I think it's because back in the old days, when -
Posted By: the 'Invisible' MT on 2007-10-29
In Reply to: Ive been wondering for years why we don't have a union. - Anon
this was considered a 'good' job, many of us (myself included) felt we didn't NEED a union. Now, looking back, I think that if we'd had one back when things were better, our profession wouldn't be in the sorry state it's in today.
The other reason is that for the most part, the average MT is usually less of a 'joiner' than lots of folks, and harder to convince they need a union. Also, since MTs are usually women, employers have found us easy to belittle, intimidate, and insult with puny, ever-shrinking wages.
I'm sure most of us, back when few of us had our own PCs, were being told constantly by our employers that we were 'lucky to have a job at all' - (remember that little speech?) I'm sure you all heard it at one time or another.
We are usually isolated, as well - either at home or cloistered away in an area away from the main part of the hospital, or even sometimes completely offsite. That isolation makes it even easier for employers to feed us all the bull they've been feeding us for so many years, all the while sending our work offshore to make even more of a profit, and then patting each other on the back for cutting our wages and our benefits.
Now that we have the Internet, with all its information, and MT forums like this one, I think we should use this powerful tool to unite and start to speak as one large, powerful group, instead of lots of insignificant individuals. In that way, we just might be able to draw public and political attention to what's been going on.
The healthcare industry is ALREADY under a lot of scrutiny lately for lots of OTHER shady goings-on that it's been involved with. The whole MT mess, with poor-quality records being produced for the sake of profit, private personal records going to god-knows-where, etc., needs to be brought to the attention of all those who are lobbying against the healthcare industry's practices up on Capitol Hill.
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It took them 2 to 3 days to get back to me after
testing. I never interviewed, just submitted the test and they e-mailed me with an offer. The testing goes through QA, so if there are doing another hiring blitz there may be a backlog. I knew I had done well on the testing and really thought I'd hear from the sooner, but was told testing was hung-up in QA.
They got back with me within a couple of days. nm
It took about 10 days after testing for them to get back to me. nm
s
I heard back within 3 or 4 days...
and other than low pay, it is indeed a great place to work! They do give quarterly bonuses which helps a bit to cushion the 7 cpl (for clinic work). Good luck.
I was off QA in 2 days, have never had a report sent back to me....
have worked for this company for 2 years and have been an MT for 6 years. Before that, maybe a handful of reports sent back in the previous 4 years.
I heard back from her in 3 days
I tested and was asked to interview 3 days after my test. I accepted the position and then received my acceptance later 2 days later. If it's been 3 days, I would probably write and ask about the status of your application. She is pleasant and answered my emails in a very timely manner, which was nice.
I want the old days of transcription back!
Thanks for the rely.
In my 30 years of transcription, 28 of them I have loved,I was proud to be an MT even with the addition of ASR -- I can't say I really like it, but you know you grow and learn with the times and sometimes its for the better. Sorry to say, though, I am sad to see so many unhappy MTs now. Our jobs are now based on line counts and perfections of comas, etc, and not necessarily the integrity of the report that you will be paid for, or for that matter the difficulty of the doctor.
I always felt that transcription could see me into my golden years, and my knowledge that I have required through those years would better any company I might work for. I am sad to say that transcription is now just money, like the rest of big business and the integrity of MTs is at stake. I am so sad for my career which I thought I never would be. I don't want to leave this field but I have been nitpicked to death, moved to practically every region and hospital in the US (lost count after 100) and cheated out of a decent wage long enough. The last two years I have put up with hoping it would get better and it hasn't. Looking at other companies and they seem to all be the same, greed and money is what motivates then and nothing trickles down to the MT. These big companies, like MQ, have not yet realized the terrible mistake they have made and when they do all the good, old loyal ones will be gone. They have forgotten who makes the revenue for their company. It is the MT. If we are not typing, there would be no QAing, no Leader, no nothing.
Sorry, to go off but my last straw has been broken.
I got mine back in maybe 2 days. They've been
running an ad so may be swamped. I didn't take the position because I found out they offshore and what the recruiter told me and the team leader told me were 2 totally different things about the account they wanted me to work on.
