Yep. It’s all too simple not to solve the systemic problems in the process, especially when they are asking for the kind of money they are now asking for from work seekers. When it comes to roles like software development, even if they are managing the “in between” positions, they are now charging up to 25% more than other channels like recruiters, doing it to the wrong group (sellers not just clients) and doing half the work (and recruiters do next to nothing) and both the money and clients are now so much worse than ever! Business relationships are business relationships for a reason. It’s not employeeship and it’s not slavery!

The realities are they have lost good people and lost them for good. They can’t or won’t change the culture in a short period of time. That’s just the way it is with any company when it comes to culture. It doesn’t change quickly and it kills the brand in the interim.

When ELance first started, it worked really well. I got some very lucrative roles from it even at the beginning. However, it fairly rapidly descended into farce. The merge with oDesk didn’t fix that. Indeed, it made it worse and in some cases, now also holds sellers liable for client actions. Upwork has not cornered the market like Uber has, which allegedly also seems to treat its sellers worse than before. So the options are not closed, by any stretch and there are some excellent other sites out there for buyers and clients alike.

Frankly, the actions of sites like Freelancer, Upwork/ELance and PeoplePerHour has been awful as of late. Ramping up a bad service experience doesn’t make it better. This is the sort of thing that makes freelancers give up on them and oddly, go much bigger. For some industries, there are easy six figure routes right out of the gate compared to the sporadic and poor paying nature of these platforms. A lot more cash, a lot less stress, a better quality of professional relationship.