I figure working from home is worth at LEAST sm
Posted By: Mamadog on 2008-07-01
In Reply to: What!!!! - Old MT
an extra $5/hr for me right now (maybe more). Had offers to work in-house. Ability to work from home is the ONLY reason to do MT. Absolutely no point in leaving the house to do MT work.
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In the early days, MedQuist said working at home was a benefit, therefore at-home sm
employees did not receive as many benefits as those working in-house. As I believe, it was something like at-home employees got 3 days off a year versus 10 days for the in-office employees -- WHAT?!!! I told them it made no sense to me, since by working at home I was saving them money -- no need to provide office space, equipment, references, utilities, etc. -- yet I get shafted. I was only part-time when they took over the previous company with their great policies, and I told them to kiss where I can't.
And now I am sure that they will figure out who you are. Move on. If your home number was given sm
there must have been good reason. Perhaps you were one of the ones posting lies on here and using names and such?
working from home is awesome but working for DSG is not...
horrible dictators, sound quality is bad, no answers to emails and they run out of work consistently...that is just my experience though...
How do you think MTSO can figure this way of working into her business plan?
:+
3 cpl is like working for nothing! And getting your CMT should be worth more than a 1 cpl raise.
s
Thanks. I am used to working at home
and not having to deal with this. This hospital has opened up a new surgery center which is its own entity and that took away a lot of our transcription plus a good majority of our radiology has gone to templates so in other words we are now very over staffed. They pulled some of us in-house to work on other stuff when transcription gets low which it frequently does so when I work on other things I get paid an hourly rate. I make more typing. Some of the other transcriptionists refuse to do anything else but type and one of the supervisors made a comment that that is not the right attitude to have. I have considered the nationals mainly due to my pay cut and gas prices and of course this coworker doesn't help, but am afraid of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. I have read horror stories on this board. Its hard to decide what to do. There is little opportunity for transcriptionists around here. The ones that have a job are holding on tight. One of the local multispecialty clinics outsource to India  and another one of our big multispecialty clinics do voice recognition and templates. They still have transcriptionists but let a lot of them go. I live in a remote area also and never thought I would have to worry about India, templates, VR since big city people claims we are soo far behind but it has happened. Oh, well thanks for letting me vent. I feel like I did this on the wrong board though, probably should have been on the main board. Sorry.
Working at home
If you compare working at home to having to get up and go into an office somewhere, rain or shine, that is a big plus. The only drawback to this profession is the declining line rate. Guess thats really up to the MT I guess. They will pay what you are willing to take. Just have to keep shopping around until you get what you want. Much better alternative than getting all nasty about the company you work for, there are plenty more out there, and they all pay different.
working at home
I work for a local hospital that has been promising us to go home for 7+ years and still be employees of the hospital. We have Dictaphone and recently got speech. We are in the learning phase. We were told they (hospital) cannot decide if we will use their equipment or your own equipment. I and another co-worker also work for a service. That threw up a red flag for us both. Our own equipment - independent, no benefits or possibly every thing outsourced and then possibly lose the job. We both figure with the speech recognition coming and possibly having to use our own equipment, it would be easier for a service to take over. Any thoughts to that?
This is why I like working at home - ALONE. nm
x
Why are you working from home?
If it is so expensive, why are you doing it? Some people will complain that the sky is blue. No wonder you can't make any money with that poor wittle me attitude. Boooo hooooo!
But check the archives about InterPro. Many problems there, not worth working there just to use your
xx
Happy working at home
I love working at home for a hospital. I don't have to share work station, books, equipment with anyone. You have to teach family and friends that you are really and truly working, and to leave you alone during work hours. It's easy to allow intrusions but set rules from the start.
I had to work in the hospital med rec/MT department for a month and while I enjoyed the people, I hated being there in a windowless dingy room. At home, you create your own work environment. My two coworkers at home are two cats who keep me company. Good luck!
Exactly! When I first started working at home
with only 2 years clinic experience (no acute care at all), I was offered .075 cpl. Six years later, with that much in acute care experience and with the very same company, I was offered .0725. Something is just so wrong with this picture!
working from home question
I have been working acute care hospital, clinics, and doctor's offices for the past 7 years. All done from the same hospital, which handles it all. My favorite thing to type is op notes, but can and do everything.
