Team Leaders

In a previous post I suggested that team leaders were important people whom one should keep on the right side of. (Sorry ...... on the right side of whom one should keep ...)
Well it seems that I was wrong. Not that I have anything against my current team leader, I'm sure he's an excellent fellow. It's just that, apart from one email asking if I was ok, I haven't heard from him.

In previous years (I almost said "in the old days") after the standardisation meeting one sent 10 sets of scripts off to the team leader for checking. After a cheery phone call telling you how well you'd done and how few errors you had made, the scripts were returned with corrections, explanations and hints, and you were cleared to continue marking.
This year a standardisation exercise had to be completed online and a banner came up onscreen saying "you have successfully completed the standardisation and you may continue marking".
No "well done", no info. about any errors, careless, or of interpretation of the mark scheme. Just "carry on".

The next sample, in the old days, (whoops) had to be sent to the team leader when you were about a third of the way through the marking. Again, the feedback from the team leader could be very useful. Perhaps you were being particularly harsh, or lenient, over a certain question. Perhaps you were making an error of interpretation and had to go through all the scripts already marked and make alterations. In any event the personal contact was valuable.

It doesn't happen this year under ETS (Europe). (Actually I think they are also supplying my gas and electricity at ever more exhorbitant prices)
This year we have a procedure called "benchmarking", to be undergone online every time you have successfully submitted the complete sets of marks for 80 candidates. This causes a problem straight away because one doesn't mark complete sets. Each candidate sits 3 papers and it is much more convenient to mark batches of one paper before moving on to another. I have, in fact, marked all my quota of 450 or so Mental Tests already.
Incidentally, it takes longer to enter the marks for a Mental Test online, than it does to actually mark the paper. ETS have recognised this and have doubled our admin. payments, which is something out of the wreck.
Anyway, once you have finished the benchmarking exercise, up comes the banner again. "You have successfully completed the benchmarking, you may continue marking".
Again, no indication of the number or nature of any errors so you are none the wiser.

Still, back to the ever-diminishing piles of scripts. It would appear that, according to the emails currently flying around, there are still some markers who have yet to receive their scripts!
They have my sympathy .......... see you next year?