Fatcat
Posted By: MT on 2008-12-20
In Reply to: Hmm ... sounds like another MTSO - mt
She is a known troublemaker on this board.
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Whoops! I meant to address this TO fatcat, not FROM fatcat. Sorry Fatcat!
x
Fatcat correcting fatcat
I meant to say THEIR face, not THERE face. Have been up since early morning working and it shows. Sorry.
Fatcat
I do not do homework for others unless they want to pay me. I am too busy makin my lines, and apparently you could be makin more lines too by getting off your high horse on this board and spending more time making your lines!!! You are so funny....
Fatcat ......... sm
Not sure where you live, but my local YMCA offers kickboxing classes, free with membership. Also, i just recently bought a Kathy Smith Kickboxing DVD for $2.99 from eBay. I haven't tried it yet because I'm afraid I might destroy the apartment -- coordination is not my strong suit! (ha) The class at the Y is fun ... I'm sure you'd enjoy it! Plus, if you're like me, after sitting all day, it is nice to get up and move the legs and get some circulation going.
Well said, fatcat (NM)
.
Tell me where fatcat.
I need part-time, 24 to 32 hours per week. No one wants to hire part-time.
I have applied at 15 or more places. Pass every test, get offered a job for 7 cpl or when I give my schedule, they say NOPE.
The stress is killing me. I think I have an ulcer. The migraines are back and I spend the better part of my shift crying.
Looking for Fatcat
I would like to ask you some questions through email. Thanks.
fatcat
The first letter of the company i work for is T
To fatcat:
I'm just wondering if you could tell me anything about your company: things you like/don't like, pay, platform, etc. I am also interested in this company. Thanks for any info you can give!
Thanks you so much, fatcat. It does seem
like most companies require you to have your own computer. I guess I worked for MQ too long....They provide the computer but too many other down sides to working for them. I think I will see if I can pick up a used computer to start with.
Thanks for the info about the statutory status, too! I was thinking it meant you were sort of on-call employee. I get it now. THANKS again!
Thanks to all and Fatcat ...
I awoke with basically the same feeling. I work for a wonderful company, have a wonderful husband, kids and grand babies so I have a lot to be thankful for. I know that there are many of our fellow MTs who are struggling out there right now, I wish with everything in me that I could change that for them but since I cannot, I was hoping that a positive post would help to uplift everyone at least someone. Like you and probably most on this board, I have had some pretty horrible experiences but seem to be on the right path, which I hope continues. Hopefully I have kissed the right frog this time, lolol.
For those of you out there who are struggling I wish you the very best and lots of luck!
Fatcat
I'm not sure if this explains anything, but I remember a few weeks ago getting an email telling us they had a new account coming on and had hired about 30 MTs to cover it. Unfortunately, the account didn't start when expected and those MTs were training on the other accounts. I thought the account started last week, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
There was also a lot of talk in the last few months about adjusting our schedules to accommodate the evening/late night and early morning work flow. They may have ended up hiring more MTs to cover if the work wasn't getting done. Unfortunately, I think that SE/IC companies are forced to hire more MTs than needed sometimes because they can't enforce a work schedule like the employee status companies ('cept for MQ; they overhire and then send all the work overseas. I think the Indians just like to watch the Americans scramble).
I think the work flow also ebbs and flows more in the summer months due to holidays, vacations, etc. My accounts have been low also, but I don't really mind. I like an unexpected day off. I expect things to pick up again soon.
Fatcat
After being brainwashed for so many years by the Q, MDI has been a breath of fresh air! I wouldn't think of changing companies, either, and since I'm not the breadwinner in our house and I have a second income myself, I won't fight for the lines. If the work is there when I'm available, so be it, but if not, then I don't worry about it. I check back throughout the day, but I won't sit and wait for the work. I know there are others not as fortunate and I'd really rather see them get the work.
LOL, Fatcat!
Your friend had it rough too, lol! I'm about an hour north of Bakersfield, more in Fresno territory, but I certainly relate to his difficulties with that two years. I believe Fresno and Bakersfield are cut from the same cloth. I had to move back from this area from a gorgeous northern coastal town (Pacific Grove, if you're familiar with it), about 6 years as my mother was ill, and I think I'm still in the throes of culture shock!
I just don't understand what's going on with MDI-MD at all, Fatcat. Normally when one of their MTs reports having no work, they bend over backwards (and IMMEDIATELY) to rectify the situation. This time the pleas are met with silence. It arouses my suspicions that something is going on behind the scenes of which we are unaware.
I might be WAY off base here, but you know D pretty well. Do think there's any conceivable possibility that perhaps they're brokering a deal to sell MDI-MD? I hate to even think that it's just one of a few unpleasant possibilities that has crossed my mind during this disheartening time.
