Question regarding scopist & miscommunication

[Kyung]

Okay. So I'm working on an expedite again.

I send half to one scopist and I send the other half to another scopist. In th e-mail, I tell them very specifically what page and line to start at.

I get an e-mail today. I'm confused. What pages am I supposed to work on? I didn't read your whole e-mail bec. I just thought it was spellings.

I'm kind of annoyed. But yet, I feel bad.

Should I offer the scopist some compensation for the part that she did incorrectly? Yet, I'm kind of annoyed. If I spend the time to send you this long-ass e-mail, wouldn't it be nice if you read the whole thing?

What do you think? I'd like to hear from both scopists and reporters.

Note, the scopist has not asked me to pay her for those pages. I do not know if she is currently working on the pages that I need her to work on. I am finishing up the first half that I've gotten back from the other scopist. Once I've gotten to the part that she is working on, I will probably follow up with her unless she e-mails me back before then.

[Kyung]

Did that. I've got the job. It wasn't that many pages. But I just feel kind of bad for the misunderstanding.

Thanks.

[S. Arielle]

It's not a misunderstanding. She should have read the e-mail.

[Judy]

How long was the job? Why didn't you just send it to one scopist, consider it's the weekend?

[Kyung]

Bec. it's the weekend, I didn't want one person to suffer. I figured all three of us could suffer. That way, two people working on 50 pages or so each would get the whole 100 pages done in 3 or 4 hours.

[Judy]

Some scopists love expedites, especially on the weekend. Man, it's such a hassle to split any job up between two scopists or proofreaders. I would avoid that at all costs. You're just asking for confusion.

Besides, didn't you know Saturday was ~the~ most important day of the year for the NFL and most women became football widows for the day?

[Sheryl Fort]

Judy,

I was happy to be doing my own thing yesterday. Hubby was out working in the yard most of the morning. He just had to come in and check what was going on with the draft in the early afternoon. This is on top of following the NBA playoffs faithfully and having finished the NCAA men's basketball championship at the beginning of the month -- Go Duke! This will be soon followed by incessant watching to find out what the San Francisco Giants are doing during baseball season. I'm *SO* glad he's not a hockey fan!!!! :-)

Sheryl

[Judy]

Sheryl,

I'm confused, sorry! Would you have preferred to scope the entire 100 page expedite, or have it split between you and another scopist?

I know I was a football widow yesterday. It's been coming all week. I'm glad it's over! Now, of course, mine is really miffed that his team didn't choose better. Play Wink

Judy

[Sheryl Fort]

I prefer to spend my Saturdays at yard sales. :-)

As far as the job, I would have preferred to have the whole thing. I work with reporters who use more than one scopist and split it between the two for dailies, not so much weekend expedites. It would seem to be easier to do that, but I think for consistency in the job, it's better for one scopist to do it.

I stay blissfully unaware of the drafts and then just get run over by them when they occur. If I were smart I'd plan to leave the kids in his possession for those days and take off! He was actually pretty pleased with what his team did for a change. I was a diehard Eagles fan growing up (3rd oldest out of six kids, only one boy). Always felt sorry for my dad because my brother was never into sports.

Hubby is a 76ers fan. With them in the playoffs, he's really happy. My almost 17-year-old is hoping they keep going and play in Philly again so they can go to one of the games. We'll see.

Sheryl

[Kathleen Iuzzolino]

Kyung,

Here comes a scopist's point of view: You wrote it in an email. It is not a "miscommunication." If I made such a mistake, I would expect to "eat it." She probably won't ask to be paid for those pages any way because of that. So this might not be an issue at all.

You probably did this, but instructions like this should be on the first line of an email and not buried in the text.

Kathleen

[Sheryl Fort]

Kyung,

Nothing to feel bad about. You let the scopist know what needed to be done. She should have read the entire email. She should not be compensated for any pages that were done that shouldn't have been. As a scopist myself, I wouldn't dream of asking one of my reporters to pay me if I made a mistake like that.

Sheryl

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

[[ I didn't read your whole e-mail bec. I just thought it was spellings. ]]

This is troubling right here. You take the time to send the job and an accompanying email with spellings and other thoughts, I suppose, like when you need it back, etc, and the scopist can't take the 40 seconds to read it to see if there's anything pertinent before diving into the job? Definitely do not pay double for those pages.

It sounds like you assumed that one or both of them wouldn't want to do the entire 100-page expedite over the weekend because possibly you knew they were up to their eyeballs in work. If so, I hope your assumption was correct because who needs the extra work of splitting a job!

[Kyung]

Yes. I am troubled by the fact that the scopist did not read the whole e-mail. It actually annoys me no end bec. I took extra time to put the spellings in there which the scopist then spelled wrong and I had to correct. Oh, vey!!!

It's not a problem for me to split the job. I assumed I would also get it back quicker. Since, as I said, they would only each be working on 50 pages instead of one person having to do 100 pages.

Actually, the first scopist did say that she was going to start on a 500-page daily this weekend and she would be able to help me out with some of it Saturday morning, which is what happened w/one scopist.

Consistency is not a problem for me bec. I always go over the whole thing before sending it to the agency. After all, it is my job.