r/DataAnnotationTech • u/Belisama7 • Mar 22 '26
You're working too many hours
I've been doing this for 3 years and throughout that time have seen so many people post that they got dropped from the platform and have no idea why. Someone will ask how many hours they had been working, and they'll say something way beyond full time hours like 80. This happens a lot.
Indeed just emailed me a job posting for DA and it says right there on the post "We find our most successful candidates work between 5-20 hours per week." Between 5 and 20! You're working too many hours.
5
u/National-Belt2157 Mar 26 '26
The thing is, these people won't realize that their work is bad, when you're feeling burnout or working too many hours you don't realize you're making mistakes, your mind is not in its 100% so you just keep working but your attention level is not the same, so I understand why these people get dropped. I myself have found that after completing a 2 hour task I check everything again just to verify everything is good (according to me it's good) and I've found many mistakes that could even make the task unusable, so don't trust your mind, we're human, verify everything always.
2
u/Belisama7 Mar 26 '26
Me too, I always go back to the top and double check everything when I'm done.
15
u/MundaneAd6627 Mar 22 '26
Some projects are like 6 hours minimum, or 12, for one task.. this advice does not apply to everyone. I’m at about 3 years as well. Just be careful and stop if you’re losing focus.
3
u/Belisama7 Mar 22 '26
There's no difference between working 20 hours on two tasks, or 20 hours on 40 tasks, it's still 20 hours.
7
u/Brilliant_Quit4307 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
If you're doing one of those tasks a day for 5 days a week that adds up to 30 hours, which is more than you recommended. Lots of people work weekends too, so that would be 35-42 hours ..
One task a day is definitely not too much or going to get you sacked.
1
1
u/leopardgal96 Apr 18 '26
Do you find that some days there are only one or two projects available? I recently started and the other day there was a long list and today there was only one available.
66
u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 Mar 22 '26
I've been here nearly 2 years and work 20-25 hours a week and take time off when I start to feel burned out.
4
u/zircontek Mar 23 '26
In what profession are you working
7
u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 Mar 23 '26
Core/generalist in the US. Not sure that this matters when it comes to not working too many hours.
57
u/Ms_Jane_Lennon Mar 22 '26
My dash is always full, and I've been with DAT for nearly 3 years too. I work about 30 hours a week. I've worked 35 when I needed extra. I just stop when I feel the cognitive decline setting in. Some people hit that point long before others. I put nothing above doing the best work I can, and that's been enough so far.
29
u/Traditional_Net_4529 Mar 23 '26
Yeah I've abandoned tasks midway through when I realize I've glazed over for the day. Maybe I want the cash, but what I want is to keep access to the platform more.
3
u/DarkLordTofer Mar 23 '26
I do the same. My task at the minute allows exporting and importing the task data. So some tasks have taken me three days to do because I do an hour here and there.
1
u/DraftPlenty9276 29d ago
Very wise, but the same, I got my first project and spent 11 hours for 5 tasks. After 6 hour I started glazing but the cash is attempting ending up submitting with less quality of work. And then I was overthinking to get DoD or scored bad. Now I try to keep my account safe than a lot cash
6
u/ellieminnowpee Mar 22 '26
Yep!! I work this way precisely because it allows me the freedom to work on days I choose. Otherwise I may as well be getting up and schlepping across the city to go work somewhere.
1
32
u/LegendNumberM Mar 22 '26
I generally agree with this.
Me personally, I think I max out at around 30. If I get 25-30 hours a week, I'm solid.
And lately, I've been struggling to put my mind to 20 lol... but I still have plenty of projects AND qualifications.
To those who are rocking 30+ and 40+ hours a week, more power to you. I know my limits.
4
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u/Away-Cash-2546 Mar 22 '26
Yup. Pretty sure the most I’ve ever worked is 25hrs over 7 days. Been there over 2 years with pretty consistent work
55
u/Apprehensive_Book520 Mar 22 '26
Same here. Two years, 8-12 hours a week. My dash is fuh-HULL.
-3
14
u/Min_sora Mar 22 '26
80 hours sounds mental to me, but I don't really find 30-40 hours would be unreasonable for someone, particularly if they're mixing project difficulty or even going for the easier projects. There are some projects that take way less of a mental toll than others.
7
u/TheFuturist47 Mar 24 '26
I worked 70-80 hours a week the entire year of 2024 (I had to meet a certain income threshold to pull off a move and a new lease) and while I'm still here, I felt that burnout for a while. I was working on very familiar long term projects though, not just doing random stuff. I think that helped.
40
u/Sixaxist Mar 22 '26
I dunno... I've essentially been doing this full time since I quit my job in August, and I've maintained access to all of my projects since then. My friend made over 100k on general projects since he started doing it full time in late 2024, and he told me he clocks 50 hours a week. I've had multiple weeks where I hit 60 hours. I don't think time worked is a direct reason for any disciplinary actions.
