Most of us at some point will face an unexpected emergency, illness, natural disaster, or situation that pulls us away from our work life.
While we understand it might not always be possible, if you anticipate that something could or is going to keep you from working on Upwork, it’s always good to take a moment to manage your Upwork account and any contracts.
That way, you can step away with the confidence that you’re setting up your work partnerships for success, and protecting your reputation on Upwork.
Things to do as a freelancer
- Reach out to your clients. Discuss your contract and pending absence. You both may agree to pause the contract, or even close it for now.
- Review how you get paid. Will you continue to have access to this banking account for any payments owed to you? Consider adding a second payment method to ensure your payments are accessible, and review your payment schedule.
- Make sure your address and contact info is up-to-date. If you’ll be somewhere else during your time away from Upwork, add that address to your Upwork account and update your phone number and email address, if needed.
- Check your profile visibility settings. If you are going to be offline for awhile, consider setting your profile to private. You might also want to add a line at the beginning of your overview to explain your absence. For example, “I am unreachable due to an unexpected emergency. I hope to return to work soon.” If your profile is showing that you are available for a certain number of hours, you may wish to edit that too. You can edit both your overview and available “Hours per week” here.
Things to do as a client
- Reach out to the talent you are working with. Discuss your contract and pending absence. You might want to pause the contract or end it.
- Review your billing method. You’ll want to make sure your billing info is current so any payments due to freelancers will be paid. Consider adding a second billing method as a backup (if you haven’t already).
- Close any job posts. Have you posted a job and not hired anyone? It’s smart to close the job post for now so freelancers don’t waste time and Connects applying. You can always repost the job when you’re back.
- Review your address and contact info to make sure it is up-to-date. If you’ll be somewhere else during your time away from Upwork, be sure to add that address to your Upwork account and update your phone number and email address too, if needed.
