Re: work (which I don't usually talk about, for various reasons).
This project was originally requested last Wednesday morning and expected to be finished that afternoon. (A transcript of three hours of testimony in toto.) The person requesting it had thought that the portion of the recording that he needed was well less than the total three hours, but it turned out that the testimony encompassed the entire three hours.
I enjoy transcribing this kind of stuff and am good at it, but it can be extremely time-consuming. (Even under optimal conditions at a professional transcription agency, it can take 6 to 8 hours to transcribe 1 hour of dialogue). And we were essentially expected to transcribe 3 hours of dialogue in 3 hours (by "sometime" in the afternoon).
The manager did not handle this well. She fundamentally doesn't understand the work involved in something like this, and sympathized with the requestor (she rarely if ever supports our department, although you would think that that should figure in her job as manager). Thus all our jobs were declared, by her, (according to the report by our supervisor) in jeopardy. I was horrified.
After all the work we'd accomplished on a project last week up against a totally unrealistic deadline and managed to produce something substantial and fundamentally sound by the tail end of Friday, we were called on the carpet today and told our jobs were in jeopardy, since the person requesting the work had not found it to his liking.Yesterday, among three workers (including the supervisor, who was back from vacation) we spent collectively probably (as a conservative estimate) an extra 20 hours polishing up the project - about as long as, if not longer than, I'd originally conveyed to the requestor that this project would require to be accomplished satisfactorily, about which I was told he expressed outrage and demanded I call him, which I did not do and had the office manager intervene (her job). (I've been in this business for many years and know whereof I speak).
This project was originally requested last Wednesday morning and expected to be finished that afternoon. (A transcript of three hours of testimony in toto.) The person requesting it had thought that the portion of the recording that he needed was well less than the total three hours, but it turned out that the testimony encompassed the entire three hours.
I enjoy transcribing this kind of stuff and am good at it, but it can be extremely time-consuming. (Even under optimal conditions at a professional transcription agency, it can take 6 to 8 hours to transcribe 1 hour of dialogue). And we were essentially expected to transcribe 3 hours of dialogue in 3 hours (by "sometime" in the afternoon).
The manager did not handle this well. She fundamentally doesn't understand the work involved in something like this, and sympathized with the requestor (she rarely if ever supports our department, although you would think that that should figure in her job as manager). Thus all our jobs were declared, by her, (according to the report by our supervisor) in jeopardy. I was horrified.
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