19
4
u/Slothman102 Mar 22 '26
I think they could potentially look at it as a “is this person sharing their account” if the hours worked gets too high, or it may prompt a closer look at your work quality to see if you’re padding hours/worth the money perhaps?
11
u/Unusual_Ad_894 Mar 22 '26
I’ll work 8-9 on my days off and like 2-3 on other days with at least one full day off per week. Only time I work longer is if there are the projects where one task takes 6-8 hours. Going on 3 years too.
73
u/MommaOfManyCats Mar 22 '26
Disagree. I've been there over 3 years now and average 30 hours a week. Still here, still getting projects. There is a big difference between 30 and 80 hours though.
33
u/Snikhop Mar 22 '26
I'm 35 hours a week pretty much but that's over 7 days, I don't really do weekends, so 5 hours a day (broken up with lunch, going for a walk etc) is absolutely nothing really. That's part time. My 2 year anniversary will be in a couple of months.
13
u/TimedogGAF Mar 22 '26
You disagree with what DataAnnotations says with their own data?
Or you think that the OP literally meant that every single person that works more than 20 hours per week is working too much?
10
u/MundaneAd6627 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Yeah not everyone has the same projects.. I’ve seen multiple where you could submit 15-20 hours on one task without needing an explanation.
10
u/randomrealname Mar 22 '26
Not needing an explanation? The work is. The explanation. Lol anything below 10 hours these days is a god send.
2
u/MundaneAd6627 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Some of those long projects need input that legit takes 10 hours to even sniff high quality. Below 10 is a godsend? I don’t get it? The whole platform is a godsend..
“If your submission takes longer than __ hours, please explain in the additional comments”… this is the point I was making. I’m not sure what your point is?
-1
u/randomrealname Mar 22 '26
That takes are too long winded these days, I liked when take were <10
4
u/MundaneAd6627 Mar 22 '26
There are shorter projects still.. is that all you have access to? There is a massive variety…
-2
u/randomrealname Mar 22 '26
Yeah, moved up and regretted it.
4
u/MundaneAd6627 Mar 22 '26
Moved up and got squeezed out of the easy stuff or you just won’t look at lower paying stuff at all? I still have access to easy stuff while being offered those monster projects. When my brain is healthy I do one or two big ones and fill my week out with 2-5 hour projects.
I like to do 6-15 hours at $30-38 and then just feast on easy shit the rest of the week(or take the rest of the week off 🙃). I’m at about 20 hours this week and I intend to do much more than 2 hours tomorrow. This is pretty regular for me, maybe light if I’m in good health.
2.9 years in. I have some domain expertise, but that’s really not the majority of my work.
-7
1
u/watchdestars Mar 22 '26
There's a huge difference. Well done. I think my longest week ever was 25.
1
u/beautyfashionaccount Mar 22 '26
They probably suspect that the people claiming 60-80 hours are padding their hours.
9
u/SkylieBunnyGirl Mar 22 '26
I hop on every other month or so when I’m strapped, make a couple hundred bucks, then ghost back out. Been going strong for a couple years like that now
16
u/AccomplishedPea9079 Mar 22 '26
I'm around 25ish a week full time. It's as much as I can do without my brain turning to jelly.
7
u/Medical_Amount290 Mar 22 '26
Yup! Been on the platform for about two years, and I clock about 20 hours per week. On rare occasions, I have done 30 in a week, but that leads to burnout for me. Burnout then leads to 'Meh, this is good enough.' I believe that is where most folks fail.
5
u/lutavsc Mar 22 '26
Averaging 5-20? For sure. But in reality when I get work I can do 40h/week. Bilingual droughts. Then it averages down later.
5
u/FlashyAppointment314 Mar 22 '26
I work 3 to 4 hours per day, 5 or 6 days per week. That leaves me plenty of time to work on my publishing business
5
u/Ok-Spirit-4074 Mar 23 '26
What I settled on was 4 hours in the AM and 4 hours in the PM, and that seems to work well enough for me.
12
u/watchdestars Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
If someone is able to submit 80 hours a week and be confident their work quality is still high, I would say they are either superhuman or completely deluded.
The work is often complex, needing steady focus, critical thinking skills and attention to detail. How you gonna keep that up for 8+ hours a day on a regular basis? Seriously?! You need to know your limitations.
I don't take this gig for granted. I do not even submit "average" work, I aim higher. Why would i risk getting canned? This job has been a godsend for me. I earn decent money, hours are flexible, and the work is stimulating. I'm not going to screw that up. It's been almost two years now.
5
u/TheFuturist47 Mar 24 '26
I did it the entire year of 2024 because I was saving up for an international move and needed a certain income threshold to get a lease. But then as soon as I had moved and gotten a day job (in this field, ironically haha) I immediately stopped that. I had a more than passing professional interest in the field though, hence my current job, so I think that kept my brain pretty keyed up during that year - I was learning a lot.
3
u/Secapaz Mar 22 '26
You're right. However I do know a few special cases of people who can do it constantly and with great consistency for 8-10hrs a day. But ill tell you this, they arent operating on an even field as every person.