I would like to work from home, but live in the wilderness with no possiblity of high speed except satellite or dial up. I have heard that dial up is impossible to make any money.
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to use dial up and make good money and how good is satellite?
What is the best way to go about finding a good work from home job?
Is it safe to put a resume on the internet?
Any other suggestions?
Working at home is very important to me
But keep in mind we HAVE BEEN working at home in this industry and making GOOD money for years now. It is only recently that this downslide has occurred. It is as much a benefit to the employer as it is to the employee to work at home. Think about all the money they save in office space and utilities and more and more of them do not supply equipment anymore. They want us to keep thinking the way your post reads and forget that we benefit them by working at home too. The working at home is a wash when it comes to which side benefits so we need not even go there
Interruptions working at home
You have to be very stern with everyone, especially family.
I told mine long ago, This is my room. I work in here. When the door is shut I am invisible to you because why? I AM WORKING. hehehee.
I don't answer the phone. Let them leave a message. If it is too tempting to stop and answer it, unplug it.
Put a note on your door for ding dongers - Day Sleeper. No Solicitors. That keeps them away.
The problem is MTs because we work at home have this wonderful life of freedom. Sure. It means that we can pick up everyone else's slack, or have them angry at us because we don't do it. Or we end up doing for everyone and working while those 8 to 5 folks are sleeping to make up for what we could not get done during the day. Or for those who call and ask you to pick up their kid from school, or take grandma to the doctor/pharmacy - call them once at work and ask them to do the same for you. They think it's ridiculous. That's when you can point out to them how untrue that is.
My favorite expression when I am interrupted is, OH SURE! I CAN DO IT, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!
It makes them feel bad and away they go with their interruptions.
Lasty, if you have a headset on when folks try to talk to you, pretend you can't hear them. :) I heard one of my nephews tell the other one who was trying to interrupt me, Don't bother, she can't hear you she has that head thingy on. hahaha.
I love working at home...
I agree that there are those out there that think being an at-home MT is a piece of cake and anyone can do it and they are sorely mistaken...I have an 8-1/2 year old and a 14 month old and I take great pride knowing that I am able to do my job and take care of my children....I have never used my children as an excuse not to get work done and I don't plan on it...my job as an MT is very important and I do it to the best of my ability....I do wish people would take more pride in their work but we don't all have the same work ethics unfortunately...
HOW IS WORKING HOME A BENEFIT???--sm
Like Judge Judy said in her books, Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. Who benefits the most (financially) from MTs working at home? Who doesn't have to provide an office? Who doesn't have to provide a PC (except for a fee)? Who doesn't have to pay the electric bill to use this equipment? Who doesn't have to pay the MT's phone bill? Who demands the MT have high-speed cable internet connection? Maybe your definition of benefit is different from the rest of the working world, but I/we count a benefit as something we can take to the bank, i.e., insurance, PTO, etc. (FT only, yet). 
Yes ago I was working for a home health
care agency and they tried to initiate EMR. This was 15 years ago and I didn't know what EMR was at the time. It was a no go. Recently had an appointment for my son with a specialist we saw for the first time. He was so busy filling in the blanks, that he barely even looked at my son and sort of having a limb missing or having green skin I don't think the doctor would have noticed any issues. If they want EMR I don't have an issue with that, but why not just have an MT transcribed document uploaded into a databank?
I hear ya! When I first started working at home...sm
I felt pressured to the max, but what I finally did was to put my bills in date-due order and placed them where I could see them at all times while working. It sounds silly, but it caused me to discipline myself like I had never done before - and after awhile, it became habit to work as if I were in house and actually helped me to increase my income! It is really nice not to deal with the office politics and a supervisor at the next desk, too! Good luck to you!
I make more working at home that I ever did on site
the most I made as an MT on site was 8 bucks an hour.
