Anyone else frustrated by delays and poor communication with GCSE marking?

[Honeypig]

Probably more of a rant than anything and to see if anyone is gets just as frustrated with their marking?
I mark GCSE online and have done for a few years. I understand all about standardisation , seeds and the extra pressure examiners etc face but this year is ridiculous.
The lack of communication from my team leader is appalling. I finished my standardisation but apparently they are busy with meetings for another paper (with the same exam board) so can’t get back to me for 2 days so i can’t start marking. In the meantime I have had an email from the exam board to see if I am still intending to mark as i haven’t been cleared to mark!
I have flagged this up and guess what? Been told to bring it to the attention of my team leader!
Beginning to understand this year why people are giving up marking!

You might need to get this taken down - there's a clause in your contract which states that you can't criticise the awarding bodies online when you mark. I know you haven't named the subject or exam board but I reckon I could guess!

But you have my sympathies. I had a horrendous experience a few years ago. I had to get up at 5am to mark because the marking software was so unreliable later in the day, and I could only mark in very specific blocks around my caring commitments. I haven't marked since. It's financially not worth it as a higher-rate tax payer and it's no longer valuable as CPD.

I gave up being an examiner due to poor organisation from the exam board. A new IT system was useless.
Not being paid for seeds was simply a waste of my time. The pay was very poor and then it was taxed.
Then we were harassed because examiners were dropping out and we were not on target to complete all the marking. This wasn't our fault. It was the exam boards fault. It was totally unfair. It simply wasn't worth the hassle.
Shame, because I quite enjoyed it.