What Should You Do If Upwork Sends You a “Dear John” Letter?

Have you seen a movie called – The Purge? Well, you should. That's exactly what Upwork has been doing to the freelancers. You read it right! Upwork is purging our fellow freelancers on an epic scale.

So, what’s going on and why?

The Email From Hell

It all begins with an email sent by Upwork support. Let's clarify something for a moment. Every freelance platform has the right to suspend your account temporarily or permanently. There's no difference between Upwork or any other platform online, big or small. When it comes to their sacred right to say you bye no cry, they're all the same. However, it turns out that the reasons for such unpopular decisions make a huge difference for freelancers. It's not a matter of life or death if you're going to get suspended, but it can hurt and cost you a lot.

We are contacting you to let you know we have suspended your access to Upwork indefinitely.

Our decision is based on a careful review and the fact that you have submitted a high number of proposals for jobs on our site without many contracts or earnings. Unfortunately, this means the jobs posted by clients are not a good match for your skills.

I know this news is likely disappointing to you. But our goal at Upwork is to enable freelancers to successfully connect and collaborate with clients who need their skills and expertise. Unfortunately, this means we must part ways with freelancers whose skills are not in demand in our marketplace.

My sad story goes, Upwork just made my day, one fine day, with this lovely email. Now, I wouldn’t shed a tear or even raise my eyebrows, if this had been a fair punishment for my reckless and obvious violations of Upwork’s Terms of Service. You know the rules of the game. So, if you do something wrong, you have no other to blame than your own stupidity.

But, I did nothing wrong! I was doing my best to win a project. It sounded like a bad joke when Upwork said: “you have submitted a high number of proposals for jobs.” Why? Because, all you have are 60 so-called “connections” or bids, which are enough to bid only on 30 projects OR one project a day! Good luck with that.

The way I was able to read it between the heartless Upwork’s lines just couldn’t be softened. You are too stupid to work on Upwork! We don’t need you! Long story short, why don’t you just buzz off?

You Aren’t The Only One

You know what? I consider myself to be a reasonable freelancer. It hasn’t even crossed my mind to drop a dozen F-bombs in my email to show Upwork what I really think and feel about them. That’s not my style.

So, I decided it would be a good idea to gain comfort in sharing my story with my freelance brothers and sisters online. Guess what? I wasn’t the only one. It turned out there have been literally hundreds of freelancers being purged from Upwork, almost on a daily basis. Now, when you spend so much time as I did on countless forums, you can read and hear all kinds of horror stories and conspiracy theories. Of course, most of them were too exaggerated even for my taste and vengeful mood. But, some of them you just can’t ignore and justify.

Upwork is building “The Wall!”

Google it yourself. Upwork has too many freelancers coming from third-world countries. This “measure” is supposed to keep their number under “control.” Needless to say that this “policy” stands against anything and everything freelancing is supposed to be about. No prejudices. Equal opportunities for all. Justice for all freelancers.

I live in a third-world country. It took me months of restless bidding to win my first project. I needed five more years to build a respectable portfolio and become one of the top freelancers. Maybe, I could’ve done the same on Upwork. Maybe, I just needed a bit more time to succeed. Now, thanks to the lovely Upwork policy we will never know.

That’s Called Pride — I Don’t Need A New Upwork Ride

For what it is worth, you can still complain even though you have been suspended indefinitely?! It doesn’t make any sense, does it? In other words, I have to beg Upwork to take me back. I’m not the greatest freelancer the world has ever seen, but I have some pride left. I’m not going to beg. Just like Gloria Gaynor in “I Will Survive.”

You should definitely see The Purge Trilogy. The funny coincidence that’s not funny at all. You can combine UP and Purge. What you get is UPurge — how appropriate, indeed.

Vote for this and my other freelance-related stories in Noonies 2022 category:

HACKERNOON CONTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR- FREELANCING.

Also published here.