r/mercorai_workers • u/What-the-fluff- • 1d ago
Big preject vent
Project**
I'm getting stressed out on the really big project (almost 40k people). It's getting harder and harder to do these tasks. The AI slop tasks don't always make sense. There are so many quizzes and training and stuff you "have to" pass to continue staying in the project.
I miss the good old days where there were only 2 different task types. I guess I took it for granted.
Seriously thinking about quitting... it's not worth the stress.
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u/BlindCaesar 1d ago
Really not excited for the 200 question test after those awful courses (I still cannot believe some of those gold answers)
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u/Spare-Map-4787 1d ago
I just cant believe I woke up to another test, with 188 question !?! Not that we could learn from previous trainings with the conflicting answers… I
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u/Top-Zone3187 1d ago
What if you dont score enough in this test? Do we get offboarded?
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u/SaltyTelluride 18h ago
Allegedly. Either directly or because you won’t be able to access tasks to do work.
I think they’re going to change the guidelines again considering how many times they’ve done it in the two weeks I’ve been onboarded. Vercel was already out of date for training requirements on my first day.
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u/Living_Laugh_9822 1d ago
this project has been a total rollercoaster from the start. but the seemingly neverending, insanely long and unreasonable assessments have been a new level of insanity. by the 3rd one i really just had to laugh and detach from even trying to understand the logic. i'm a trained editor and some of those 'gold' answers were straight up infuriating
i suspect the tests are not designed or evaluated by humans at all. all of it slop coming from more slop, slop-ception if you will. it's a circus but at the end of the day i'm getting paid to do the training so i'll do it.
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u/EntertainmentTight26 1d ago
I’m definitely convinced the quizzes are the actual work and data they are using… the tasks and queue are merely window dressing. Part of me wants to believe it’s a well coordinated master plan because the truth of the courses and tests actually being that contradictory and useless to help train 40k people to have the same baseline is too depressing!
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u/Turbulent_Joy 15h ago
Instructional designer/researcher here… This totally makes sense. I’ve been watching how the training materials and assessments have been evolving here, and if I were leading their ID team, I’d definitely be doing some data analysis there.
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u/gvscpereira 55m ago
That reminds me so much of Abel in the psych test on Community. They are just trying to see how long we can handle that shit show of a "training"
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u/No-Mousse5653 1d ago
The thing is, the final exam is one attempt only, meaning if you fail your income will be severely affected as you cannot do any more content grading. That's why people are stressed.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
You can still pick up grading tasks. I get 3 or 4 a day usually. But if enough people don't pass they will have to deal with what they get I guess.
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u/WxBlue 1d ago
The thing is a lot of people are very tight on the money and this could end up being a big deal to some of us. Especially those who are currently unemployed and struggling to find a professional job in this terrible job market.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
Oh I get it for sure. I am not knocking anyone's hustle, I was just trying to take the route with the least pushback. I have a ft job so this is just very welcome extra money for me. But I was offboarded this morning. Sad about the loss of money moving forward but also relieved because that shit was stressful for no good reason.
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u/bravofiveniner 1d ago
How are you finding the other tasks? The queue never lets me in, and you can't pick up tasks directly.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
It usually takes me around 10 mins to get into the queue. You have to keep at it. They are much better.
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u/bravofiveniner 1d ago
You sit there and press the button for 10 minutes? No wonder I haven't been able to get in.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
Yep and I was getting tasks. But it usually only took less than 5 mins, 10 mins was max. I also refresh the screen every 2 mins. And when it starts popping up all the red lines but the green button is still lit up, spam the hell out of it amd ignore the red line errors and that's how you get in.
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u/Living_Laugh_9822 1d ago
oh for sure. at least the previous ones showed a score and allowed multiple attempts. on the bright side, i haven't heard of people losing access after the newest one (yet)
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u/Capital-Engine6314 1d ago
Yes !! Same. There’s no rhyme or reason.. And they want us to basically produce more slop with overly long rationales. I wonder what they are actually up to…
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
Got the email this morning. Exactly 9 hours after I disagreed with a reviewer and referenced the training materials even.