Working from home/office work
I feel I need to speak up. I understand that the industry is going backwards in pay and for all of the more experienced MT's this is really degrading from what I hear from some. I understand and I would probably feel the same way. This is a craft. Not everyone can do what we do. It is a very hard craft. We should be paid what we are worth. There is no doubt about that but I also know how it works in an office in this industry. Being in an office is awful! I did it for 15 years. I worked at 2 different companies and both took advantage of the hard worker I was. I had MULTIPLE jobs and was not compensated for it. When I hear MT's complain about how bad they have it I want to scream. Yes, the pay is an issue. Yes, the belittling emails from managers is ridiculous. I completely agree and all of those managers should be let go but you do not know how awful it is to be in an office setting dealing with those belittling managers.
Trust me everyone in the company you work for or wherever that is not a VP or CEO is going through hell on a daily basis and not getting paid for it. You are making a lot more money for the time you put in than the people working in the office mostly. The people in the office are probably working on salary. When you figure the hours they work and the amount they are paid that are probably making about $5.00 an hour or less. They also have to work nights/weekends etc. from home. They also are having to listen to all of the MT's daily when they have a problem, they call in giving a excuse as to why they cannot come to work and trying to scramble to get the shift filled when the MT is really not sick as she said, problems dealing with the clients and their complaints about the work or turn times, problems with MT's and editors fighting via IM or email, problems with the Sales guys telling potential clients...oh yeah, we can do that...when we CANNOT.
I could go on and on. Being in an office is a lot more work than you would think. I would be greatful for what you have. I am not bitter at what I have gone through in an office setting. It got me to where I am today. I just want to let you know it is not easy working in an office and it is a lot harder than being an MT when you can type and then stop for the day and not have to answer to others and deal with their issues. Being an MT is a craft and it is hard...just be thankful!
Have a HAPPY HOLIDAY! Be joyous! Feel Blessed!
What is your problem with moms working from home?
It sounds like you have some kind of bias against moms working from home! What is wrong with that? Just because an MT is a mom working from home does not automatically qualify her as someone who puts out crappy work. I am sure there are tons of moms on this board who put out quality work. I put out quality work now and once my baby comes I will still put out quality work. Quit bashing moms working from home.
Do any acute care hospitals still have MTs working from home? sm
Back in the day (which was a Wednesday... in case you are curious)... I started out working for a huge acute care facility, then went home for them. Any of them still do that?? You can e-mail me if you want.... I'm sick of working for nationals.
I hate it when people tell me that working at home is a benefit (sm)
Benefits are something that the company pays for. No use as MTs. If it was a true benefit, then they should give us the money to cover the costs of what daycare would be, because if you have kids, generally they stay at home with you, right? So, they should be compensating us for daycare costs on top of what we already make. Now THAT would be a benefit!
I worked for them years ago, back in 1994. No one was working from home then... SM
Well, if you were working from home, you were coming in and picking of tapes. It was a pretty good place to work. I was just starting out as an MT so it was really good experience for me. They paid me hourly, but I was in house back then.
I have a friend working in a hospital and she is looking for a company from home as an employee.
Would anyone care to recommend a good company?
Hmm....working on the holidays, PMS, kids home from school, wanting to find a better job but can'
s
Yes, SPi does use this platform....it's a great platform, but not worth working for SPi. nm
#
I love doing pathology, but it is hard to find a position for working at home. Gross pathology is
easy, descriptive typing. Microscopic is a little more difficult, but once you get the terminology down, it goes really quickly. I also found it easy to get lines in with pathology. If you've done acute care, you should not have a problem with the transition, IMHO.
Ditto.. Over 13 years experience working in hospitals doing all types of reports, currently working
for a national etc.. and Spheris told me I didnt have the qualifications. What cracked me up was the hospital I was working at at the time contracted some of our work out to them.. What a joke..I was good enough to work for a hospital and gave them work, yet not qualified enough for them. What is wrong with this picture.
MQ same situation. No pay for working holidays, no pay for working weekends nothing. Now noone works
much anymore and so they jerk the work out of the accounts to some place that throws it back with a lot of bad bad quality. This is the NE region. I dont know what the others are doing.
I know how to figure it,
how do you qualify for it? The account I work on never offers that, the most they offer is an additional 0.05 per line when they are behind.
