
The way Upwork treats loyal freelancers - Buzdyk_Gregory
https://medium.com/@riouske/the-way-upwork-treats-loyal-freelancers-97aa7c4f154c
======
CPLX
This is emblematic of what I suspect will be a serious problem going forward
for a lot of companies as "tech startups" more and more become just
"companies" that millions and millions of people are supposed to use and
depend and base their lives and livelihoods on.

There's a cultural thing in tech companies that is borne somewhat from the
wild west feeling of the early internet, where it's considered OK to do things
like throw people off a platform, take their existing earnings or funds, or
make it so they can't message people or similar, without even telling them, or
without any ability to communicate or seek redress, all in the name of "Trust
& Safety"

This is a philosophy that was fine when these companies were small and could
be easily overwhelmed by fraud, but it doesn't scale and leads to truly epic
amounts of bad blood with customers.

We have things like consumer credit laws, and common carrier rules, and the
Montreal Convention, and state licensing and regulation, because over the
years the public decided that it wasn't OK to just leave things like this up
to companies. Maybe not soon, but eventually there is going to have to be a
reckoning for tech companies that ignore the reality that they eventually
would be wise to have rules, transparency, and accountability before it is
forced upon them.

------
rmykhajliw
I have almost the same story but from employer side: last year right before
Christmas they decided to reject my2 years working card, as bonus they didn't
accept paypal for some reason. So In order to pay my freelancer I have to come
a long verification procedure, call them dozen of times, until they gave
"secret" paypal account that I have to fulfill.

In my observation Upwork (oDesk) don't want to ear money. They make everything
to stop using the service.

My solution was moving to Payoneer directly (They have really AWESOME and
simple partnership program) and time tracker I'm using hubstaff (Yes, $5 per
freelancer).

In result with direct payonner partnership and hubstaff, the total overhead of
payments to my freelancer is less than 1%. JUST 1%. Thank you upwork, you
helped me to realize that there's more one solution, even if at begging it was
scary the output worths it: saving money, simplify team management, AWESOME
support. I'm really happy!

------
petercooper
The few people I know personally (as in, real life) who use these platforms do
nothing but complain about them (while continuing to make a living with them).
It reminds me of eBay and PayPal back in the day - the platforms had great
value for users, but the sheer number of variables that could go wrong meant
there were always complaints.

~~~
Buzdyk_Gregory
Well, I was recommending Upwork to nearly every developer I know. Plus founded
a russian slack conference about freelancing through Upwork.

I love it. It helped me so much to bootstrap my freelance career.

In the same time things described in the post made a lot of good freelancer
leave the platform. B/c it's an easier way to cope with it's mechanical
support.

------
James001
In my experience, Craigslist has much a much more valuable asset than Upwork
to my freelance career

~~~
sdpy
Could you please tell more about your experience with Craigslist?

~~~
James001
Sure, Craigslist is how I first broke into the industry.

I learned how to code through codeacademy and just tinkering on some projects,
then started to go to Craigslist looking for random tech/programming jobs to
see how viable it was. And there were in fact many programming jobs ranging
from beginner computer jobs for random people needing help to companies
needing short-term or irregular contract work. There are also many normal job
postings looking for beginner/intermediate/experienced programmers located in
the city too.

The best part about craigslist though is the informalness of the dialogue. I
would just send each poster a few sentences saying basically I'm a programmer
in the local area who knows html, css javascript php, etc. And here are a few
of the projects I have worked on (list my own sites). Some postings require a
bit more elaboration but usually not by much. This means it's easy to apply to
several very quickly. It's a numbers game at the end of the day.

Also, it's possible to apply to jobs from all the local cities or really
wherever. Some will require you be local, but most can be done remotely (phone
calls, skype etc.).

After a while you begin building up a list and portfolio of clientele and
basically keep taking progressively higher paying gigs while substituting out
the lower paying ones.

------
dmoy
I don't know what your terms/conditions are with upwork, but if you've been
with the same place 14 months, couldn't you cut out the middle man there?
Would there be anything stopping you from going back if you need to find a new
gig?

~~~
bravura
That is against their TOS.

Upwork encourages you to do all messaging on the platform, and scans your
messages for hints that you are trying to move work off the platform. If so,
they give you temporary bans or other punishments.

I'm not saying that no one does this, but Upwork are vigilant about it.

~~~
mundo
That seems akin to a dating site that bans users for discussing marriage...

~~~
tzaman
That's because married couples would blame the dating site when getting
divorced :)

------
Retr0spectrum
I've just got started on Upwork recently. My experience so far has been
positive, but that doesn't mean much considering how little I've used it.

What are my other options for getting into freelancing?

~~~
kdamken
What do you do? If you have front end skills, find businesses in your area
that don't have a website or have a crappy one. Reach out with your portfolio
and examples of other businesses you've helped and either make them a site, or
offer to get their google and yelp info in order so they can manage that
better, upload their hours, etc.

You don't need to rely solely on sites like this to find work :)

------
pbreit
Pro tip: ditch the sarcasm on serious matters.

