Important Disclaimers
As a first step, please read the disclaimers below carefully. If you fit the profile defined below, you can continue to the next page of the application.
Babbletype is seeking legitimate, professional independent contractors who are in the business of creating, adapting or repairing transcripts for other companies according to a defined specification and an agreed set of unit prices for the products to be delivered.
To qualify as an independent transcription contractor, you must be operating your own business, working out of your own home or other premises not under Babbletype’s control, providing your own equipment, tools and infrastructure to support your own business, obtaining your own training, business licenses and/or other professional qualifications, obtaining and paying for services in support of your own business, carrying your own costs and expenses related to the execution and maintenance of your business, setting your own working days and hours, determining when, where, how much and how often you choose to work, purchasing your own medical, worker’s compensation, business liability and other insurance, selling the same types of services over time to multiple customers, controlling how much or little you choose to earn, reporting and paying your own taxes, and managing your own opportunity for profit or loss depending on your own decisions regarding time and money invested.
Babbletype does not limit your ability to provide the same services to other businesses, does not set your working days or hours, does not control how, when, where or how often you accept orders from Babbletype, how much work you perform, or how much you earn. Babbletype does not guarantee any specific level of income, does not guarantee any permanence in the relationship with the independent contractor, does not pay benefits or withhold taxes, does not provide or pay for training, does not provide equipment, does not control the location or the times when you choose to work, does not offer insurance, medical benefits, paid vacation, sick time, disability insurance, unemployment insurance, workman’s compensation insurance or other benefits. If you later file a claim with any entity on the basis that you were an employee and not an independent contractor, Babbletype will vigorously defend the claim and pursue any and all legal costs incurred as a result of the claim.
Notwithstanding the above, Babbletype does place requirements and restrictions in our selection and retention of the independent transcription contractors we choose to work with, based on the needs of our own customers and our own business. These requirements and restrictions should not in any way be construed as changing the nature of the independent contracting relationship defined above. Examples of these requirements and restrictions include but are not limited to the following.
Babbletype defines precise specifications related primarily to the format of the work product to be produced. While Babbletype provides no explicit training related to transcription, we do provide extensive documentation and support related to the specific definition of the work product we require. Such documentation and support should not be construed as training in transcription in the broader sense, in which our contractors are expected to already be fully competent. Any reference in Babbletype’s communications to “training” should be understood within the extremely limited context of explaining Babbletype’s product specifications and vendor expectations, not in the broader context of actual training in transcription itself, which you are already in the business of providing.
Similarly, Babbletype’s business operations architecture requires that deliverables be in specific locations and in specific technical formats, and Babbletype’s systems require that certain tools be used for reporting and communication, in order to be able to effectively deliver services to the company. Such requirements specify the deliverable the company is purchasing, and should not be construed as defining how the contractor chooses to execute the actual work of creating the transcription product itself.
Babbletype operates weekdays from 9AM to 5PM, EST, and requires access to the independent contractors we work with during that period. This should not be construed as controlling when the contractor actually chooses to execute their work, which Babbletype does not do, but is a business communications requirement Babbletype imposes to ensure vendor time is available to our staff during out working day to exchange information related to the execution of the deliverable itself. Any references in Babbletype communications related to working times or availability during the daytime EST should be interpreted only in this light. Contractors can and do perform their actual transcription at any time of the day with no issue.
Again similarly, to fit with internal operational requirements, Babbletype requires independent contracting vendors to be able to deliver a minimum amount of work output within a defined turnaround time as a prerequisite to selecting and retaining them as a vendor. All information and discussion related to hours of work available in a day should be understood as explanatory related to these output and turnaround time requirements.
Regarding scheduling, Babbletype makes no attempt to control which hours or days the independent contractor works, or how much the contractor works. To make operations and the number of contractors Babbletype works with feasible and manageable, however, Babbletype does set requirements on the overall amount of availability and work output expected from the contractor, on average, in order to be retained as a first-line vendor. Babbletype requires our contractors to keep us aware of near-term expected availability to accept orders for transcript production, and to keep us apprised of any changes to that availability, so that work volume can be shifted to others as needed. Contractors who are not available enough, who produce minimal volumes of work product or who are unreliable in their availability or delivery of work product, interfere with the company’s efficient operation and are not retained as first-line vendors. None of these items, which have to do with basic business issues of availability and output, should be construed in the light of Babbletype controlling the specific working days, times or amounts that a contractor works, which is not the case.
Regarding payment, Babbletype pays all independent contracting transcription vendors we work with only on a unit basis, based on the number of minutes in the recording, the type of recording and the type of work product to be delivered. This information is available to all Babbletype contractors. Any information provided by Babbletype which discusses average hourly or monthly earning power should always be understood as a discussion of an average earning opportunity for that type of work, which may be achieved, not achieved or exceeded depending on the choices and capabilities of the individual transcription contractor. Babbletype pays on a strict unit basis only for delivered work product, and makes no promises or guarantees whatsoever regarding the specific earnings or profitability any specific independent transcription contractor may personally achieve, based on their own choices and capabilities.
