I got this great question from Peter:
I have had two part-time VA’s on my books for over 5 years now, I pay a small weekly retainer to do some CRM and Website work – they can go for a month without doing any work, but at least I am paying them something.
Originally I go them through UPWORK.
Is there a way to move them to you, so they can get more of my weekly? It’s only small as we are a small business – $50 for Kimberly and $20 for Jewel. Just to confirm, these are just retainers, sometimes I give more work over and above that, and they get paid too!
Let me know – I love your work!
Regards, Peter
Yeah, you can move them to Onlinejobs.ph.
It should be pretty simple.
Ask them for their profile URL from OnlineJobs.ph (they probably already have a profile on Onlinejobs.ph).
On their profile page, click “mark as hired” so they show up in your Onlinejobs.ph account. You’ll need to have (or have had in the past) a paid employer account to mark them as hired.
You can upgrade easily to one (https://www.onlinejobs.ph/pricing) and cancel the subscription as soon as your account is upgraded so it does not renew.
All the features needed to manage your current staff will be available to you even after your paid upgrade expires.
From there, you can use EasyPay to pay them. OnlineJobs.ph/easypay. It comes with your Onlinejobs.ph account.
John
I realize people must ask for this John, and you’ve obliged your tribe by providing a workable process that might in fact get the desired result. I feel I should point out, however, what you’ve suggested here is technically a violation of Upwork’s terms. I’m sure most don’t read terms like that but once upon a time I was anal about every contract I signed. Doing what’s laid out here might work, but could also result in some irritating consequences– including loss of account history/data and account closure.
I think everyone has in their head a number of days, weeks, months after which the “they get paid a percentage” feels less like it was earned and more like it’s exploitation. Same thing for arranging a future week’s rental directly with someone that was respectful of your place after first hearing of it on airbnb. For me, it’s around a year with upwork. I don’t feel any guilt contacting my worker and asking if they want to make the same money and I pay them directly instead of through upwork.
Against the terms or no, my conscience and integrity both feel fine in that scenario.
It’s worth mentioning however two things as an addendum on your piece:
1) if someone is even more straight-laced on things like this than me and wants to compensate Upwork to “buy out” the relationship with their worker, the site does have a mechanism for that called the Conversion Fee https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043210654-Convert-your-contract-to-move-outside-of-Upwork (At 13.5% of a freelancer’s hourly rate x 2,080 hours (52 wks x 40 hrs) —> it’s NOT cheap).
2) Sending the message Jon suggests through Upwork’s monitored message system might escape notice once but twice? I doubt it. It isn’t hard to find stories of people’s accounts being banned— workers and employers both. I’ve had workers I lost touch with on upwork because they sent me their PayPal email address— poof, their account was gone, no recourse and no contact.
Mr. Cubic Zirconia
CubicZirconia.com
Thanks! Great info