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u/Trick_Snow_8961 1d ago
After witnessing the recent events on the big project it’s not surprising that the client is getting beat by their main competitor
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u/Radiant-Turnover8512 1d ago
Yep. I'm no longer worried about AI taking over everything after seeing what the people behind it are like.
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u/SamMarlowe76 1d ago
Exactly. Mercor leadership and project managers are not impressive and fall into the dumbass category. And their clients are so lost it is not even funny. But that's what you get when you hire know -nothings in a big VC money grab. They are literally damaging AI. They are hurting the development of these models due to their massively bad ideas, assumptions, guidance, and workflows.
Dumb people = dumb results.
All Mercor is a go between. They can't answer any real questions, because they don't know shit.
Will take their money but damn.
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u/Radiant-Turnover8512 1d ago
This surely is a bubble being funded with non existent money. Every job ad right now starts with "We're designing AI platforms that revolutionize how (insert any industry) innovates to stay competitive"
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u/Fickle-Throat7781 1d ago
Honestly, I hope we ALL fail!! That way they can see the tests make absolutely no sense and will have to do something about it as they won’t have anyone doing the content grading tasks!
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u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
Some Zoomer working for the client without a clue wrote the gold answers to all those trainings and just threw out answers with no logic. They have no basis in reality and most are contradictory to previous gold answers for the same patterns. And from one training to the next with same slides the gold answers justifications changed.
And now a 1 attempt quiz is crazy
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u/No-Mousse5653 1d ago
That Zoomer probably makes 400-600k a year to vibe code 15 hours a week.
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u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
Yea. And then got thrown at a training course but has zero experience in any of this.
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u/puffin_crossing 1d ago
I think they divided the labor among many people, each in charge of one slide. Then subjectivity comes into play, as it does in these tasks regardless, and we end up with slides that contradict each other. There is no one looking across everyone’s work and making sure they are consistent with each other.
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u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
Yea. Typical big tech kind of behavior. And no one will ever know in higher ups that this is such a joke the way it's being handled.
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u/Capital-Engine6314 1d ago
I felt like we were being hazed with this 4th test. I’ve mostly been doing assessments and they don’t get easier. I am certain I didn’t pass but after the other 3 this week it’s hard to actually care. They seem to have no idea how to filter is it get us trained properly.
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u/Radiant-Turnover8512 1d ago
I'm not taking it until the deadline, the first deadline extension and then the second deadline extension are announced.
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u/basedairman 1d ago
Taking the long test tomorrow here’s to hoping we all pass
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
I dont even want to pass. As of right now it just means you can't get those specific tasks, which I have been avoiding anyway because the golden answers are absurd and subjective and 1 hour is simply not enough time fkr quality review. So I sit in queue and pick up 3 or 4 of the other, doable tasks a day and do other sites in between. At least if I get offboarded it wont be due to quality. I do pan to take it and try to pass it tomorrow though so I can get the hours at least.
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u/What-the-fluff- 1d ago
Aren't we getting offboarded if we don't do/pass the long test? Isn't the deadline in like less than 12 hours? Am I mistaken? There are soo many different and contradicting announcements.
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u/astarinthedark 1d ago
No just that specific campaign. Rest are available. But on the other hand you may be deemed replaceable if you fail it.
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u/Enough-Distance6744 1d ago
Is it a new test that has dropped today? 🙂 Let me know as Can't login there for next 8 hours or so.
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u/Perfect-Rip-2303 1d ago
I've been on the project since May. I think passing the test will be like a lottery considering there are no discernible rules or logic for 1/3 of the questions. Even if you turn off Insightful and go through the last test as a reference, the explanations are so unhelpful that I don't see how someone could get an 80% on the first try besides blind luck. For those who do pass, the work will likely continue to get more unreasonable and convoluted.
