Cactus Communications reviews

Wages are much lower than standard for same work elsewhere. They want native English speakers with PhDs, but if you live in a developed nation you end up making less than minimum wage for tough papers because they pay per 1000 words (not by time as some of the competitors do). Bonuses are competitive and impossible if you don't work more than full-time. The reviews of your work, that ensure you keep getting work, sometimes seem to be done by non-native speakers criticizing and changing perfect English. Assignments are also competitive. You can receive an assignment at 2:30am, only to have another editor pick it up at 2:39am. Monthly topic newsletters post the names of the highest achievers and who gets bonuses, but this seems silly for a company without an office and workers from around the world. They also give you extra reading and training that is unpaid.

You are paid per quality of work which is decided by numerous editors who all have different stylistic requirements. Sometimes reviewing editors forget to record high quality work. Sometimes reviewers are punitive -- for example, giving you 3/4 instead of 4/4 for a 6,000 article with only 1 very minor mistake. Depending on where you live you have to wake up in the night to see if you may have an assignment. The worse your ratings, the less assignments you receive and also the assignments nobody else wanted, which means you probably won't do a great job editing, which means your rate will probably decrease. My manager ceased communicating with me after I complained one too many times about improper ratings. No one ever got back to me with answers or advice to my questions from my reviewing team. I was fired for low scores even though my last 3 assignments had been 3/4. Pay is pretty meager sometimes.