Appen Butler-Hill

arthur22

Haven't posted here before but I just got fired from Appen after almost two years as a web search evaluator - wish I'd found this thread before! Would have been nice to have some colleagues to talk to.

I think on the whole the Appen experience has more positives than negatives, but the negs can really get you down. The toolbar crashes numerous times, they obviously see you just as a number not a person (worst example of this was when my PC got an awful virus - response was that I should get antivirus software, which of course I already had, and that if it happened again I would need to find another PC as I wouldn't be allowed time off to fix it!) and the times when you get hour after hour of one-query sets to judge that take AGES.

I went through four (I think) service level reviews before they fired me. That might sound like I was a rubbish judge but in the weeks I was put into review it was usually just down to luck as far as I could tell, some weeks the answers just seem to go against you, and I often felt that I was going to fail in weeks where I had no failed metrics at all...but because I had a lot more audits in those weeks my good answers would outweigh the bad ones.

So...I was hoping to continue until xmas, but oh well. It was money while it lasted. And I was going a bit crazy at the end due to the tediousness of it all...it does make you feel a bit crap when they can just send you an impersonal email firing you on the spot after almost two years of hard work.

MallRat

arthur22 wrote: »

Haven't posted here before but I just got fired from Appen after almost two years as a web search evaluator - wish I'd found this thread before! Would have been nice to have some colleagues to talk to.

I think on the whole the Appen experience has more positives than negatives, but the negs can really get you down. The toolbar crashes numerous times, they obviously see you just as a number not a person (worst example of this was when my PC got an awful virus - response was that I should get antivirus software, which of course I already had, and that if it happened again I would need to find another PC as I wouldn't be allowed time off to fix it!) and the times when you get hour after hour of one-query sets to judge that take AGES.

I went through four (I think) service level reviews before they fired me. That might sound like I was a rubbish judge but in the weeks I was put into review it was usually just down to luck as far as I could tell, some weeks the answers just seem to go against you, and I often felt that I was going to fail in weeks where I had no failed metrics at all...but because I had a lot more audits in those weeks my good answers would outweigh the bad ones.

So...I was hoping to continue until xmas, but oh well. It was money while it lasted. And I was going a bit crazy at the end due to the tediousness of it all...it does make you feel a bit crap when they can just send you an impersonal email firing you on the spot after almost two years of hard work.

Sorry to hear that. Are you in the UK? I noticed one other person missed the metrics this week, but they weren't someone who was working for the company in May/June last year when I started. Or are you another one who's been fired for no specific reason? Just a little confused, as the names on "the list" don't seem to match up with what people are saying on this thread recently. Could it be possible there are more of us than we think, ie. different "groups" of workers or something, and we only see the details of the group that we're actually in?

No idea what I did last week to miss 4 metrics, anyway. No real problems during the week (actually, it seemed easier than usual), and also felt I got a bigger percentage of the RTA's correct compared to the previous week. Have tried to seek clarification on a possible problem area on the official forum, but am not even sure if that's going to make enough of a difference to my stats to stop me ending up in this position of missing metrics practically every week..

Anyway, think this is now my fourth time being removed in a less than a year, so am assuming this is going to be my final chance to take the re-qualification.

How anyone could manage to remain in this job for over a year is pretty much a mystery to me, really. It is just TOO hard.

arthur22

From reading this thread and from what ABH have said there are at least two different groups - I think some people here are on Freshness News and I wasn't on that group. As you say there could be lots of us though and we just see details for a dozen or so workers in the quality report.

Best of luck with your test - it might not be your final chance, it might be more about how close your reviews are together, my last two were very close together because of all the stupid one-query sets which slowed me down to a crawl. But of course we're expected to do the one-query sets at exactly the same speed as the 10-query sets. Madness.

Maktina

Web5 is the larger group afaik. Freshness is slightly more selective (FAR fewer judges)

On my last SLR I calculated that I couldn't afford to get any more 'Good' ratings wrong, but could afford to get more fair and excellent ratings wrong - so for the final 3 pages I just rated them as good regardless, knowing it was probably the wrong score, but in the knowledge it was the only way to guarantee to still have a chance - completely perverse.

I guess I'm not the only one who calculates the OffBy as I'm judging.

Catwoman1975

arthur22 wrote: »

So...I was hoping to continue until xmas, but oh well. It was money while it lasted. And I was going a bit crazy at the end due to the tediousness of it all...it does make you feel a bit crap when they can just send you an impersonal email firing you on the spot after almost two years of hard work.

I managed 14 months and feel the same. One min you have regular work and the next you are fired, no warning and no reference! Well done for lasting 2 years. That is the longest I have heard of. Think most people are lucky to last a year.

271906

I wish they actually valued the people who work for them.

Surely it'd be far easier to try and hold onto people who have demonstrated their ability to do the job through the initial assessment and months of work on the live data.

Instead it seems they'd rather sack you and constantly be training up new people, for the same fate only to be repeated.

The metrics are completely unfair - As Arthur says, they're basically about luck. I believe my 'service level' to be consistent from week to week, the metrics though change based on the luck of the draw.

Working each day knowing you could quite easily in the best case scenario lose a week or more of wages for a SLR, or worse still be fired on the spot, actually has a very negative impact.

Rant over.

MallRat

Maktina wrote: »

Web5 is the larger group afaik. Freshness is slightly more selective (FAR fewer judges)

arthur22 wrote: »

From reading this thread and from what ABH have said there are at least two different groups - I think some people here are on Freshness News and I wasn't on that group.

Ahhh.. Didn't think of that. Don't personally know anything about the other project, or how they recruit people for it. The only roles that have really been talked about on this forum are FN and Crowdsourcing.

arthur22 wrote: »

Best of luck with your test - it might not be your final chance, it might be more about how close your reviews are together, my last two were very close together because of all the stupid one-query sets which slowed me down to a crawl.

Thanks.

Maktina

I wonder which project offers the best long term prospects for a judge - FN or Web5? Seems like Web5 judges are more likely to be let go (less training, more judges). And I've heard there is a mysterious 3rd project for other markets.

Clearly it's not all doom and gloom, as some of the Appen staff were former judges themselves...

ALIBOBSY

I recently got in crowdsourcing for ABH, and am having one issue. Basically certain types of the work require sound, and despite following their instructions, having the correct browser and add ons I cannot get the sound to work on these. The sound works on various other sites without issue.

Has anyone else had issues with ABH relating to sound?

Thanks
Ali x

ANGELFLOWER

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I recently got in crowdsourcing for ABH, and am having one issue. Basically certain types of the work require sound, and despite following their instructions, having the correct browser and add ons I cannot get the sound to work on these. The sound works on various other sites without issue.

Has anyone else had issues with ABH relating to sound?

Thanks
Ali x

Yes, I know what you mean. The sound doesn't work on my PC for these, but does work on my Laptop. Sorry I don't know the reason for it.