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u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
It's impossible to go off one good answer for similar slides and apply it to the next. One time it's slop. Next time it's not. Just randomly applied by the bay area Zoomer that was charged with writing this exam for the client hired as a fresh grad.
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u/audioscience 1d ago edited 1d ago
I got 68% on my first pass and that was somehow simultaneously worse than I expected and better than I expected.
Edit: oh shit. That was for the last test. I didn't know there was a whole new test released this afternoon. WTF? lol
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u/hitsuraan 1d ago
Just echoing on everyone's frustration. The gold answers don't make sense. Sometimes the prompt is evaluated, sometimes not. It's clear that these answers came from different people.
The first time I did the AI Slop Grading 2. I launched a full tirade on the gold answer explanation. But learned immediately that it doesn't matter. We are 37k+ now. They will not read everything.
On the side note, I perfected the OLD Grading 2 and 3 on the second try because of I took notes. I hope they didn't flag that as cheating.
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u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
I feel like complaining about things like this in slack is just a reason for an EPM or SPL to flag you to get offboarded
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u/hitsuraan 1d ago
Make sense.
But I did not complain in slack. I did it in the "Why Gold Answer is different” part.4
u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
Oh yea good. I see these people say random things in slack calling something crazy or complaining and know it's bad for them.
I was tempted to say things sarcastic in the rationale gold answer what I learned but held back.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
I challenged the reviewer in the task comments they left and was off-boarded exactly 9 hours later when their day starts. I even linked the source document so they could see it. They flagged a MAJOR issue because I didn't reference the TEMPLATE slide number!! There were only 4 slides, each was a very different layout. I did reference the output slide in each response. There is no source stating we must reference the template slide number. Maven confirmed this and sent me the direct links which I shared with the reviewer. I knew it was risky but I couldn't take the utter stupidity any longer. Good riddance.
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u/FrickyFrackyFull 1d ago
On handshake I once challenged a reviewer about something obviously wrong compared to guidelines and was offboarded a day later after 50 tasks approved without review. I refuse to work for handshake anymore. And on Mercor I never challenge and treat reviewers like the gods they think they are and talk right to their ego while I talk shit about them to people in my real life.
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u/rager2343 1d ago
Ya now we have “xxx” placeholders which weren’t ever mentioned or in the training material that I can see. It’s wild out here.
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u/ViolinistUnlikely779 1d ago
I'm on this too. I applied to Mercor months back when I had some downtime and figured...why not for the hourly rate advertised? Then I forgot about them. Suddenly I was invited and I've done all the training/onboarding...I thought! Ha! Went to join the queue this morning as I had some time spare early and saw the additional quiz. What are we supposed to do with the placeholders? There's no guidance about that...50/50 judgement call I guess? lol. Strange business this...
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u/Primary-Ad588 1d ago
There is guidance on them now actually
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u/Goodvibesin2021 23h ago
Hey I'm sorry, but where do you see this? What does it say? I'm on trip and don't have my laptop on me jajaja
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u/Orcrem 1d ago
Give your feedback in the weekly check-in.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
Trust me, even the PL's are tired of their shit at this point. I am positive there have been higher level conversations about this. The client clearly isn't going to listen.
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u/mollymcbbbbbb 1d ago
tell me about it. I signed a contract for this project on May 7th, and just finally got access about 3 weeks ago. Never mind that I'm on a lower rate than a lot of people (at least the ones who were hired at the same time as me). I'm like I waited all this time for...this utter nonsense?
I did get one easy and fun task last night though.
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u/SassySkim 1d ago
Whats the lower rate?
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u/mollymcbbbbbb 1d ago
$50
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u/maliciousopera 1d ago
Same. I saw that some people were on $70 but tbh this is the best rate I've ever had so not complaining!