FATCAT...
Your email went to my spam folder. I found it and just now replied (and made sure to mark your emails as NOT spam, lol!).
Fatcat -
Grab those lines while you can, because I'm sure they'll mysteriously disappear VERY quickly!!!
Fatcat -
In the case of the Q, I do hope that is followed by the old addage:
The bigger they are...
The harder they fall.
And I truly hope MDI hasn't fallen into the evil clutches of the Q!!!
Fatcat, if it were me, I would definitely keep the second job. It would help my
peace of mind tremendously to know I had a second job to fill in the financial gaps if my workload dried up again. As long as having both jobs doesn't overtax you, I'd definitely keep it, at the very least for a few months to see what the ebb and flow turns out to be at your MDI job. Just my humble opinion.
Fatcat:
Yep, we actually do work together, in a manner of speaking.
FATCAT?
Hey, has anyone heard from Fatcat lately? Unless I've missed her posts, she's been absent. I know her account had seemed to pick up, but then it apparently dried up again.
I'm an MDI-er too. I checked my account earlier and, again, only a handful of jobs availabe on there.
I've seen a few post that they've emailed D and the other powers-that-be at MDI.
Has anyone heard anything back?
I know what you mean, fatcat
With so many of us sitting with no work, I just can't understand why these new accounts aren't staffed by the current ICs and hire on new ones to train only a few days before the account goes live. I'd gladly work a little extra to be sure the new accounts are properly staffed while judging the need for additional MTs on a live basis. I guess what's worse is that there is no communication. Just because we're ICs we still work our tails off when the need is there to keep the jobs within TAT. But yet don't we deserve the decency of some communication so that we can make advance planning on what *we* need as well? Isn't that what makes a company successful? The happier the workers, the better the company runs...the more successful the company is. At least that's the way I always looked at things.
FATCAT
Um, yeah, no kidding!
Wait until Transcend drops the ball in about 2-3 months (when everyone's comfortable, thinking there will be no changes) that they ARE going to VR, there WILL be massive paycuts, and they find themselves another statistic, just like those dedicated MTs over at MQ.
Sorry, but we were betrayed by MDI-MD. If not by the sell-out (hey, it's D's company, she can donate it to charity if she wants to).
IT WAS THE WAY THEIR LOYAL, DEDICATED MTS WERE TREATED AND ALLOWED TO UNDERGO ALL OF THE STRESS OF THE PAST FEW MONTHS WITH NO WORK.
And, I don't know about you, Fatcat, but my money says that's whwere all that work has been going, over to Transcend to be fed into their VR system in preparation. The reason you got that windfall of work one night (ONE WHOLE NIGHT, lol!) must have been because the Transcend system was down.
You and I were most assuredly on the right track a month ago, as discussed via our emails. We saw this coming. We KNOW what the end result will be.
While I applaud the loyalty of those trying to '15% isn't that much' and ATTEMPTING to remain loyal to MDI-MD at this point, I also pity them, because they are now ducks in a row, getting ready to be FORCED into VR, FORCED to take paycuts, FORCED to adhere to a RIGID schedule.
Their lives as they know them have just irreversibly changed and sadly I don't think the realization has sunk in for some of them.
I'd high-five you for you and I being SO on target (although our guess was 1 week off, it's still AMAZING how accurate we were), but sadly I don't feel it's time for a high-five. It's time for an MDI-MD group hug as we all part ways.
Fatcat -- I wonder...
I wonder if the rest of MDI mgmt supports this merge. I know when everything went down at MQ, it seemed mgmt supported the changes at first, but then one by one, they began dropping like flies. They just quietly left, not to be heard from again. I wonder if this is how it will go with this merge.
Another thing that cracks me up -- everything that was stated in the conference call was followed by the statement until January. I don't think I'm going to stick around to find out what all that entails.
My husband and I have been discussing me returning to the real world for a full-time job for the last several months (since April or May when we got the first State of the Union address) and up until now, I've been very reticent to do so. This seems to be a sign that maybe that would be the best option for us. I have a few opportunities to pursue, outside of the world of MT. It might be kind of nice to work a straight 8-4, M-F, holidays off, kind of job again.
Wherever I end up, I wish you well. This just feels all too similar to the way things went at the Q. But this time, I'm not going to hang on as long. I'm looking at this until January thing as my window to search other avenues of employment.
You tell it Fatcat!!!!!!
Thanks fatcat!! sm
That sure is nice. If you were here I would take you up on it too!! It will be ok. I am ok right now and a job will come!
