Add 'days off' function

[ankojpg]

I think it would be really useful to add posibility to mark some days of week as your day-off, and don't include them into deadline. Like, if my day off is sunday and project's deadline is 7 days, then it should be finished in 8 days but technicaly in 7 working days. Cause sometimes it is pretty hard to explaine the customer that i won't reply for example tomorrow, because i cannot work whole month wihout weekends so i include it in deadline.

[licheng906]

@ankojpg I think that is a brilliant suggestion!

I agree that there should be a scheduling functionality on Fiverr where sellers can choose which day/days of the week they don't work.

On days that sellers don't work:

• They should not be penalized for not replying
• These days should not be counted as business days, hence, order deadline should be paused

I frankly find it mentally exhausting to have to reply to buyers' messages during weekends, there's this constant stress to reply to messages ASAP.

 

[followthefundev]

I think seller listings would need to be removed from visibility on the days they don't work. I would find it a bit annoying to have lots of posts showing up from people that aren't going to reply to me for 2 days. 

I think the gig economy tries to separate itself from the 7 day work week, but obviously people have jobs outside of fiverr too. 

[cloudexclusive]

As far as I know there is the "holidays" feature. A little toggle you put on when you are not available. But nothing you can set up  in advance.

[charlsmcfarlane]

Love this idea! Even if it needs to be a Seller plus thing to get through.

[abdullawp]

Wonderful idea. 😇

[stephanedr]

THIS. Went to the forum to find this kind of topic.
2 years Fiverr seller now, I find this place so well done and optimized for sellers and buyers and I'm really amazed to find features I wouldn't even expect at first.
This said, I'm also surprised to find some we should have like setting a day OFF : yes, why isn't it included already ? this is pure logic ... but as you all said we are human being, we need a time where we have to think about something else than "oh no I left home for the week end and forgot my phone, I wont be replying to customer, I will be penalized..."? Plus we should be setting the periode we want, like for me I have kids I would definetly set the whole week end as OFF since replying and changing diapers is such a pain ...

The thing is, i'm pretty sure Fiverr already knows that and probably did it on purpose and use it has a marketing advantage. I mean I'm pretty sure regulars Fiverr buyers have in mind "Fiverr is so cool,  when you ask for something people are working on it right away no matter when and deliver so quickly"  etc

Anyway, they are small things to fix on the buyer side that would definetly make a huge diference to make it less stressfull as the plateforme ask us to be perfect all the time.

Edited May 24 by stephanedr

[texvox]

This would be an excellent idea. It would probably not be an overly complex thing for Fiverr developers to code in, although I don't know how they'd throw this data into the algorithm. I imagine they could also program it so that your turnaround time is automatically updated based on your business days. 

For example, if you normally offer turnaround in "up to 2 days" and someone places an order on one of your designated non-business days the system could automatically amend that turnaround publicly to "up to 3 days" so the potential buyer could plan for that slightly extended delivery window. Or the system could place a notification on the gig page saying something like "This seller's business days are XYZ. Communication and order completion may be extended on non-business days." And maybe the 24-hr response requirement could be waived for non-working days, although it's still a good idea to at least respond to buyers to let them know you've seen their message and will reach out on a business day. 

Fiverr appears to be very focused on work-life balance right now based on forum posts from their staff members as well as the upcoming webinar on work-life management. @Kesha in the spirit of this work-life focus I believe this is a worthy suggestion to forward to the development team that would help to accomplish a healthier balance for sellers, vs. the "always on" 24/7 nature of Fiverr. 

Edited May 24 by texvox

[donnovan86]

7 minutes ago, texvox said:

This would be an excellent idea. It would probably not be an overly complex thing for Fiverr developers to code in, although I don't know how they'd throw this data into the algorithm. I imagine they could also program it so that your turnaround time is automatically updated based on your business days. That system also allows you to receive messages or not receive messages if you want. 

 

You can set availability/unavailability already. We are not hired by Fiverr, there are no days off :))) You can choose when to work and create your own schedule. So, realistically, I don't see why this was a request in the first place. As a freelancer, you can easily set when you are not available from your profile 🙂 

[Kesha]

36 minutes ago, texvox said:

This would be an excellent idea. It would probably not be an overly complex thing for Fiverr developers to code in, although I don't know how they'd throw this data into the algorithm. I imagine they could also program it so that your turnaround time is automatically updated based on your business days. 

For example, if you normally offer turnaround in "up to 2 days" and someone places an order on one of your designated non-business days the system could automatically amend that turnaround publicly to "up to 3 days" so the potential buyer could plan for that slightly extended delivery window. Or the system could place a notification on the gig page saying something like "This seller's business days are XYZ. Communication and order completion may be extended on non-business days." And maybe the 24-hr response requirement could be waived for non-working days, although it's still a good idea to at least respond to buyers to let them know you've seen their message and will reach out on a business day. 

Fiverr appears to be very focused on work-life balance right now based on forum posts from their staff members as well as the upcoming webinar on work-life management. @Kesha in the spirit of this work-life focus I believe this is a worthy suggestion to forward to the development team that would help to accomplish a healthier balance for sellers, vs. the "always on" 24/7 nature of Fiverr. 

Hey guys. 😊 Thanks for bringing this conversation to my attention! I will pass it along to the appropriate team for consideration. 

[texvox]

5 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

You can set availability/unavailability already. We are not hired by Fiverr, there are no days off :))) You can choose when to work and create your own schedule. So, realistically, I don't see why this was a request in the first place. As a freelancer, you can easily set when you are not available from your profile 🙂 

EDIT: the below was put together in a rush so I know I got a little soap-boxy and off topic. I added a notation about where my main point ends if you don't care to read further. 

