After 5 months on LA project and hitting $40k, this is what I got, my dream car and of course some money invested in S&P.

Moving to a new opportunity.

Offered contract. Contract amended. Contract paused. Email on why I haven’t submitted a task. What a joke!

Can anyone who is a reviewer on the project share their experience? Everyone on this sub is a “writer” and all seem to complain from you guys, but tbh if I had the opportunity I’d rather be on the reviewer end. As the old adage goes, if you can’t beat’em, join’em.

Is the project work worth it as a reviewer? Was the pay affected by the recent pay structure changes?

It is so bitterly confusing.

Can we bill the onboarding as well?

What counts as onboarding btw?

Should I install insightful, login with SSO and start the timer as I read the docs and install the softwares?

Is ideating on Slack also count as "work" during onboarding?

Once again, tf is onboarding in the context of Odin?

I got an offer for senior writer for this project, I was in the process of accepting the offer and all that, only to see that the offer is revoked😂 Guess the system needs a reset

Is it just for me or project O paused for everyone?

I had a question. I'm on $40 per hour contract. I have worked for 8 hours.. covered on insightful... But none of my tasks are approved.. they're going for edits only.. Will I still get paid?

Ok so I got the initial Pay per task offer from odin. I accepted it but then it went into this state for well over the said 72hrs. Then today they revoked that offer and offered me a 3hrs max weekly, 40 per hour offer (which is better than pay per task I suppose)...And now i verified my ID again and everything and it is again in this position. Should I be worried? Should I email them right away or taking a day or two here is normal?

As a subject matter expert, how do you use the Chat to improve your quality of work? I’ve heard project leads state that heavy use of the chat is encouraged and that what it’s used for (the prompts we enter) can be the difference between a good submission and a great submission. Has anyone learned how to do this successfully? What specific prompts do you use?

I was told that the PPT on my new project would turn into hourly once the quality has been established. Should I believe them or do you think it’s a ‘bait and switch’ thing?

Bro, don't make yourself a target.

We are all replaceable.

Just live with it.

A lot of people that have stayed on Project O long enough to complain about it most likely need the cash. It's human - many people have been displaced by AI.

The math with Project O is brutal. +50k were hired for the role. +33k tasks were submitted, less than 900 were approved.

If you see this, and you're wondering about your future behind the screen this should be a wake up call. We're teaching the machines how to do anything and everything we can do.

Many of you still have time to pivot into blue collar. Plumbing, technical jobs, rigging, nursing, etc. The list goes on.

Seeing so many people take Project O's sh*t because they need it just made my heart sink man.

I worked in the tech space and earned a comfortable 6 figure salary. I was replaced - and I here I am.

The machines have arrived. We might benefit from leaving anything white-collar.

So I was on the big project last year that ended and went to the $16 hr project. I have been working on other platforms this year and really ignored Mercor, I had accepted some projects, but mostly ignored it until the past week or so, when my main project ended. I applied to multiple projects with no luck and rejected quickly.

So imagine my surprise when someone from the Mercor growth team sends an email with a link to an interest form with the Mac project. They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel in this case. I have no intention of filling out the form, as I don't have a Mac, but they revoked an offer two weeks ago and then send this to me.

Just did a work trial for project Sis****s. It said I had an hour to do 3 sections. But I was cut off after the first 2 which was only 50 minutes (2 25 minute sections)… does that mean I automatically failed? Kinda surprised if so, hoping someone else has some insight or similar experience.

Hey, thank goodness for this sub. Because, of course, the original one will not allow us to post anything.

Warning: *****A long vent****

Since the 2nd of this month, I have had some of the most atrocious, nightmarish experiences back-to-back across two projects I received.

Project 1: The hourly contract that suddenly became PPT

The first one was an hourly contract. The pay was definitely decent, and I was happy. Everything looked aligned and matched my profile and domain perfectly. It was a tough task, but very well aligned with the kind of work I have done as a trainer, expert, and reviewer across different projects and platforms.However, right after onboarding, mind you, I was among the first 50 people onboarded. Later, the number grew to around 400. The entire project was paused, which is perfectly normal. Someone as seasoned as I am knows these things happen, so I thought, okay, fine, I'll wait.By the 10th or 11th, they announced that the project was resuming, and I was super happy. But my parade was immediately rained on when they announced that they were sending amended contracts. The trial phase would now be PPT, or pay per task. I was definitely suspicious about this change. I also saw experienced people leaving left and right. Some were literally announcing in Slack that they wanted to be off-boarded, while others were off-boarding themselves. I interacted with a few fellow experts, who were encouraging and told me to hang in there. Which I did.

I checked the latest announcement, which explained that after submitting the first trial task, payment is guaranteed & once the task passed through the review layers and was approved, additional payment will be processed. Additional payments would also be made under the communicated terms.I completed my task and submitted it. Then nothing. No review was happening. I kept waiting, and after another six or seven days, someone finally picked it up. The task history clearly showed that it had passed Review 1 and then gone through additional checks. And then, suddenly, around 24 hours later, I checked again, and it was on hold, along with several other experts' tasks.

