Same interview questionnaires and Skype chats?

[930d2896]

I'm new to Upwork in the writing industry, and I've encountered my first 2 job interviews that had very similar questionnaires and Skype interview sessions.  Examples of duplicate questions include:  What do you understand by keeping a company's code and conduct?  How would you be an asset to our organization?  Tell me why you feel you are the right person for this position?  etc.  

Is this really legitimate or a scam?  Anybody else experience this and have some insight into it?  Thanks.

[JoanneP]

Hi Paul,

Please know that taking communications with a freelancer or client off of Upwork before a contract is in place is against our Terms of Service. As a result, your Upwork account will be subject to permanent suspension. (Note: This does not apply to Enterprise and Business clients. Freelancers may use off-website tools to communicate with these clients at any time. You can identify whether a client is Upwork Business or Enterprise by looking for the following symbol (a light blue building) on the right column of the job post or in the search tile.) We invite you to join the discussion on the community forum here.

[930d2896 · Accepted solution]

Upon further researching the forums, I think suspending the client or employer would take precedence over suspending a freelancer.  More often than not, a freelancer could be taken advantage of by an employer in a case described above.  I signed up on Upwork a few days ago, and I read nothing about taking communications off of Upwork.  This is entirely new to me.  I think that policy should be part of the onboarding process with Upwork, no matter who signs up with your website, and I don't mean just checking a box indicating that you "understood" the TOS.  You should have a series of videos about this and maybe include some quiz questions so that the freelancer can understand this better.  

And remember this common sense informed opinion:  You should always be on the side of the FREELANCER, not the client or employer!  WE are the ones who NEED money, while the clients are the ones who HAVE all the money.  I think everybody can agree on this point, yes?  The clients are paying us, while you get a service fee taken FROM THE CLIENT, which then has a ripple effect on the freelancers because we get less pay due to that.  I understand that's how you make money (and how we earn less pay), but it's abundantly clear that you should suspend the client first before even considering suspending the freelancer.  You would need absolute tangible proof that the freelancer was responsible for violating the TOS with respect to taking communications off of Upwork before a contract is in place.  The freelancer can be totally unaware of this even happening, and if that's the case, you can be sued in court for terminating a freelancer's account in such instances.  In other words, you would have to be reasonably certain that a freelancer willingly violated the TOS in this way.  Just some advice for you, and please take it seriously.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Paul D wrote:

Upon further researching the forums, I think suspending the client or employer would take precedence over suspending a freelancer.  More often than not, a freelancer could be taken advantage of by an employer in a case described above. 

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They do ban clients who post scams. The problem is, they can create a different account and come right back again.

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Paul D wrote:

I signed up on Upwork a few days ago, and I read nothing about taking communications off of Upwork.  This is entirely new to me.  I think that policy should be part of the onboarding process with Upwork, no matter who signs up with your website, and I don't mean just checking a box indicating that you "understood" the TOS.  You should have a series of videos about this and maybe include some quiz questions so that the freelancer can understand this better.  

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There are videos and reams of information, but no way of forcing anyone to read them. I mean, you signed up and started bidding right away without reading about how to use Upwork, didn't you? I agree that there should be a mandatory test.

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Paul D wrote:

And remember this common sense informed opinion:  You should always be on the side of the FREELANCER, not the client or employer!  WE are the ones who NEED money, while the clients are the ones who HAVE all the money.  I think everybody can agree on this point, yes?  The clients are paying us, while you get a service fee taken FROM THE CLIENT, which then has a ripple effect on the freelancers because we get less pay due to that.

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Clients are in greater demand here, not freelancers, so if Upwork is going to "take sides" (which I don't believe they do), then they should be trying their hardest to attract and retain clients rather than attract and retain freelancers. Freelancers are a dime a dozen - almost literally. As for getting less pay, you can charge whatever you want - the sensible thing to do is to include the service charge within your hourly rate, like you'd do with any of your other business expenses. 

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Paul D wrote:

You would need absolute tangible proof that the freelancer was responsible for violating the TOS with respect to taking communications off of Upwork before a contract is in place.  The freelancer can be totally unaware of this even happening, and if that's the case, you can be sued in court for terminating a freelancer's account in such instances.  In other words, you would have to be reasonably certain that a freelancer willingly violated the TOS in this way.  Just some advice for you, and please take it seriously.

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Where are you getting the notion that freelancers are suspended "first"? From what I've seen, freelancers break the rules constantly and are hardly ever suspended. I've seen some really flagrant abuses from people who have clearly stolen their entire portfolios, falsified their identity and location, lied about their skills, claim to be native English speakers when they can barely string a sentence together, ripped off clients, broken the ToS several times... the list goes on and on. What are you so worried about?

[martina_plaschka]

No, both should be suspended.