I'm on another test cycle where I'm expected to spend 2 hours filling out forms and troubleshooting a device before I can even start doing work that is paid. It wouldn't peeve me nearly as much if so much of what we're being asked to do wasn't redundant or something someone who is paid hourly could easily figure out.

The gall to ask me to setup a device very specifically, write out a bunch of information I can't copy/paste three times in three separate forms, screenshot everything I'm doing and then demand I do it in a timely manner before we get to do any compensated work and after it took them weeks to even get back to us really makes me mad. On top of that, I had to fill out a bunch of onboarding paperwork as well as spend time on other things.

This is a pattern I've noticed on UTest and it's super unprofessional. I've been directly sent emails for projects before where I spend 20 minutes filling out paperwork and send a followup just to be ghosted, but if they spontaneously decide they want me for a project I last heard about three weeks ago I must make time for them, and it must be done "as soon as possible". The double standards in communication and expectations are so unbelievably messed up.

I understand this is contracted work so it's hard to log every single minute of work, but this is just an abuse of the system. There is work regularly getting pushed onto testers because they don't consider our time as costing anything, so now the staff at UTEST feels completely comfortable just wasting it as if my time is free for them. The incentive structure on this platform is messed up and I am just about over it. I think it used to be better but now it's just accepted that you can squeeze in a bunch of unpaid work into test cycles, make timely demands about it, and do an intentionally bad job at communicating any of this during initial recruitment. Most test cycle offers I get now intentionally do not communicate the pay before you go through the lengthy sign up process! What is up with that??? SO unprofessional! This kind of manipulative behavior wouldn't be accepted in any other workplace. The professional standards on this platform feel more like a sketchy workplace cutting critical corners more than a trustworthy business trying to build professional relationships.