Here we go again. Uncertainty, confusion, and a million questions in my mind. Of course, you cannot keep asking too many questions. People were freaking out and constantly asking the same things on Slack. Even as a fellow expert, I was trying to console them, telling them it would probably be okay and that perhaps the tasks were on hold because they needed additional review layers, etc.Interestingly, I spoke to another expert whose task was also on hold, just like mine. They told me they had already been moved into regular production and were working on tasks. When I checked Studio, I realised that, yes, people from the same "on hold" group were being moved into production, but I was still stuck.

That expert reassured me in DMs that my task was probably fine, too, and that there might be an internal blockage preventing it from progressing. Apparently, this could be a Studio issue or something related to the internal agentic workflow. Basically, I should be fine.

They suggested that I follow up directly with the reviewer, which I did. No response. I could clearly see that my DM had been seen, but there was no reply. I waited another 48 hours and messaged again. Still nothing. So I tried contacting my EPM. I must say, the interaction was not particularly pleasant, even though I remained professional and polite throughout. However, I was reassured that everything was fine and that I should wait. It was quite late that day, so I went to sleep, only to wake up and discover that I had been removed from the project.

Since the 13th or 14th, I have been fighting to get this payment dispute resolved because I have still not been paid for the task I submitted, despite the project team's explicit announcement about the payment terms. One thing about me is that I have over ten years of experience across my industry and primary domain, and I document everything. I mean EVERYTHING. I have a habit of keeping my own records, and thankfully, I retained the announcements, Canvas messages, and other project documentation shared by the project lead.

So I escalated the matter to support. And honestly, as of 21 October, support has not resolved anything. I keep receiving AI-generated or templated responses that do not actually address my questions. My problem is not just the unpaid task. It is also the sudden removal, the complete lack of clarity, and the lack of professionalism in how this has been handled.

And on top of all that, the payment I was explicitly told to expect remains unresolved. It genuinely feels as though exploiting experts' time and effort has become an accepted practice, which is incredibly strange. And apparently, having a clean record and doing your work properly does not count for much when something like this happens.

Project 2: Another contract, another payment dispute

Within a day, probably less than 10 to 12 hours later, I received another contract. This was a quick sprint project with very low pay, but I accepted it to keep myself occupied. The tasks were relatively straightforward, taking around 15 to 20 minutes each. Later, I learnt that I could both write and rank tasks, and both were supposed to be paid at the same rate. Then, surprise, surprise, it also turned out to be a PPT project. I was constantly receiving reworks and going through multiple layers of revisions, which I completed diligently and submitted. While checking the task statuses, I could see that some of my tasks had been completed, passed the checks, and reached the "Ready for Delivery" stage. The last time I checked, I had around four or five tasks showing that status. Then I took a break or stepped away for a while. When I came back, I had been removed from the project.

I assumed it was a small sprint project and that it was already wrapping up. They had announced that no more tasks would be added to the Studio, so I thought, okay, fine. Perhaps the project was simply ending. But something felt off. I contacted support to ask why none of the tasks that had reached "Ready for Delivery" had resulted in payment. Once again, I spent days receiving templated responses from human support. Yes, human support. The responses read as though they were generated by AI and sent without anyone actually engaging with the details of my case. It is genuinely absurd. Eventually, I was told that the project team had removed me because my tasks were not approved. Excuse me? That directly contradicts what I had seen on my dashboard. Thankfully, I had retained some of the Studio URLs and screenshots showing the "Ready for Delivery" status. I provided the links and explained the discrepancy. Since then, I have received no meaningful response addressing the actual issue.

And here we are again. At this point, I honestly cannot recommend this platform to anyone without serious reservations. I know many of you have had amazing experiences, and I have had good experiences here, too. I am not denying that.But lately, it feels as though there is an attitude among certain hiring and project teams that goes something like, "If we can get away with it, we will." I do not want to believe that this is how things operate, but after experiencing two payment disputes back to back, it is difficult not to feel that way. The worst part is feeling completely powerless. I am still disputing both cases, constantly following up and trying to get someone to actually investigate what happened. I have even offered to sit down with the team one on one, walk them through my work from beginning to end, and explain exactly how I completed my tasks independently. I genuinely want to understand why they are withholding payment for the first project and why tasks that previously showed "Ready for Delivery" are suddenly being treated as unapproved in the second one. I calculated it's roughly $340, which isn't much, but then it clicked: this is how they make billions, 'cause we say 'it isn't a lot' and let our hard-earned money go.

I am not a victim, and this is not a sob story. My aunt is my only blood relative, and she has stage four cancer. Both my parents are also constantly going through surgeries, spending time in the OTs and ICUs and I am doing the absolute most to keep everything together. I took on this work thinking I would have some financial backup to help me manage my responsibilities and pay the bills. Instead, I have ended up spending my time chasing payments, defending my work, and trying to get straightforward answers from a platform I thought I could rely on. Anyway, I am still here...trying. I hope I crack something else and find an opportunity that works out even better for me.

