Understanding Warnings (Strikes) and Firings (Termination)

As a freelance contractor for CopyPress, you are held to certain standards of quality and professionalism. If you fail to meet those expectations, you will receive a warning or be terminated from our system, depending on the severity. The article below walks you through how we define a warning and firing and what constitutes each. While CopyPress always reserves the right to terminate a freelancer for any reason, we generally adhere to the outline below.

CopyPress has thousands of writers, editors, influencers, designers, and developers working on assignments constantly. With so many freelancers taking on work, we need a way to maintain quality control. Therefore, we have instituted a warning/firing system to prevent low-quality or late work, or other repeated issues.

The first level of disciplinary action is a warning or "strike."

The next level of disciplinary action is a firing or "termination." (In certain cases, you can be terminated without receiving a warning.)

What Is a Warning?

Warnings will be internally marked on your account. If you receive multiple warnings for the same issue, then you may be terminated. Warnings are disciplinary actions meant to provide clarity on our expectations for contractors. Failure to make necessary changes and repeatedly making the same errors shows a lack of accountability.

There may be times when you receive warnings for different issues, which could result in multiple warnings without a termination. An example could be receiving a warning for an unprofessional message sent to the editor of your assignment and then receiving a warning for turning an article in late. While it's never good to receive a warning, until they occur for the same issue, no further disciplinary action will be taken. However, if you are constantly turning in your work late or sending unprofessional messages, it could be escalated to a firing.

What Will Cause a Warning?

Here are the general causes of a warning:

• Not following the Style Guide requirements and specific assignment directions
• Submitting an assignment late without communicating with the project manager at least 24 hours before the due date
• Accepting an assignment and never completing it
• Publishing an assignment without the client’s approval
  • Influencers must wait for the Project Manager to approve the content before publishing
  • Writers must ask and receive permission to publish any assignment (even if it's for your portfolio)
• Requesting work for a campaign and then denying or asking for reassignments
• Turning in low-quality work, including:
  • Many spelling and grammatical issues
  • Poor sentence structure and flow
  • Bad links
  • Bad resources
• IT issues, such as problems with your device or internet, that result in late delivery of work (Unless communicated at least 24 hours before the due date)
• Not communicating with the Project Manager or relevant members on the assignment, such as:
  • If an Editor asks you a question and you do not respond or fail to respond in a timely manner
  • You communicate in an unprofessional manner (cursing, insulting, using aggressive tone, etc.)
• If you fail to provide feedback or do not provide feedback in a constructive manner (Editors)
• Not communicating with the Project Manager when you have a dispute and instead reach out to a Writer/Editor directly
• Other non-critical mistakes or issues that result in late assignments, low-quality work, or unruly behavior

What Is Termination?

Termination—sometimes called firing—is a disciplinary action we take when a contractor makes repeated mistakes or performs some fireable offense. If you are terminated from CopyPress for a specific role, you will not be eligible for any other position. For instance, plagiarizing an article will result in immediate termination, and you will be unable to complete any future work as a Writer, Editor, or any other freelance position in our community.

What Is a Fireable Offense?

CopyPress has full discretion to terminate a contractor at any time, whether the offense is listed below or not. Moreover, repeated warnings can result in termination. The list below is not exclusive:

• Directly contacting a client
• Plagiarizing any part of an article, including:
  • Plagiarizing resources
  • Plagiarizing your own work
  • Using a published template for your work
  • Plagiarizing previously published content
  • Using AI-generated content
• Consistently turning in work after the deadline without notifying your Project Manager
• Making rude, malicious, or inappropriate comments to any contractors or CopyPress employees
• Publishing any assignments without approval from a CopyPress Project Manager
• Consistently delivering low-quality work
• Failing to communicate with Project Managers or other members working on the assignment
• Constantly requesting work to be reassigned
• Using a third-party service or another creative to produce work under your name
• Recruiting CopyPress contractors for outside work without permission from CopyPress