Bringing up "who's going to stand up for us" from below

First, flamers, never mind, I'm not talking to you.

So we are all spread out but all of us know other MTs whether we work for the same company or not.  If everyone communicates with those they know and asks them to do the same, word will spread like wildfire and something really CAN be done.  Sitting around complaining and doing nothing accomplishes NOTHING.  As near as I can figure one MTSO is as good (or bad) as the next so they could all use an attitude adjustment.

• Bringing up "who's going to stand up for us" from below - gourdpainter
  • What do you want and why are you here? nm - peanutpainter
  • Who is "us"...You aren't even an MT anymore! - Didn't you leave?
    • Why would I do you a favor? - gourdpainter
  • too much time? - stillmting
    • Glad you're happy - however, - wish I could laugh
      • the grim reaper and it's sidekick GP - paaleeze....
        • It appears to me that there MAY BE - gourdpainter
  • No not really. - happiest MT in all the land
    • WHAT? Are you for real? - wish I could laugh
      • lazy has a lot to do with it - and there's also the ones who just aren't
  • Well, I agree and have other MT friends - wish I could laugh
    • Signing up - gourdpainter
      • Don't know how many are happy, - LK
      • Whatever.... - sm
        • Please see above. - General Decline
          • You are very welcome! - nm

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Many years ago, when I worked in house for a local clinic, we had a Transcriptionist who had just graduated from a medical transcription course (I believe it was through the local community college since this was back in the early 1990s), and everytime this gal came across something she didn't know, she would ask the other transcriptionist or I how to spell it.  I truly think sometimes one of the BIGGEST problems is the fact that nowadays, people are not taught the proper way to spell or even how to research for that matter; for example not realizing that a spelling with an f sound could be spelled with a ph or Pf et cetra.

One classic example was a few years ago, and I was doing QA for a company and this company hired a friend of mine an older lady, who had decided to go into medical transcription and had completed a course.  Well, the company hired her on my recommendation and she called me one day, very upset and saying that she had received another email from a QA person, whom she felt was picking on her.  I asked her what the error was about and she stated that it was over the word chem as in chem-7 (which as an aside, I have NEVER abbreviated; always spelled it out as chemistry-7)  -- well anyway, my friend had typed it as Kem-7, so while I was on the phone with her I made her do a search, and what she came upon with the first hit was some rock band in a foreign country!!!!  This, is what I and older, more experienced transcriptionists get angry about is the fact that many people if they use the internet to do a search will use the first thing that comes to mind, rather than tryng to spell it several different ways to see if it fits in the PROPER context.  Sorry for this being too long.

I worked for MDI.  I loved MDI.  I have always known D to be someone of yes, integrity.  I don't believe her integrity flew out the window.  There is surely a lot we don't know.  And of course, D would not have been at liberty to discuss the coming merger before it happened.

D is a businesswoman.  The purpose of a business is to generate income.  She ran her company with honesty and integrity.  I can't say I wasn't suprised, shocked even, at what has happened.  But I have known D since the early 90s and I know she is a good person and truly cares about people.  I don't know how to reconcile that with what has happened other than to think there is more to the story than we know and that it is the decision that D needed to make at this time for whatever reason, whether it be to ensure a secure retirement, whether it was because she was no longer able to compete with offshoring and VR (I think this may be part of it because she had told me at one time they were having to cut line rates to compete with VR and offshoring) or whether she was just tired and ready to not be the one at the helm any longer.  Maybe it's her health, or her husband's health.  We just don't know. 

This whole thing does make me afraid for the future of medical transcription, because another thought I had was that D saw the writing on the wall and knew it was either make the leap now and profit from all her years of hard work, or end up losing it all when transcription becomes obsolete for the most part, or at least for those who don't use VR or offshoring.

Whatever the reasons, I choose to believe that D is still the person of integrity I have always known her to be.  I just choose to accept that there must be more to the story than I know.

I wish the best to D and to all MDIers.  I feel like an era has come to a close and it will never be the same again.  But I feel lucky to have been a part of Signal and MDI and to have known D.

I feel like we are on the Titanic and we just saw D either jump to safety or jump into shark-infested waters, we don't know which, and we don't know whether we should jump or cling to the boat - because MDI was the last lifeboat and now it's gone.

I just got off the phone with someone from Precyse and they have terrible communication and no flexibility.  She kept IMing another lady to ask questions.  Had to check with another person to see if I could do Monday through Friday.  Made it sound like she would really have to do some fancy talking to get that.  I had put in my info that I wanted to work from 6 am to 12 pm and she just read that as she was talking to me and said there was no way.  Told her that I am capable of doing full time line requirement in those hours and she said there had to be the hourly coverage there.

