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Month: May 2018

Part 2, My Decision: Lying to Strangers to Protect Someone I Hardly Know

In Part 1 of this scenario, I ended the post saying that I’ll quit stalling and share my decision with you in my next post.  Thanks to those who offered advice!  Your views were split and I’m still deciding what to do as I type.

I wonder if my reluctance to give a poor review to the contractor I terminated is that I wonder if the problems were partly communications, not his abilities.  My gut says, “no,” he really wasn’t on his game for my job and I owe it to others to be honest.  I also want to be kind. So, here’s my actual review.

By the way, this whole process has opened my eyes to the phase, “not yet reviewed,” beside completed jobs.  I suspect in some circumstances this may be a client’s way to avoid the unpleasantness of a bad review – not necessarily, just something I’ll factor in.  My request: DO write reviews – you’re helping others, particularly the BEST performers who deserve to rise to the top… like Monica, the wonderful resource who helps me prepare and deliver these emails!

Lying to Strangers to Protect Someone I Hardly Know

A recent Upwork contractor (“Bob”) is super friendly, fast, and really responsive – someone I enjoyed working with.  His work had recurring problems, so I gave up and moved on to another contractor.  Bob just asked me to please review him and give him a “5-Star” review.  I won’t, and I told him why.  Now, here’s the thing: do I give him the “2 Stars” (of 5) he deserves for “Quality of Work?”

I have no qualms warning others about a terrible product.  I’m struggling to give this guy I hardly know the grade he earned because I worry that doing so could turn OFF the spigot for further work for him.

Our global peer-to-peer community has at its very foundation the trustworthiness of our fellow man to tell one another about great and poor products and services.  I rely on the truth of others when making these decisions and now I’m considering hurting that very system by either a) softening my review, or b) not submitting one.

Weird – I’m thinking about lying to strangers to protect someone I hardly know. 

Furthermore, don’t we all owe it to the TRULY fantastic performers to honor them by differentiating them from those who were not as good?

Even as I write this I don’t know what I’m going to do.  I’ll quit stalling and share with you my decision in my next post.

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