I think that's what fatcat was referring to (sm)
Notice how she capitalized the word YOUR for emphasis?
Fatcat is back
no newbies have responded at all.
fatcat... you are one in a million.
I really do appreciate everything you have told me. There are so many people on this board so quick to judge and then every now and again you come across a genuine, quality person such as yourself.
I know my schedule is difficult to work with, but these companies never seem to give anyone a chance to explain them, not that it would really matter. They expect 1200 lines a day for full-time, but I have always done that in part-time hours (5 to 6).
To me, that is all that should matter. They want 1200, I will give them that, but I cannot be put on a schedule for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.
I have only had 2 transcription jobs in 13 years, the most current one with the Q for over 11. I have always done well on testing, from what I am told my last test I took for a company was 99%.
I just don't understand how all of you girls can comit to working every Saturday or every Sunday.
Ok, I am done complaining. I am hitting the job search full force again. Thanks so much again for your kind words and thoughts. You are in my prayers.
PS... I am probably way older than your daughter, I am going to be 39 in May. :)
TO FATCAT: Apparently they are sm
not very big. Run by a husband and wife team. No HR department. Only person to talk to is the one MT who was suppose to be training me. We have communicated via e-mail. The e-mails have now stopped. I figure they either will let it go or they will send me a call tag and they will get their pedal back. I am not pursuing it anymore. Thanks for the good luck wishes.
I have to stand up for fatcat here
fatcat could be the person I hire to mediate a problem I have with someone else - not someone who puts someone else down. There is a good question on the table: Why not just drop it?
Dear fatcat:
Can I ask you if MDI-MD provides computers for their employees? Unfortunately, I need to find a company that does as I can't afford my own computer right now. :(
Response to FatCat
Thank you for your kind words. You have no idea what your kindness means to me.
Fatcat, you said it so right! And I ditto that
xx
Be careful, Fatcat...
I believe you and I are on totally separate accounts, judging from our respective posts, and my MDI-MD account has been little to no work recently as well.
While I hope it picks back up, I find it odd that so many of their accounts seem to have dried up, so please put YOU first and watch out for yourself. If you get an opportunity, don't pass it up hoping for the best with MDI-MD.
Fatcat - See Inside
I'm sorry to hear that, Fatcat. I know you of all people spoke the most highly of MDI-MD on these boards, even with the conversion to VR, and it's a shame when such loyal employees are fed to the proverbial wolves to fight for any scraps of work that might or might not come through.
I think cooking up diner fare sounds might appetizing at the moment, and one thing's almost guaranteed...Those patrons at a diner consuming your culinary delights will probably be a lot more appreciative of your efforts than any MTSO ever was!
Good luck to you, Fatcat. I feel for all of us who are sinking fast, but you've been since a staunch supporter of MDI-MD on these boards that my heart just kind of breaks for you right now.
~HUGS~
I'm in CA, Fatcat...No clue where you are
But lunch without sitting at the computer waiting for work to trickle in sounds FABULOUS!!!
Question for you, Fatcat...
Is it alright if I shoot you an email? I'd like to be able to talk a little more freely about what's going on without adding any more speculation to the forum. Let me know if that's okay with you.
I hate to think it too, Fatcat
But the way the events are unfolding are just SOOOOO eerily familiar to those posts of a few months ago on the MQ board that the similarities jump out at me.
It's such a cold, harsh world and I've learned pretty much EVERYTHING is for sale if the price is right or the profitability high enough.
I really, really hope I'm wrong but I am nonetheless prepared.
FATCAT...See message
There was a very thoughtful poster on here last night who said a large amount of work like that appearing without rhyme or reason out the blue made a bell go 'ding ding ding' in her head, because she has experienced that...and the cause was offshoring. Apparently, when work is being offshored by a volume of the work is threatening to go out of TAT, it's pulled from the ILPs and given back to the US MTs.
I'm still trying to hope beyond hope that this is NOT the case with MDI-MD but this poster, if I recall correctly, pointed out several similarities to the recent behavior/work flow at MDI-MD that also were very indicative of probable offshoring behavior.
She also indicated that a skeleton crew is usually kept in the US to handle events such as the one described above (i.e., a quantity of work getting ready to fall out of TAT and pulled back and assigned to US-based MTs). I suppose if one used their imagination, one could envision work being given to the account on which you're working to keep the 'skeleton crew' busy.
Also, Fatcat, if your peruse the board a bit from earlier today, several MTs at MDI were without work yet again this morning.
This entire situation isjust heartbreaking for so many MTs.
