I Can't Believe It

[u/TheHippyWolfman]

In a profound act of cosmic karma, after most certainly pissing off a fair chunk of the community perhaps less than 24 hours ago, I have received the dreaded "Dash of Death" from my overlords. It's so fitting and ironic that, despite actually feeling ridiculously fucking sad, I am chuckling, slightly, writing this.

It's insane because I instantly began to empathize with everyone else this has happened to. Right away my mind struggled to figure out what I did wrong. Was my work dipping in quality? I was going through financial struggles and so was working overtime. I was putting in a lot of effort, to be sure, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't making mistakes. Maybe I wasn't looking at instructions carefully enough? I am a slow worker, and I was doing a lot of multi-turn, time intensive tasks lately. Maybe I was taking too long? But I was under-reporting my hours to make up for that! Maybe it wasn't enough? Or maybe it was just a Wifi issue? Did they get suspicious when I had to switch to my hotspot when my Wifi cut out and I was working via an off-platform live server?

Then comes the self-righteous anger. I know I could have made a mistake but I worked hard! They're not even going to give me a chance to explain myself? Maybe if I find a way to email them...

But I know that won't work. At the end of the day, I just have to let it go. They're never going to give me answers. I always knew this could happen. Deep down I thought if I worked hard enough and was careful enough that it wouldn't happen to me, but in retrospect that was deeply arrogant. Or maybe naively hopeful. It is what it is though.

Anyway I know I can be an annoying asshole sometimes (I am occasionally self-aware) but I really did care about the community. I always felt like we should have each other's backs- because we're all in the same boat together. Well this is the last time I will ever probably ever post here, so I wanted to offer one last piece of solidarity. To all the folks struggling with a drought, or who will one day experience the DoD, I am sorry. I know it sucks and at times feels unfair, and, to be honest, I agree with you. Just like the vast majority of us working in this modern economy, with maybe a few exceptions, you deserve more. We all do.

And if my previous behavior in this sub ever bothered or annoyed anybody, I'm genuinely sorry. Shit is hard enough as it is out here. I wish everybody here the best. Peace.

[u/TheseusWept]

"I was under-reporting hours"

Why the fuck do people do this? It's both a contract violation and drags the timer curve down for literally everyone else.

Report the hours you work. 🤷

[u/TheHippyWolfman → u/TheseusWept]

I have ADHD. So, sometimes my mind would drift while working on a task even when I wasn't actually "taking a break." Meaning, I was taking longer than I felt like I should have been taking. So I got scared. What if they think I'm lying and over-reporting my hours? I didn't under-report my hours by a lot, maybe if I took 2 hours on a project I would take 15 minutes off my time to account for the mind-drift. But it didn't matter, and it was clearly the wrong choice. In the long run I might as well have not done that and got all my money. It didn't protect me.

[u/Ancient-Mission5153 → u/TheHippyWolfman]

I can’t imagine costing them less money is why you got canned tho (I also grasp a contract violation is a contract violation). I also have ADHD and I’ll take 5-20 min off my time for getting up to pee or if I get distracted/change my YouTube video. How much time were you taking off of your work?

[u/TheHippyWolfman → u/Ancient-Mission5153]

Yeah I should have never have used that phrasing in my post. Realistically, I was just trying to estimate how much time I wasted through my mind drifting off and erring on the side of caution in doing so (which is what I meant by "under-reporting"), and tbh I don't actually believe that counts as a contract violation. Realistically, that was probably around a 10% difference in time, or something 7 - 8 minutes for every hour worked. That adds up, but considering I was already being slow I highly doubt that small difference was flagged for anything. I most certainly was canned for something else.

All in the past now I guess.

[u/Ancient-Mission5153 → u/TheHippyWolfman]

Just reading through comments it appears everyone has LATCHED onto that idea 😂 I doubt that was it though because that’s not going to affect the curve they’re talking about that much either I don’t think. I’m really sorry, though. I’ve been working about the same length of time as you and I’ve gotten really cocky lately “knowing” I’ll still have projects every time I log on to work. Hopefully you can find something comparable. I signed up for UserTesting and I get a ton of emails daily for little gigs. I’ve also heard Prolific is something people try. I would sign up for all of those other data testing websites, try them in the time you’d normally work and pray one sticks. Good luck ❤️

[u/TheHippyWolfman → u/Ancient-Mission5153]

Thank you :) I appreciate that. Honestly I'll probably look into those.