Babbletype Reviews

I was part of an experimental (as we found out) in-house QA review team to proofread transcripts for $10/hour (yep). About 8 reviewers were hired on. Management, as it were, was "senior QA"--three or four reviewers who coached and reviewed the review team. At first, everything was copesetic, supportive, friendly. Gradually, though, it became clear that both management and the CEO were more interested in fostering a competitive, micro-manage-y environment than really training and empowering the reviewers to their jobs. It was a real eye-opener how clique-ish people could become based on communication that occurred largely through Skype chat. Senior review would randomly drop in while you were editing (in Google docs) and comment on your edits. Later, management decided that some of us should take the senior reviewer seat for a day, so we all rotated through that--how fun and productive it was to have people who should have been your equals smugly "calling you in" to the Google doc you had edited to point out your mistakes! And it was such a great team-building exercise...not! Fact is, we all made mistakes. Not one of us was perfect. There were time constraints, deadlines. And you were taught as much--you were taught that while you should aim to make a manuscript as perfect as possible, perfection would not be possible in most cases due to time constraints. With that in mind, it was annoying to have someone go in and nitpick what was a perfectly great transcript. And I do mean nitpick. Every one of us could have nitpicked if we wanted to--again, a transcript is rarely perfect--but you know how it goes. Some people just love to micromanage, while others--types who aren't appreciated at a company like Babbletype--take a more balanced approach and enjoy encouraging others and acknowledging their strengths as much as showing them how to improve. What a concept! Oh, and don't get me started on style guides with companies like these. These are the sort of people who think they are so very smart because they know what an Oxford comma is yet don't know the difference between affect and effect.

The pay was NOT even close to up to par, I have been working in this field for almost ten years now. The communication regarding pay and work was also not good, the system is sloppy as well. Very disorganized.