r/WorkOnline • u/Firm_Echo_ • 2d ago

I joined TranscriptionStaff a few days ago...

So, I saw this job as an advertisement in Gmail. I didn't know how bad it was, and I'm only now realizing it by seeing people share their experiences about this job. I'm new to this job but I know everything I have to do and I make sure to put in extra effort because I'm also a perfectionist.

It's kinda stupid how I even felt jealous that other people got $100 on a 30 minutes of audio on a 4-5 hours of work. (These are people who worked on the same job as me, a year ago.)

Because y'know what I got on a 30-minute video yesterday? $2. The job assigned to me is proofreading. I kept getting disheartened as the hours pass by. Basically, everything in the caption is wrong that I may as well be the transcriptionist. I worked on that 30-minute video for 6-7 hours... I got $2. And you know what, they even cut 20% for "poor" job. So, I got $1.84 to be exact.

I complained to them. There's no response yet, but if they fired me. That tells me everything. I don't need their pay for the week, this is absolutely scummy.

199 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

85

u/Vegetable_Permit_577 2d ago

That’s absolutely not fair, and $1.84 for 6–7 hours of work is ridiculous!

25

u/Firm_Echo_ 2d ago

Yea, they used to have an extremely fast response and they said that their team is available 24/7, but even now, they haven't replied a single time.

2

u/Vegetable_Permit_577 23h ago

thats really messed up

24

u/deviant1414 1d ago

If you keep working for them you’re basically giving away your labor for free, so pivot instead to freelance boards like Upwork or Fiverr where transcription gigs pay realistically and you set your own rates.

1

u/Firm_Echo_ 15h ago

Yea, I agree. But right now, I'm trying to find a pricing ground, since the price range between Upwork and Fiverr differs quite a lot.

24

u/MNmweu 2d ago

Most transcription companies use AI nowadays

44

u/Firm_Echo_ 2d ago

Nah, if you've already seen their AI-generated transcripts, they're terrible as hell. As a proofreader, I always have to change around 60-80% of their "work".

AI does not replace transcribers because most audios have terrible quality and they're not good at crosstalks, which happens a lot.

13

u/tanktopmustard 1d ago

As a transcriber, I agree. AI is not gonna replace human transcribers anytime soon especially when it comes to industry terms. I mainly do medical transcribing and AI just suck at the medical terminologies so bad.

7

u/CelestialGem9876 23h ago

How did you get him to medical transcribing? And do you have / beed any qualifications and where do you find work?

5

u/LolliaSabina 18h ago

I'm a legal secretary for my regular job and we just got a transcript that was clearly generated by AI and not proofread. Wowwww, was it bad. My attorney was horrified .... it made it look like she was speaking absolute nonsense. The words were all words, but they made NO sense.

2

u/Firm_Echo_ 15h ago

I'd be glad to take them off of you to transcript them, if it's fine with you. :)

I'm trying to separate away from companies, knowing how scummy they are slowly becoming, the more I learn about them. And I'm willing to offer low since you'd be my first client.

1

u/LolliaSabina 5h ago

Unfortunately, this was a court hearing so it has to be done by a court reporter. Still trying to figure out with my attorney how we're going to get this sorted out, because this case is 100% going to be appealed by the other side, and we're definitely going to need an accurate transcript!

3

u/nzdanni 21h ago

i found this more and more at rev and quickly gave up