Let's figure this out. sm
I am currently working for 10.5 cents per line, equipment furnished, and I get two weeks PTO per year, plus health insurance for $21.00 a payday and that insurance includes health/dental/vision/life, and direct deposit. Compare that to FN, no insurance, no bennies, no direct deposit and, at most, 10 cents per line. There are several small MTSOs out there who provide benefits and pay as I am describing here. Why in the world would you work for a company who provides no benefits at all, not even direct deposit, for 10 cents a line? I just don't get it.
I don't think anybody has been able to figure that out yet
You'll find a few people posting that it didn't affect their line count, but the majority of posters did lose big going to the platform.
Nothing to figure out, really. sm
They no longer pay for demographic info, headers (client letterhead), footers (signature line and DD/DT block/initials), CCs, etc. Add that all up times each page and that is a lot of lost lines, possibly hundreds of lines per day.
GO FIGURE!!! That is what is
what is wrong with our society, no one wants responsibility for there own actions. If you screwed up, and I know for a fact that some of you were not doing your work, because i am the MT that turned you in, then take responsibilty for your screw up. Quit blaming everyone at Shapin for your laziness. And now that your gone, I have your job and I absolutely love it. So I guess I owe you a thank you.
Not sure how you figure that one
Never heard this one before - trying to convert minutes to lines!
.9/line is not a bad rate, depending of course on the specifics of the work (type, difficulty of dictators, TAT, etc.
200 minutes could actually be very few lines if the dictator is a pauser... or a lot of work if they dictate like Robin Williams talks...
Ask for more details.
How do you figure your cpl?
How do you figure your cpl for editing? I don't get it.
D&L - go figure
Poor them, to hear them tell it, every body is lying on them and telling stories. I do not understand how they have Transcriptionist working for them. I have not heard a one that has gotten a check on time and one that they know will clear. Living from paycheck to paycheck and fearing a bounced check would scare me off for sure. Yes they have client's - they do not know what is going on - but I say let the owners type the reports, for sure the clients would not last a week with her skills. Everybody complains, but they remain there - can I just ask why - i would rather work for less than work and worry about a check.
here's the way I figure it
Okay, so 45 minutes of dictation equal 2700 seconds, say 1 hour per 1000-1200 seconds on average typing between 150 to 200 lph, counting referencing time and proofing time, I would say about 2-2-1/2 hours average of actual transcribing time.
It would seem that if you can't figure sm
out correctly how to calculate $25 an hour, you're not going to be able to reach that.
how do you figure that? If i'm doing less
the company makes less off of me as well.
Cheating out of money would more likely come from charging the client by the line and paying the Transcriptionist per report, among other ways.
Hon, if you can't figure out how to
do that, you need to work on your computer skills - LOL.
I figure...
...NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS! I would assume that I am doing such a good job that they have no reason to contact me.
how do you figure that?
Just curious
what I can't figure out is why any sm
interviewer/supervisor/owner or whatever would even tell that story to an employee much less a new-hire. I sometimes wonder if folks just do that to make themselves sound important. Personally I could not care less what goes on with other employees. I do my work, do it well and expect a paycheck. If that doesn't happen, then I am outta there.
you can figure that one out. Just figure sm
out what you make working at home and the number of hours your put in to make it. Compare that with the hourly wage in a facility. Most facilities still pay hourly and some have incentive plans.
I figure around
30-35% for all taxes.. For myself, I figure I'm saving gas, clothes, time, and car repairs by being an IC at home.
Trying to figure out why you would come here with those problems.
nm
I can figure out the percentage, but...
How does one go about figuring their estimated tax?
According to what I've read on the IRS site, we have to pay estimated taxes. Well, great. I can estimate my income at what I'm making now, just starting out, but I don't see my income staying this low, so I would eventually be underpaying. I could estimate it at a higher amount, but what if I don't make as much as I think or hope I will? I can see where getting a refund is a good thing, but I'm more worried about underpaying.
Do you pay the tax on what you've ACTUALLY made in a quarter (it kind of sounds like it) or do you go about estimating your income, say you figure you'll make $20k a year, and put 25% of that away?
Confused.
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