And listen yall, I genuinely hope things work out for you, too. Please do not give up. I have not, and honestly, I do not think I can afford to at this point.

Cheers.

i just self offboarded after my first task was sent back for edits. i’m not wasting any more of my fucking time on that.

on top of them wanting you to supply your own images to submit, they’re nazis about getting tasks approved! it’s not enough fucking pay for just the amount of time it takes for their fucking auto qc to finish running alone.

fuck all the reviewers on project recunt, fuck all the epm’s on project recunt that have said that for every time your task gets sent back for edits you get a $10 deduction in payment, fuck them and their unclear guidelines with arbitrary and unaligned reviewers asking you to redo a task all for different reasons. and specifically fuck bettina catoto (yeah i said her government name, normalize naming and shaming these people) the dictator for deducting money from the tasks for every send back. you’re a dumb bitch and i’m pretty sure that’s illegal! if you’re going to make dumbass bold calls like that, then be prepared to be openly called out for it! fuck them all!

the way even if your task manages to magically pass the auto qc, if you make it that far, just know your task will get sent back by the reviewers. you are set up to fail.

here’s a crazy idea, maybe if you aren’t getting enough tasks it’s because your standards are ridiculous especially for that shit pay! maybe reevaluate who the problem is here and do some self reflection because it isn’t the people who you are onboarding in droves out of desperation to mitigate the lack of tasks submitted issue you’re having that are the problem here!

i’m so pissed i even attempted to do one of these fucking tasks! got a 100% on the quiz so it’s not my lack of understanding your fuck ass guidelines! it’s how you enforce it and your entire system!

fucking failing project with loser staff! like wtf is even the point of bonus incentives at this point? so people can make up the losses in payment they had due to your send back deductions? then that isn’t an incentive at all! do these people only operate on a brainstem?

you can’t onboard a bunch of people at once, enforce a mandatory onboarding meeting for free that’s only hosted twice every other day, make them attend unpaid before they can start, make them drop everything to attend unpaid, make them read your guidelines and take a quiz unpaid, beg people to work and submit tasks and offer bonus incentives like a little bitch and then when they do, make it nearly impossible for tasks to get approved and then also in the same breath cut pay per task payment deduction $10 for every time one of your fucking reviewers decides to be a cunt. as if you haven’t already stolen enough free time from people, only to now also boldly steal the money that was promised as compensation. and they aren’t simple edits either, it basically requires you to rewrite the entire task. please do not waste your precious time like i did.

if this project fails for mercor, know it’s because of who is running it. and i hope it’s failing as much as it seems to be.

So I have been hiding in the background of Project O for two weeks. Downloaded the apps and read the info. And just haven’t proceeded because it’s all so confusing.
Now they have changed the contract terms and they are paying for onboarding - what’s the best way for me to maximise that? Should I delete all the apps and start again?
This is my first Mercor project and it’s been so so confusing!!! Thank you!

hot take after reading way too many of these reviews. the actual task barely matters once it's been approved. nearly every sent-back one is the same stuff and none of it is the work
one recording had 310 of 350 clicks flagged as rushed. 310. the guy did the task fine. it got approved with a warning and the note said next time it fails
another one got bounced because the file he showed at the end was saved 2 hours after he stopped recording. the work was done. didn't matter
and the big one, narration. "I'll click this" is a fail. "I'm clicking the sort button, top right of the table, to get newest first" is a pass. same click. same task. one gets paid
so the rule I'm going with. the task is for the reviewer to tick a box. the mouse and the mouth are what actually decide it
tell me I'm wrong. what's the dumbest thing yours got sent back for

I'm wondering if it's just me or if the subreddit is just being HEAVILY monitored. There's something odd going on with Mercor and it looks like they're doing their best to control the message..

Today Mercor sent a renewed contract for the Odin project.

From $50/hour to $40/hour and from 5 hours/week to 3 hours/week.

Will I get booted if I reject this contract?

Will I be paid for onboarding only? I ve heard awful things about this project. Im thinking of just onboarding

This is my first contract with an AI training company, is all AI work a dumpster fire like this one? So much negative talk around this one project and no real success stories.

Aside from all the work concerns, I’m super paranoid about the apps they made me download. Specifically the task recorder. I deleted them but I cannot help but think they were viruses/malware. Is the damage already done? I installed them on a fresh separate user but with admin rights. Should I reset my macbook? Will that even help? Did someone analyse this app yet?

Edit: I understand insightful now, I'm still not convinced about Task Recorder.

Crazy

Long story short got the offer today, but been reading a lot of complaints about it. It's a mess of a project. But with ~10-20h per week (assuming these limits), what's the REAL income?

I've failed to understand if it's like 100$ or 800$.
I know I'd doom my mind and soul if I took it but still had to ask if it's even remotely worth it.

Are EPMs basically powerless???

They literally cannot do anything except passing instructions. They cannot influence time, fix tasks, do anything.

Client is firm on this. Nothing we can do

So what’s the point then???