I was just not impressed at all.  She really did not seem like she knew what was going on, could have been a little more prepared for an interview.  I just wasted 10 minutes of my time! 

Sugestion - when MTs complain their account is too hard. Instead of giving them something easier and pushing hard work on more experience Mts, assign the complainer exclusively to hard account until they are competent. Only way to be fair to distribute. Everyplace I work the complainers get the easy accounts.

Is it productive at all?  I think it is a VR and transcription mixture and may actually belong to MDI-FL.  Thanks! 

I am the HR person, QA, and trainer for a small company.  We've had the same employees for more than 5 years, some as long as 10.  Recently we had to hire a few new people because of growth. 

People talk about wanting to be respected and wanting to keep the work here.  I agree this needs to be done but in order to do that we have to have qualified people.  IF somebody passes our simple test, which is transcribing real files, and we hire them, we tell them their line requirement.  We don't even require set hours.  We get people who won't do 200 lines per day, much less what is required.  We get people who say they have 10 years of experience, yet require total read throughs, which cost us money.  The incredibly bad ones we have to let go, which is incredibly hard for me to do, then come here and post how horrible the employer is.  They don't mention the fact that 1) they still have our equipment even though they have their last check, 2) they failed to do their required lines per hour, 3) half the time they just didn't work at all PERIOD.  Or I invest a great deal of time in training them and they quit with reasons like I didn't realize it would take four hours to work part time and get my lines, I didn't know working at home was like having a REAL job.

I don't know anything about your company at all, but I do know the frustration at being hammered on these forums without the real stories being told, so I think it's great that somebody actually takes up for their company.  We do not outsource, but I have edited for companies who do, and the work is there ON TIME, even if it has to have minimal editing.  If someone is sick, there's somebody to back them up.  No whining, no emails from people who say that for the 10th time this month there was a wreck and their power is off, the dog is sick, I fell and hurt my back again, my dad is going to be ill in December so I'll need time off, my car broke down and I had to walk 5 miles home so that's why I am 8 hours late getting on, I was out all night partying and I have too much of a headache now to work.  It's a real shame for the people who actually do work their tails off.

nm

Lest we get redirected to the politics board, let me make a few general observations.  I would not look to the companies for resolution.  They are only one player among many whose greed holds our country in their clutch...a tight, squeezing grip that impoverishes the poor, enriches the wealthy and make economic refugees of the ever-shrinking middle class.  Look beyond the corruption of the politicians and whatever despair, frustration and hopeless you may feel.  For a long and single moment, stare far back into the eyes or our history and ask these questions over and over and over again:

Why are we paid wages like we're a third world country. It'd be nice just to meet the bills, but between low wages and high costs of having insurance, which we have to have because our antidepressant medications are so flipping high, who can survive doing this anymore? 

They are your questions.  They are mine too. Why, indeed.   Go and find your answers.  Seek educated and balanced debates pros and cons, right and left. Here's a hint on how to start.  You'll have to switch to something besides Fox and CNN to find this.   Listen to the candidates.  Follow the rhetoric and their platforms.  Watch closely and be a tough critic.  Put yourself around others who share these perspectives.  Listen and contribute, teach and learn from one and the other.  Identify your agenda and then go out and promote and support it. 

Do this between now and this time next year.  Then show up at the polls.  You will know what to do.  If you don't get what you want from the leadership and the legislators, do not disappear into the corner of the country.  Get out there and go for it, over and over.  This is not wasted effort.  If you were a child of the 60s or 70s, you would believe this.  In my life, sweeping, long-reaching and lasting reform has come and gone.  Minorities and women still reap the benefits of those efforts from so long ago.   The time is ripe for history to repeat itself.

PS:  If this were 1970, you and I would be organizing (watch out, here comes that dirty word) LABOR UNIONS. 

We are all spread out, and the company I just came from kept everyone's name a secret, including how many working on the account, changes in schedules - everything.

And this is exactly why, so we CAN'T do anything about anything.

No, I did not know many of the things you say here.  The only pharmacy techs I know are people with very little training, not like anything you mention, and that does frighten me I must admit. 

I do know that many of the newbies seem to have a poor work ethic and don't seem to have had very much training.  I see that where I work.  And I do know someone who had been in a mentoring program offered by a national and had a horrible experience and barely kept herself alive on what she made. 

I did not know the other things you mentioned.  I am glad you filled me in on these things.  I want to learn all I can about our situation.  I welcome feedback and I sure wish the things you mentioned were discussed here.  I'd be grateful if you could advise me where to turn to find out such things and keep track of what is really going on, because I apparently am not getting the whole story.  I'd also be interested in your ideas for what to do as you seem to know what you're talking about. 

I apologize if I offended you or anyone else.