I'm glad you have work but, yes, please don't allow yourself to become complacent. If in fact there is offshoring in the works, before we know it, it's entirely possible the higher-paid of the proposed 'skeleton crew' will be driven out to pave the way for a crew willing to work for a lesser wage.
Fatcat -- whaddya think?
You're generally pretty vocal (in a good way) about MDI and I'm just curious as to your thoughts on this situation.
Fatcat - Thank you for the confirmation
I strongly suspected Transcend offshores a great deal of their work.
So much D and all of her 'integrity,' eh?
And to think we all starved and hoped for the best, and they ignored our pleas and the entire time were selling us down the river to India.
But then, you and I...we saw this coming, didn't we girlfriend? About a month ago, I believe. ;-)
I agree with fatcat.
I am not about to participate in offshoring! I also would like an answer to this question!
Please read - I'm with fatcat BUT...
I'm sorry, but this is the same story that MQ used with their buying up of businesses and eventually, as is now painfully evident, allowed an Indian company to pretty much steamroller their way in and now the biggest percentage of their work is done by ILPs, with 'cleanup' left for the apparent skeleton US MT crew they're working toward.
I have no intention of working for a company that does ANY offshoring. My work ethic and morals dictate to do so is to completely disrespect my profession and everything on which it was founded; quality, professionalism, confidentiality, and, again QUALITY.
Even 15% is too large a percentage to offshore, IMHO. Any percentage is too large.
And, yes, MDI-MD turned a deaf ear on their MTs who were scrambling for lines, unable to pay their bills, put them under tremendous stress for MONTHS before unleashing their big 'surprise'. And we're supposed to NOT be hard on them? Precisely why, when we are now all behind in our bills because we TRUSTED these moneymongers are we NOT supposed to be hard on them?
Their bills were being paid on time. They had no cuts in their pay. Their lives carried on unchecked while we sat around BEGGING for work, BEGGING for answers, and we were IGNORED.
That silence spoke volumes. It spoke of a total disrespect and lack of concern for the well-being of their LOYAL MTs, loyal MTs who had sung their praises on these very boards, recommended their friends wholeheartedly to what they felt was THE BEST MTSO out there.
And THIS treatment, this behavior is how they were thanked for their efforts.
No, I will not be waiting around to become a number on a timesheet nor a statistic to offshoring at Transcend. I have far too much self-respect for that.
I will not go out in pain and denial and panic like my sister/brother MTs at MQ.
I see the writing on the wall. I saw it about a month ago and posted this very thing, either sold out to Transcend (BINGO!) or offshoring. In this case, being bought out by Transcend DOES equate to offshoring.
Integrity? MDI-MD?
Sure. And you can buy it...if the price is right.
To mortified and fatcat
Thank you both for having compassion for the MTs at the Q, and I feel very sorry for what you are going through now and will be faced with in the future. The Q has certainly set the stage for disaster in this industry.
I would not be surprised if CBay buys out Transcend in the next 2 years to ensure that Indians own all of the transcription in our country.
Thank you both also for standing up for the Americans, especially us MTs willing to work, sitting at our chairs 12 to 18 hours a day trying to get our work in.
The MTSOs do use the excuse that there are no MTs but we all know that is not true. People here in America want to work, we want to provide for our families. We want to pay our taxes to benefit our country.
You both have just inspired a change in me as well!
I just wanted you to know that the Q guys and girls feel your pain and will be praying for you all.
Fatcat - I know exactly what you mean. She does have the right to sell
her company, and if she had been honest and up front and just TOLD us, hey, I need to go in a different direction, I want less stress/work, whatever, so I'm looking to sell the company, I'd have been fine with that. If she'd been honest and said I'm in negotiations and some of your work is being funneled into the new company so they can test the accounts or whatever, I'd have been most unhappy, but at least informed and looking for a new job. It's the fact that they've boasted for years we're the cream of the crop and then gave us the mushroom treatment, and treated us all like we're stupid sheep that will just trot along with Transcend and take whatever they decide to offer us. I can't believe for one minute that they had any of the MTs in mind if they didn't even bother to ask what the pay scale would be, the scheduling requirements, or even the LINE DEFINITION. Carlotta flat out said in my call yesterdya that she hadn't even THOUGHT TO ASK what kind of a line they pay on. For all they know we'll be getting huge pay cuts along with say losing all our spaces or whatever. The fact that she said they never thought to ask and they knew absolutely zero answers to EVERYTHING that directly affects the MTs told me that they either knew and were NOT about to tell us and make us madder, or they never bothered to ask because they absoultely had no interest in it. If they'd been honest and told us what was going on, I could handle this much better. It's the sneaky underhanded way they did it, after years of touting their open communication, etc., that really bothers me. And the offshoring is just the icing on the cake of the giant slap in the face. Talk about stepping on the backs of the people who put her at the top.
