clients.

... which means it's expensive to staff.

Totally understand and agree. I've parahrased and parsed this down a bit but you're right on the nose. It does cost UW to support freelancers. No doubt the cost is higher for small-scale jobs making that segment less attractive to their business model as it was. So they changed it.

They also are in a position where they're actively trying to improve quality on the client-side. Understandable because that's where the money actually comes from.

So, what seems to be happening here is that UW are trying to more clearly separate their mid-level and high-level offerings. At the same time, they seem to be trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were, in the lower-end segment.

I think this is what some are driving at when they advocate giving up and looking for work elsewhere.

Thing is, I believe there's still work to be done here for me and for others. These changes are recent and are still being dialed-in. If it's "churn" as Stephanie puts it, so be it. We'll just have to keep looking for solutions until things settle down

mtngigi · ‎09-27-2019

I have no way of knowing the numbers, but I'm guessign there are quite a few freelancers (in some categories) for whom small jobs are de rigueur. These jobs are not small to clients or their freelancers, but may be considered small by Upwork's definition. I can understand why Upwork wants to move away from this business model.

That said, if that is UW's intention, perhaps they should consider changing the terms of opt-out fees and non-circumvention time frames if small clients are going to be put to pasture (so to speak). Those kinds of clients (and there are plenty of them) are pretty much my bread and butter. The four jobs I'm jjust wrapping up would be characterize as small potatoes … they are anything but to me. So if they're not worth your time or money, Upwork, allow us move them off the platform.

It's too bad U won't implement the many good suggestions we've made to improved things a bit. Something as simple as raising minimum rates could have an impact. But someone thinks $5 is okay on one hand, and on the other, complain that those kinds of jobs are not worth the manpower, cost, and time. Or better vetting of new profiles - yes, that takes time and money, but so does dealing with disputes, or the aftermath from clients and freelancers experiencing fraud or scams .

I realize that if this is what UW is moving towards, it will be some time before it happens. By then I'll be happily retired and won't care. But I feel for this, and generations to come, for how the work world may (probably will) look like.

chrisprince · ‎10-08-2019

Virginia F wrote:

... I'm guessing there are quite a few freelancers ... for whom small jobs are de rigueur. These jobs are not small to clients or their freelancers, but may be considered small by Upwork's definition. I can understand why Upwork wants to move away from this business model.

I could too if it weren't for the fact that us in the "small potatoes" Gig Work catagory still represents about 15% of their total revenue.

Hey, UpWork: if it's that expensive to support all that Gig Work, why not make life simple for yourselves:

Separate "Gig Work" from enterprise work (which is what you're trying to do anyway. You've said this!)
Charge those freelancers a flat 10% or 20% or 50%. whatever!
Stop with all the clever "improvements" and let market forces sort it out.

You won't have to spend so much on customer support if you'd just do away with incentive schemes and merit badges and intentionally obfuscated rating systems.

wendy_writes · ‎09-27-2019

10,000 kudos @ Tiffany for a comprehensive explanation.

abinadab-agbo · ‎09-27-2019

Tiffany S wrote:
Chris, a lot of us who are benefitting from the changes are just as dismayed by Upwork's "more professional, reliable" characterizations. It's not a surprise, though. Upwork has a consistent pattern of trying to use language to spin something that is going to negatively impact a lot of people into a positive, and they're not good at it, so they repeatedly come across as tone deaf and condescending.

It's a little like when someone comes into the forums and says "My financial transactions are on hold because a client who paid me $50 had some kind of problem they can't tell me about, and now they won't let me access the $2,500 I have available in my account and I'm about to get evicted with my twin babies" and some moderator comes in and says, "We're sorry for the inconvenience."

I'm sure Upwork does want to weed out the less professional, less reliable freelancers. I am also sure that they are well aware that the changes they are making will have a negative impact on a great many high-end freelancers. I don't expect them to care about that--they're here to make a profit. But, their clumsy attempt to spin it does add insult to injury.