I agree that we aren’t employed by Fiverr in the traditional sense, but the algorithm does put employment-like expectations on our participation on the platform in order to remain in favor, and using the unavailable feature has a serious impact on a lot of sellers even when used infrequently, so repeated use is a no-go. Unlike freelancing outside of Fiverr where you have complete control over the growth of your business and your visibility to potential clients, here on Fiverr these things lie in the hands of an algorithm nobody completely understands and upon which we can make relatively little impact. Almost like an employer making decisions about your career for you. 

With that in mind I think it’s worth Fiverr exploring small updates like what was suggested here to allow us to set recurring, automated unavailability (“days off,” but we don’t have to call it that) rather than sticking to the manual solution right now. If we’re going to be as beholden to the algorithm as we are it makes sense to have as many tools as we can, and for those tools to be as streamlined as possible.

On a side note, while you can use the availability / unavailability function in its current iteration it’s nuked so many seller profiles in the past - including my own recently - that it’s not really a feature sellers can truly rely on right now. The risk level of using it is just way too high.

Main point of my post ends here - other rambling below re: the state of the current vacation mode feature.

As an example of just how risky it is to use vacation mode, in November of last year I set myself as unavailable for 10 days to serve in Ukraine in a missionary/humanitarian capacity. I voiced my concerns about using the feature to my seller plus manager due to some poor experiences I had in the past with the feature, but she assured me they had updated it so that it would have minimal impact "if any" and was "there for your benefit!"

When I came back my profile was completely flatlined, and has just now - 6 months later - returned anywhere close to the impressions, clicks and orders that I had been averaging for 26 months prior to using the vacation mode feature. 6 months to get back into the favor of the algorithm, in spite of making every tweak imaginable and having a pristine record (confirmed with my SP manager excellent private reviews to make sure of that as well) and very high sales on the platform for years prior to using the feature. Rebuilding homes for families and trying to play with and lighten the spirits of 5 year olds who had lost limbs to mines since the start of that war cost me 6 months of time and tens of thousands of dollars in average monthly income here on the platform. This is not a unique outcome among the freelancers I know personally.

Outside of Fiverr? No problem; my direct business came right back to life immediately, as in the day of my return I was already in talks for new projects with clients. It could be said that's just something that comes with the territory of working on Fiverr, but I believe it can and should be improved.

For context I've also had really bad luck with taking even 2 days off via the "unavailable/vacation mode" feature as well, so it's not just a matter of that November stint being longer. Not what I'd call a safe and reliable feature, at least based on my experience. YMMV of course, but my trust in that as it is is gone. 

Edited May 25 by texvox

[donnovan86]

5 hours ago, texvox said:

On a side note, while you can use the availability / unavailability function in its current iteration it’s nuked so many seller profiles in the past - including my own recently - that it’s not really a feature sellers can truly rely on right now. The risk level of using it is just way too high.

Well I wasn't nuked by that system and I've been here for over 10 years, for me it worked as intended, although obviously if you are away for a week or two, others will surpass you. I can only assume things are a bit worse now since the success score also takes into account the performance of other players. But obviously that's expected, I mean.. it's unreasonable to expect that Fiverr will keep a warm cushion for you, while others sell more. It all comes down to generating sales, and whomever sells more will obviously be pushed by the algorithm.

So yeah, it's not like a traditional workplace. It's a platform where you are meant to sell, if not, others surpass you. I think the problem is that a lot of people treat Fiverr like their employer, even if it's not. Ideally, you want to use Fiverr as a side hustle and not your main source of income. It was great for the latter until AI started creeping in, now a lot of niches are dealing with very very low demand. Less buyers and more sellers, you can only imagine how competitive some niches are. I can speak for writing, but I am sure design and anything that can be generated by AI is taking a pretty big hit. Of course, people realize that man-made work is higher quality, but there are a lot of sticklers that won't pay the proper price for human content.

5 hours ago, texvox said:

For context I've also had really bad luck with taking even 2 days off via the "unavailable/vacation mode" feature as well

I have no idea what happened there so.. can't comment on that. I can only assume that not being a volume seller might hurt when you come back. Regardless, my point here was that I don't think Fiverr will redo this feature. You already have what's asked and "days off" would mean Fiverr is our employer, which is not. You can easily set unavailability or just pause gigs for a few days. I think the best approach is to leave a message on the gig page/profile page and increase deadlines. 🙂 

[srityacharjee]

Very good idea and it needs to be done

[texvox]

11 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

I have no idea what happened there so.. can't comment on that. I can only assume that not being a volume seller might hurt when you come back. Regardless, my point here was that I don't think Fiverr will redo this feature. You already have what's asked and "days off" would mean Fiverr is our employer, which is not. You can easily set unavailability or just pause gigs for a few days. I think the best approach is to leave a message on the gig page/profile page and increase deadlines. 🙂 

I'm on board with extending deadlines and setting that message. Unfortunately where I went in Ukraine was a few km off the front lines and all blown to kingdom come so no wifi and mostly no cell service was gonna destroy my response rate so vacay mode was all I had. But we win some and lose some, and like you mentioned Fiverr doesn't owe us a spot on the train. It's sad to see how many folks have been railroaded by the vacation feature though. I'm glad it's worked out for you over the years! I know a lot of sellers personally whose Fiverr world has been flipped upside down by using it even briefly. But all the more reason for us to have a health direct business and, like you mentioned, view Fiverr as a side dish. 

Kesha said she'd forward it up the chain so who knows; a guy can dream 🤣

Edited May 25 by texvox