The Road Ahead

Toggl, Asana, OpenProject and OrangeScrum. These are all professionally developed or managed platforms and way better than the so-called "team room" of Upwork.





3. Paying or Getting Paid: PayPal and Wire Transfer are just the most popular ways of getting paid (as a freelancer), or paying someone (as an employer) online without the help of any middlemen like Upwork. There are many others, of course, like Payoneer, Stripe, Skrill, Razor Pay,

Western Union, etc.

When programmers started exploring freelancing as a career option in about 1998 AD, the field was ripe with demand. Employers found a very cost-effective way to hire talent across the globe and get their work done.As a result, freelancers working on online platforms like(now closed) and(now Upwork) were in huge demand.But approximately two decades later, the situation is very gloomy in 2019! Almost everybody has started freelancing now, so the supply-demand balance has tipped in favor of employers and the platforms, or so it seems. As a result, Upwork is only too happy to treat the additional workforce like trash and is currently on a suspension spree.Upwork has realized that the market is too saturated now, and that getting rid of some freelancers is going to speed up their platform and increase the average paying rate (as a result of now reduced supply of freelancers). Both these factors are a win-win for Upwork, of course.Only problem is that the algorithms they are using to suspend freelancers' accounts seem to have gone haywire. These algorithms don't seem to care how long a freelancer has been working on the platform, or even what his past record says. They won't pause for a moment to think that they could be suspending the account of a sole bread earner on whom an entire family could be financially depending on. No, all they care about are certain "patterns" like "submission of too many proposals" or the so-called "suspicious activity in your account".For example, one redditor /u/noonelives520 got his account suspended today under the blanket clause of "suspicious activity in your account" . They won't tell you what that activity had been, or what all do they deem suspicious. Why is it that out of so many online services that people use (Twitter, Google, Facebook, Ola, Uber, etc.), only Upwork accounts seem to have this "suspicious activity" problem?Another redditor is, in fact, an employer who got suspended as he opened a second account in his name after he lost access to his old email. The Upwork "Trust and Safety" team refused to acknowledge his problem and refused to reinstate it:Similarly, another redditor was arbitrarily suspended some days ago despite being a PHD in computer science and having 10+ years of experience in this field!People have been expressing their displeasure about Upwork's odd behavior all over the social networks but the real question is what to do now?This incident shows how foolish both freelancers and employers have been to depend on platforms like Upwork for getting work, and getting work done respectively. Taken positively, this incident could be a blessing in disguise. Both freelancers and employers should ask themselves why were they tied to a ruthless platform for so long which cared about nothing but only its over-exorbitant commission of 20%.Platforms like Upwork offer a false sense of security in the form of an "onlline platform" but nothing could be far from truth. In fact, an employer can easily find freelance professionals and work with them directly, thus avoiding costly fees and commissions that goes into the pockets of Upwork:Linkedin and Twitter are probably the best bet for this. If you have an eye for detail, you can find, filter, research and come up with the best candidates for your job, be it Wordpress developers or Data Science experts. Linkedin is also a place where you can leave the freelancer some feedback, so other employers can work with them accordingly. Almost every freelancer has a Linkedin profile and Twitter account these days. Heck, many even have their own websites. All you have to do is approach them!There are N number of both online and self-hosted platforms to manage your project such as