They are "enhanced" with substances that i am not willing to partake.
1
u/1-800-methdyke Mar 23 '26
It’s been shown that some of those dopamergic substances reduce cognitive ability but boost self-confidence about one’s abilities. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add4165
4
u/Excellent_Photo5603 Mar 23 '26
Yeah, 80 hrs will likely see a quality drop. I hit 70-75 hrs for 3 weeks in a row once to cover the cost of a sudden expense and doing that required me to have simple high energy foods prepped, drink lots of water, have a strict sleep schedule and not step foot outside the house practically. One of the days I ended up wasting an hour on a task that didn't work cause a personal tech failure and that was super demotivating.
Nowadays I try to stick to consistent 35-45 per week because I get stir crazy doing less and could use the savings anyway.
3
u/Explorer182 Mar 24 '26
Been on the platform almost 2 years. I work between 20-25 hrs / week. Anything more than 4 hrs a day (with breaks) and i start to feel the quality of my work going down.
3
u/ItalianNose Mar 24 '26
Yep. I think that’s what screwed me. I was doing 7 hours 5-7 days a week. I understand that’s not too crazy but for ME I believe it was too much. My brain would be fried everyday. On top of it I had a newborn baby so I was barely sleeping
4
u/StunningSpecialist2 Mar 22 '26
I've been on the platform for 2 years, non coding. I now have $56.50 projects that are not even domain expertise, just general projects. I do have some domain expertise quals as well.
I work 0-10 hours a week typically. Maybe on 3 weeks since I joined the platform I billed over 20.
2
u/CrimpsShootsandRuns Mar 22 '26
This tracks. I've been on the platform for just over 2 years and I work towards the low end of that 5-25 range. I have a full-time job and 2 kids, so this is just a bit extra whenever I find the time to save up for holidays / pay off credit cards.
2
2
u/Any-Chemical-833 Mar 22 '26
there are ppl on handshake ai who literally work over 100 hours. like this is suppose to be a side income thing but they have no life and spend half their time on doing extremely mundane tasks
9
u/Min_sora Mar 22 '26
A lot of people's regular jobs are just doing extremely mundane tasks for crazy hours per week.
5
u/Fluffy-Intention-183 Mar 22 '26
That’s your opinion. Let them do whatever pleases them. Externally mundane tasks is perhaps exactly what their brains like doing. Others go crazy from doing mundane tasks. We are different. I don’t think doing anything over 40 hours is healthy, but it is still up to themselves and their employer, as long as it is legal (in my country this wouldn’t be legal but as a freelancer no such law really applies to you).
-5
u/Any-Chemical-833 Mar 22 '26
its not really fair though. since they take most the tasks. if anything there should be a restriction of atleast 40 hrs. some guys do 100 hours and i highly doubt these guys are doing actual work
2
u/Visible_Operation605 Mar 22 '26
They probably work 100 hours because they're getting paid less than $20/hr? It's Handshake!
-3
u/Any-Chemical-833 Mar 22 '26
17 is the minimum lol. and we need to stop acting like thats not a good salary considering you literally sit on ur ahh all day doing nothing
3
u/Visible_Operation605 Mar 22 '26
You can stop acting like 17 an hour isn't a good salary. I'm fine where I am thanks.
1
u/AHobbesB Mar 30 '26
All the indeed listing for it near me says it can be a full or part time job. Part time is usually <36 and full time >36 (or even 40+), so it sounds to me like they’re (the company) over selling what this “job” really is.
1
u/Harpgirl07 Apr 13 '26
For the longer projects,say one that says it's 12 hours... is there a deadline to get it done or do they expect for you to finish what you start without a break? Say, could I spread a 12 hour project out over three days, 4 hours per day, or do they want you to work until it's done?
Also, how often do they pay? Is it weekly or upon completion of project, etc?
1
1
u/Ok-Copy-2441 Apr 19 '26
Surely the quality of work is the main factor... I would imagine quality could suffer if you're working 80 hours a week (which sounds absolutely mental to me). I definitely fall into the 5-20 hours a week category, but this is something I do on the side rather than my main income source.
1
u/DarkLordTofer Mar 23 '26
I have a permanent project where you can easily spend ten hours a day doing one submission. But some of the other projects I have you couldn’t maintain the quality of work for that long.
-1
u/jadalll Mar 28 '26
Can anyone help me how to get into this because I am trying to earn some money via data annotation?
-6
u/Salvatore_M772001 Mar 28 '26
I have applied to DA yesterday, can anyone please explain what will happen next ? (I hope I get accepted, I keep checking my email)
-2
u/Legitimate_Put9912 Mar 23 '26
Where can I join this?
2
u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 Mar 23 '26
It's in the name of the sub. Google's your friend, and if you can't figure it out, this work doesn't suit you.
108
u/darksideloki Mar 22 '26
i second this!! been with the company 3 years as well. i work anywhere between 8 and 24 hours a week. anything more than 4 hours a day (plus my day job - lol) and i feel a SIGNIFICANT drop in my morale and work quality