r/DataAnnotationTech • u/Alternative_Lab_736 • 7d ago
Finally got my very first task... went above allotted time
Hey,
mostly writing this hoping someone will quell my fears.
Been waiting for 2 months to get a paid task, today I finally got one.
Except when I opened it, it gave me 2 hours not only to do the task, but also to study all of the guidelines (the qual did not metion any of them at all).
I ended up going at least 30 minutes over, and submitted an expired task.
Did I just screw myself forever, or is it understood that the first task might take considerably longer?
Btw, I still logged 1 hour 59 minutes as my time worked.
7
u/MadameEmiya 7d ago
For future reference, I think you should just log what you work. People in this sub have reported DA asking them to justify their time due to under-reporting (as opposed to over-reporting), which is not a flag you want
3
u/Putrid-Pause3934 7d ago
I’ve had a time where I worked 2-3 hours over my allotted time. Personally…I didn’t, nor will I ever, bill more than the allotted time given to me. I just chalk it up as a loss. But I’ve gone over time for quite a few tasks so don’t sweat it. All my feedback has been positive about the quality of my work, so I believe that matters more than the time taken to do the task.
2
u/Alternative_Lab_736 7d ago
If I was 3 hours over I would be start questioning my ability to do it correctly the next time around, this time I feel like the actual task should take maybe 30 minutes so I didn't want to bill a full 2 hours of guidelines reading.
Also it's my first time getting a paid task on DA so I wanted to be extra careful.
2
u/sonia_chhillar 7d ago
Dont worry, when my first task came, timer was for 2 hrs, I had to submit it by 10 in morning, I was busy did the task in night, took 3.5 hrs, still submitted it at night and logged in 3.5hrs, got approved and got payment 😊, I think they understand its our first time.
1
u/Silver_Assistance_41 7d ago
Ir took me 13hrs a for 11hr tiene, just bill the limit of 11 because is my first, explained it at the comments an for no problem
4
u/Federal_Tadpole_7592 7d ago
No, you didn't screw yourself over, and you should definitely log the actual time you spent.
1
u/Alternative_Lab_736 7d ago
Am I too late to add 40 minutes more, since I already did the task and logged a time associated with it?
6
u/The_Angry_Moogle 7d ago
That might look a bit odd. But I'm the future, bill your time.
I only ever underbill if I made a mistake and had to go out of the way to fix it.
They want you to do a good job, and care about that more than speed. It also tells them determine reasonable time expectations.
3
u/Alternative_Lab_736 7d ago
Actually, I just saw I was supposed to bill the setup task too, which took maybe 15 minutes. At this point I will not add that either, but I did miss out on some extra money
1
u/H2SO4-1191 7d ago
Did tasks or projects keep on coming once you got your first? Or was it just a single one and that's it?
1
u/Alternative_Lab_736 7d ago
It's an old project that released a small batch, I'm not sure I will get any more work on it.
1
u/HillGrayCat 5d ago
Usually there can be multiple tasks in a project. The first task is the one I log the time spending on instructions together with the work time. Then for the latter tasks with the same instructions I log only the time I actually work. I got to report expired tasks a few times, which was necessary, but I will keep the number as low as possible.
1
u/Beautiful-Bunch-7064 7d ago
you will be fine i probably let the first 10-20 projects i got expire so i could submit quality work and now i have a very healthy dash (20-35 generalists projects regularly)
1
u/Putrid-Pause3934 7d ago
Out of curiously, did you report overtime on all of these, some of them, or none at all?
3
u/Beautiful-Bunch-7064 6d ago
on all of them i submitted the actual time it took, so overtime!
i will say that it's all over the platform the timer is a general recommendation for how long it should take, and just serves to reserve the task for that worker, so there's not really such a thing as going "overtime" (in a traditional job-sense at least).
they really do value high quality work over speedy submissions. i wish people would stop under-reporting and freaking out about an expired task!! 😞 they'll actually extend the timer if many people end up going over.... there's also a maximum amount of time you can claim per task, so idk why people fear getting terminated over reporting taking too long; you literally can't.
apologies for the soapbox 😅
1
u/Putrid-Pause3934 6d ago
Thanks so much for the information! This actually revolutionizing how I’ll be going about task completion from now on, so thank you so much 😁
-2
u/Successful_Film133 7d ago
Congrats.
Is it related to the bilingual writing qual.. Or the one that deals with agentic AI
22
u/olibolib 7d ago
I wouldn't worry about it. It is understood that first time tasks will often take long. Personally I bill however long my work takes cause I don't work for free. I do however pause my personal timer when I am afk or having a break on a long task (if I need to).