Fatcat - I know exactly what you mean. She does have the right to sell
her company, and if she had been honest and up front and just TOLD us, hey, I need to go in a different direction, I want less stress/work, whatever, so I'm looking to sell the company, I'd have been fine with that. If she'd been honest and said I'm in negotiations and some of your work is being funneled into the new company so they can test the accounts or whatever, I'd have been most unhappy, but at least informed and looking for a new job. It's the fact that they've boasted for years we're the cream of the crop and then gave us the mushroom treatment, and treated us all like we're stupid sheep that will just trot along with Transcend and take whatever they decide to offer us. I can't believe for one minute that they had any of the MTs in mind if they didn't even bother to ask what the pay scale would be, the scheduling requirements, or even the LINE DEFINITION. Carlotta flat out said in my call yesterdya that she hadn't even THOUGHT TO ASK what kind of a line they pay on. For all they know we'll be getting huge pay cuts along with say losing all our spaces or whatever. The fact that she said they never thought to ask and they knew absolutely zero answers to EVERYTHING that directly affects the MTs told me that they either knew and were NOT about to tell us and make us madder, or they never bothered to ask because they absoultely had no interest in it. If they'd been honest and told us what was going on, I could handle this much better. It's the sneaky underhanded way they did it, after years of touting their open communication, etc., that really bothers me. And the offshoring is just the icing on the cake of the giant slap in the face. Talk about stepping on the backs of the people who put her at the top. I keep wondering what Ondrea would think of all this.
Fatcat - Question for you
You, of all the MDI-MDers who posted here, were probably their biggest proponent. You had been with them quite awhile and had a good rapport with D at one point.
I have to ask this and I hope you don't mind sharing with the board.
Did they even bother respond to your letter of resignation? Did you ever hear anything from D or CB or your liaison or anything when you immediately resigned?
The reason I feel compelled to ask is that you seem like an employer's dream to me and after all of your kind words about the company and your dedication, I would like to know if they even made the time to thank you for those things after you resigned.
I'm delighted to hear you have a new gig starting on Monday. I hope every single MDI-MDer who does not wish to contribute to this merger can find something very soon, too.
Gourdpainter and FatCat, ? for you....
Do you remember about 20 years ago when MT Week was actually a true celebration of the hardworking MTs, and there were 5 full days of employers showing their appreciation? My employer in the 80s would send us to workshops, seminars, etc., during that week (I guess those have disappeared), the entire day off with pay and all expenses paid.
Those we worked with actually respected us back in those days and the appreciation shown during MT week was such a motivator to do even better.
I'd better quit walking down memory lane before I can't find my way back to the present times...so sad what the industry has done to our profession.
Actually you fatcat are the pot calling the kettle
You see in another thread you called me a bully. Now that you are doing the bullying, you are calling yourself helping. Well isn't that like talking out of both sides of your mouth.
Oh, I guess you never thought your previous comments would come back to haunt you, but you were wrong, so wrong.
You need to stop acting so perfect and understand that this is a message board. Sure, professionals read it, but even in the above post by a so-called MTSO teacher, there are errors.
Have a great day!
I'll have to take a raincheck, Fatcat...
I unfortunately live in what I fondly refer to as the 'armpit' of our lovely state in central California. I envy you living in that lovely area. I used to live down that way myself, as well as the northern CA cost, and being an 'inlander' is culture shock, lol!
If I lived closer I would most definitely be up for a burger on the pier, that's for sure!!!
Agree 100%, Fatcat - It's out of character
You're right about that, Fatcat. As I said, the silence on their part is deafening and that, in my experience, is totally out of character for the management at MDI-MD.
To me, the thing that really piques my concern is the fact that it's not just one account that has apparently dried up. You and I are on totally different accounts, and both of ours are without work. At first, I thought perhaps they had lost one of the accounts, but I doubt they would have lost two major accounts at the same time; that puts me back to square 1 in trying to figure out what's really going on and holding out hope for things to improve.
I also notice our posts are starting to read very similarly to the initial posts of our fellow MTs at the Q when their work started to inexplicably disappear, the confusion and uncertainty and hoping for the best.
At this point, I don't think I'll feel secure even if given a backup account. IMO, with things drying up, shuffling us to another account would just be taking work away from the MTs already on that account and would soon place that account into famine territory, too. If there's not enough work, there's just not enough work. I don't mind having one backup account, but I really don't care to have to juggle 3-4 accounts every shift with fingers crossed hoping to make my line count.
At this point, to coin an old expression, I am hoping for the best but proactively preparing for the worst.
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