Rejection

I have always have been a high performer. I would always give my work in a better quantity and quality as compared with others. Throughout my professional career I had a reputation of someone who would always deliver the best quality. Whenever I used to receive any rejection it was always a hard of pill to swallow for me. While I try to make myself believe that rejections would come every now and then, I still find difficult to deal with them. The most recent example being yesterday.

While working on my academic research platform, I had received a study in my worklist. This was a targeted study meaning that it was intentionally sent to me. I read the study description. It was for testing a learning website for which I had provided feedback in the past. Since they had liked the feedback that I had shared, hence for their next sprint they had asked me to do the user testing.

It was a simple study wherein I was supposed to take an English language assessment. In this assessment there were going to be a set of 50 questions with multiple choice answers. I looked at the compensation which appeared fair for the effort that I was going to put in.

I accepted the study and started with my user testing. The questions were easy. Fill in the blanks, match the columns, and comprehension. With each question it felt more like a game than an assessment or a challenge. Being a farst reader I read through the questions and answer swiftly. The time for assessment was 40 minutes however I was able to finish it within 22 minutes. My score was above 80%. I had successfully provided my feedback about the website specifically towards what I like and disliked. The whole study was completed within 35 minutes instead of 50 minutes which was the allotted time. I submitted the study on the platform.

I was really happy to have completed that study because not only that I enjoyed the study but the payout for it was going to be great. I felt that the developers were paying me to play a game. I kept a close eye on my inbox to receive the good news that the study had been approved and the payout had been processed.

At 8 o'clock in the evening I received a response from the developer. They had rejected my response. When I saw that email in my inbox I immediately lost my temper. I could not believe that despite scoring more than 80% in the study my response was being rejected. I logged into the platform to see the reason for rejection. I was shocked to see the reason they had given, "The study has been rejected because you had taken less time to complete the study. We expect our participants to submit the study only when the time is about to get over. There will be no payout credited to you".

Now I was even more furious. Nowhere in the study it was mention that we were supposed to give the entire time for the study. While I had taken more than 50% of the allotted time and scored more than the qualification score still I faced the rejection. I was not okay with it. I also felt a little disheartened and discouraged. Being an expert research reviewer I did not expect my work to get rejected because it was completed quickly with a good score - I am called an 'expert' for a reason.

My comeback was to report the study as an inopropriate study. Getting the work done and not paying for it definitely goes against my principles and hence I had to flag it to the platform. I am still waiting for the platform to revert to me. As someone who had submitted over 100 reviews this was the first one being rejected. Still I am not okay with that rejection. I will wait for the platform to take appropriate action.

Maybe I am a sore loser aur maybe I am a perfectionist who does not take the rejection with a fabricated excuse.