There are two types of rejected jobs: Rejecting to the client and rejecting back to typing.

As a typist, you will only reject jobs back to the client, and you will only do so with specific permission from the Help Desk. Only proofreaders will reject jobs back to typing. See below for explanations of each of these types of rejected jobs and how they relate to you.

Rejecting a Job Back to the Client

In certain circumstances, we may be unable to complete a job for a client for a variety of reasons, such as:

Excessive interference, static, background noise, etc. that affect the ability to hear the dictation.
Audio malfunctions, such as fading in and out, volume too low, etc.
No audio or no PDF to be transcribed
Excessive medical terminology or equations
Poor quality PDF
Job is outside our scope of service

When a job is rejected back to the client, there is no middleman to review it and decide if the rejection is valid. The job is simply sent back to the client with a note saying we are refusing to type it. Rejecting a job back to the client without Help Desk approval is a very serious error, and it will result in the following consequences:

First Offense: Official warning from SpeakWrite management
Second Offense: Typist account will be suspended for 1 week.
Third Offense: Typist account will be suspended for 30 days.

Upon the fourth offense, SpeakWrite Management will discuss the ongoing concern and additional consequences may apply as deemed necessary.

Help Ticket

If you receive a job that you believe needs to be rejected for one of the listed reasons, you must open a Help Ticket and wait for approval before rejecting. While awaiting approval, continue to work on the job. If you are given permission to reject, you will still be paid for the portion completed, so do not erase your work before rejecting. However, please remember that the client does receive the document including any work you had completed while awaiting the Help Desk's response to your request to reject, so when you're given permission to reject, always proofread what you have transcribed and correct any errors before you actually reject the job.

When you open a Help Ticket to request to reject a job, the Help Desk may deny your request and instruct you to complete the job. In this case, you must do as you are instructed. If it is not the end of your shift, submitting a job with poor audio as a partial just to get rid of it is unacceptable and may result in disciplinary action by management.

Rejecting a Job When the Help Desk is Closed

If you feel certain that a job should be rejected but the Help Desk is closed, you must submit the job as a partial and explain your reasoning in a comment to proof. Explain the specific reason you believe the job needs to be rejected. A proofreader will then receive the job and make the final decision. It is never acceptable to reject a job back to the client when the Help Desk is closed unless you are a proofreader.

Rejected Back to Typing By a Proofreader

Keep in mind that proofreaders are able to reject jobs back to typing if there are:

excessive errors or severe errors
errors that are too difficult to fix
errors that would take longer to fix than to just retype the job

When a job is rejected back to typing, the typist's work is erased and the job is sent back to the queue to be assigned to someone else to re-do. You will be informed via email that the job was rejected by a proofreader.

Rejection is not done lightly, because neither the typist nor the proofreader will receive pay when a job is rejected back to typing. Additionally, it can impact the turnaround time for getting the job back to the client, so the rejection criteria takes into consideration the audio length of the job.

Avoiding Rejected Jobs

It is the typist's responsibility to follow SpeakWrite policies, procedures and guidelines to ensure their jobs will not be rejected. All typists must be able to produce quality documents that do not require a significant amount of proofing.

To avoid rejection, always make sure to proofread your document before submitting, and double check for any instructions you may have missed.

If you feel a job has been rejected in error because you do not believe it meets the criteria listed, please email comments@speakwrite.com with the job number and an explanation of your reasoning.