And, it creates confusion, because freelancers like you think, "But, I do a good job for my clients. I am reliable. I make money, and pay Upwork fees." And, because of Upwork's repeated emphasis on "professional and reliable" in its talking points, it's reasonable to think those things matter.

But, you have to consider what's involved in each type of business. To bring in the $11 million you reference through small one-off projects, Upwork needs to bring in tens of thousands of clients (just for those small projects, not in total). That's one of the main reasons Upwork spends several million dollars each month in marketing--quite a lot more than $11 million/year.

In addition, that means tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of clients to service, many of whom are newcomers who don't understand how the system works. That's labor-intensive, which means it's expensive to staff.

On the other hand, Upwork could make that same $11 million by bringing in just 55 good-sized companies staffing call centers or that type of positions (based on an average of 500 workers per company and $20k/year to the worker). Each company could have a single point of contact, and would be onboarded and up to speed on how Upwork functions--in other words, very low maintenance compared with the tens of thousands of one-off or occasional clients currently making up that $11 million.

I don't think Upwork is going to suddenly say "We're not taking small job postings"--at least, not yet. What I think (no, I don't have any evidence of this, but it fits both their stated goals and the results many freelancers are reporting) is that they're phasing out the type of advertising that attracts smaller and one-time clients.

One notable change is that they appear to have dropped all of their Google Ads that included words like "affordable." That's probably a good thing (but may explain the dearth of new clients in some areas). My expectation is that those ads will narrow further over time. They may stop running Google ads altogether, because there are much better ways to reach the larger corporations they want to work with.

As that happens--if it happens--a lot of us will see our markets dry up, including some of us who are currently doing quite well after the changes. Most of my clients are small law firms and legal tech start-ups, neither of which fits the target market for the changing model.

It's very rare for Tiffany to paint an Upwork picture so grim, even for herself.

hoyle_editing · ‎10-08-2019

Chris,

Whilst i may have made suggestion at a lack of work I do not share your outlook or even theory of "sudden tubleweeds". Whilst i may have spoken about struggling to find work there are many factors at play that you have failed to mention.

seeing as you have put my name to your thread (in what i can only assume is some kind of attempt to gain credibility) i will clarify what those are...

1 - I'm fairly new to the platform. This means I have limited history for potential clients which could obviously play a factor in not getting work.

- I have never said that i am not making proposals, more that i was struggling to get work, which is more a suggestion of something about me or the way im approaching clients rather than Upwork.

2 - Short term views - I had a short time on Upwork prior to the change, this means the level of work i saw in the beginning could reasonably have been a 'temporary high' level of work compared to usual.

- As such, what i am seeing now could be 'the norm' (and for the record i find work very up and down, kind of "feast or fammine" but currently things are reasonable)

3 - Client conversions - Once getting a reply from a client, what is the conversion rate? i cant honestly say mine is that differnet to the rate prior to change.

- (no I have not checked for sure as im not that concerned, but my conversion rate feels quite reasonable). Thus suggesting that im actually getting a similar flow as before.

4 - Personal development - When i started on the platform, and after getting my first job i was on a natural high, felt great and was eager to get more clients. As things progressed, I came into a few problems here and there and have started to realise some limitations in the platform and in my own ability that i perhaps overlooked in the very beginning.

- This means i'm conciously always trying to be more selective over the jobs that i take (or even apply to). This is an active decision by me that impacts the level of work.

For the record - Yes, whislt i have at times seen a drop in the amount of jobs available, or the amount of work that i have, I do not neccesarily think that is Upworks doing.

Upwork is a huge company and i am a teeny tiny fish in a huge ocean, i really dont think Upworks changes have honestly had that much impact. Possibly made things seem slightly harder at times, but then that could be me.

Personally I dont think blaming Upwork for my lack of jobs is healthy or constructive. I would like to think I am the master of my own destiny, if Upwork continues to be a part of it then great, if not I will have to adapt and find other ways to earn a living. Yes they have lots of problems and there is loads of things i would change given the chance, but thats not going to happen.

For me a bigger impact on my work could easily be put down to the political mess half the world is in right now, but thats another story and right now ive got to pick up the kids!