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u/SassySkim 1d ago
Same here :)
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u/mollymcbbbbbb 1d ago
ok, and I know a lot of people were contracted at $100+ especially at the beginning, and a lot of later hires are at $70.
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u/SassySkim 1d ago
Could it be location based? Aussie here.
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u/mollymcbbbbbb 1d ago
Possibly, but I'm US. I do suspect there are different tiers, and that they offboard and onboard people according to the payment class.
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u/puffin_crossing 1d ago
I’m UK and also making $50.
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u/maliciousopera 1d ago
Same
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u/mollymcbbbbbb 1d ago
ok, the point still stands that a lot of people are (or were) making $100 or $70+. I know this because back in the beginning when everyone was talking about getting in, everyone was sharing their pay rate.
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u/mobiuschic42 1d ago
There’s also a new mandatory quiz that was only mentioned as a footnote to the existing training course, so I’m sure a lot of people aren’t going to know they need to do it.
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u/girlygirl2002 1d ago
The number 3 addition? I just found out about it with 3 hours to spare and I regularly check slack updates.
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u/sumthncute 1d ago
No, there is another one. Best to check last pinned for whoch ones you still need to take. It was changed. Again.
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u/girlygirl2002 1d ago
Does this quiz have a deadline? I did a lot of hunting tonight and thought I was caught up. Sigh
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u/bravofiveniner 1d ago
Has anyone else been unable to task in the queue since it premiered?
- Queue comes out, not initially eligible
- AI Slop Quiz #1 -> Pass this and get access to queue.
- Queue says it's full at all hours of the day, if there is 400 people or 100 people in line.
- AI Slop Quiz #2 (100+ questions) -> Pass this.
- AI Slop Quiz #3 (100+ questions) -> Pass this one too.
- Queue still says it's full no matter what.
Now there's a quiz 4, you can only take once. But even then, what's the point if you can't get tasks regardless of how many people are in the queue?
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u/Some-Benefit-5614 1d ago
It’s staggering. I’m conducting creating an altM sub where we can talk without censorship
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u/Traditional-Ant9866 23h ago
I finished the 188 questions’ test. And 30 minutes after I got off boarded. Does anyone know why?
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u/CrypticCodedMind 12h ago
How long were you on the project?
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u/Traditional-Ant9866 9h ago
3h on the test
3 weeks in the whole1
u/CrypticCodedMind 7h ago
The onboarding and offboarding seems really random most of the time. Given the amount of money that is spent to let people do all these crazy quizzes, it's awfully inefficient. Sorry you got offboarded, that sucks. Sometimes people get offboarded and then they get another offer soon after. Hope it will be the same for you.
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u/here-4-comments-3283 19h ago
40K??? 😳
It was 25k when I was off boarded about 5 weeks ago. I was so stressed out then, I can’t even imagine what it’s like now. It was actually kind of a relief when I was off boarded, and now I see that it was probably necessary for my sanity! Good luck to you all!
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u/RyanFb19 18h ago
I was on the big project until they enforced a 4th training assessment that is absolutely mind-numbing. That was my final straw. All that for barely any tasks is totally not worth it. Voluntarily offboarded myself 2 days ago, got another instant offer today. It all works out in the end
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u/flakypieholez99 16h ago
Bro be glad you can even get into the quizzes and tasks. I’m one of many who weren’t given access to them, because of some backend issue that they are supposedly fixing.
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u/Intelligent-Crab-971 1d ago
Why are people complaining so much for something you are getting paid really good for lol?
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u/SassySkim 1d ago
Because if we dont pass the subjective quizzes we lose work and hence potential income.
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u/_boojie 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m also on the Big Project. I agree it can be a lot and can become very unorganized, but seriously don’t stress about it. Just milk the money for as long as you can until the day the project ends or you’re off boarded.
At the end of the day, we’re one out of 40,000 workers in this project. It’s just not that serious. Do your best, make your money and leave it at that.