Trust and safety is a top priority for Upwork, and our goal is to help clients find trusted freelancers who can get their projects done, while providing you with a safe and trusted marketplace to find work.
One of the ways we build and maintain our trusted marketplace is by providing freelancers and clients ways to rate and review each other at the end of a project, so you both can share positive and negative experiences you had over the course of the contract. If you receive multiple instances of negative feedback from various clients, we may place a temporary hold on your Upwork account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Contracts where clients reported negative feedback about your stated skills, experience, availability, or performance during the contract period are counted as negative feedback.
If multiple clients express dissatisfaction with your performance on their contracts, we will:
- Pause your ability to submit proposals and take on new contracts. You’ll still be able to work on existing projects so you can honor your current contract commitments.
- Ask you to complete the ‘Reskilling for Success” learning path in Upwork Academy. We’ll send you an email with all the details.
- Once you successfully complete the “Re-Skilling for Success” learning path, we will restore your ability to submit proposals by the end of day (23:59 PT) on the following Monday after your completion. This update happens automatically every Monday, so no further action is needed on your part.
Account holds are only placed after multiple clients have indicated that your skills, experience, or availability didn’t end up matching their expectations. This outcome is rare and impacts less than 1% of freelancers working on Upwork.
Sometimes, clients choose to only share negative feedback about their freelancers with us privately. The feedback form allows them to leave both a public review and a private one.
Feeling respected and appreciated for your work is important, and open communication with your clients about expectations and deadlines is critical throughout your working relationship. We have some tips for Approaching Clients About Feedback and how to Enable Your Client to Change Their Feedback. We also encourage freelancers to take our “Working with Clients” course in Upwork Academy for more best practices on how to communicate with clients.
If you are unable to come to an agreement with your client, you also have options to leave a public response that will appear alongside the feedback on your profile. If you believe your client has misused or manipulated the feedback system, report it to us. Learn more about responding to or reporting feedback.