If you are going to get it back to them in 2 days, you should charge BIG buck. But from what I
:+
Back in the days of YOG FN didn't have a good
name either. Your post shows just how unprofessional FN is and surely does not entice anyone to apply with your company. Even if what the person posted is not true, you could have chosen to take the high road, but instead you took the low road.
look back a few days.. LONG post about this
I so totally relate! I go back to the days of mag-cards,
I took a Wang course at the local Jr. College because my boss said they were getting one. Suffered through a year of typical school garbage: a semester of 'The History of Word Processing'; a semester of classroom work for Wang information; then another semester of lab -- made all the more exasperating because the PC I'd been assigned to kept breaking down on my lab nights. Ah, yes. The good old days.
But at least back then, a person could rent an apartment and fill their refrigerator on what we were paid. Remember that? Nowadays it's nothing but a distant memory...............
Just scroll back several days and search the pages for webmedx. nm
x
I sent it in the first day, heard back in a few days, took the test and started last week. sm
I know that they are very busy and it sounds like they are getting even busier. It took about a week after I took the test to hear, but I was told there were over 100 people taking tests and they were picking the best scores.
Tested there 10 days ago and never heard a word back..guess I failed! nm
nm
That is what I just said. !0 days PTO, period. That includes vacation, sick days and personal days
They should have paid holidays so that you are paid if you take off. Also should inculde extra hours for sick days and personal days.
That annual raise of .002 is kind of a joke especially when at the same time they upped the minimum line requirement from 10,000 lines to 12,000 lines.
OSi just does not have the qualified people in management positions that I wish to work for.
I am glad that you are happy at OSi and all is working out for you. Their dishonesty and the way they treat people just does not work for me.
Of course they can get by cheaply by hiring unqualified people so that is very good for the owners.
You bill 30 days behind, and they snail mail it so it's late - about 40 days from invoice
No way jose - they even messed up their direct deposit payments
Maybe she/he works 14 hour days/7 days a week? nm
x
Would that be 5 business days or 5 regular days?
So when are we going to be paid this time around since you're so knowledgable?
Sorry, but for some of us a day or 2 actually makes a difference.
Most want 20 hours over 5 days, but it could be more, or it could be spread over 4 days. nm
s
Correction - TH has 5 PTO days 1st year/10 days 2nd yr
x
Axolotl within 30 days. Transolutions in 60 days. NM
xxx
It is true. Any job has its good days and bad days.
Perhaps you'd like to just keep your old job and try this one out. Just because a poster here is crabbing about it, or even if as in the past there have been negative posts, odds are that there are very happy people who don't even post or know that this board exists. As Alice says. Everything is relative. The fact that this company is hiring and pays may be a place which is a blessing. As opposed to digging ditches on day labor for example. Or somebody might prefer digging ditches. This is just an example. Sometimes we who are employable, even though we don't make as much as we used to in this business, or as much as we would like to, we still if working at home do not pay for gas to go to work, career clothes, deal with office politics, have to look at a boss who writes us up if we are a minute late, etcetera. I don't make half as much as I used to, but I don't send my 3 children to day care which by the way saves us money. SO I remind my husband I am worth that in addition to my salary if I had a job outside. No job is perfect. I am not even sure if Focus is any good or not, I have not worked there. But if one poster says there are good days and bad, I say that is the most honest answer you are going to get anywhere, and if you need a job badly, how is it to hurt trying it out, until you know for sure for yourself? THanks for listening. But sometimes this board gets to be a bit much with the agendas of people railing on other people like the OP here who just wanted all opinions instead of just one side. Balance is always great. And, if things seem lop-sided, then it is a good thing to seek out both sides. IMHO.
I think they would. Those are good days for 10-hour days. sm
I have a set schedule but it is Tues-Sat and it works well for me. It wouldn't hurt to ask!
90 days is correct. 3 days off 1st year, 10 during 2nd.
nm
I worked in QA for Transcending back in 2000-2001. They were paying hourly back then. SM
The accounts weren't too horribly bad. The reason I ended up leaving was because slowly but surely they began to inch closer and closer to paying QA by production. When I first started, the quota was something like 30 reports a day. We simply had to make sure that we QA'd all reports that were close to being out of TAT first and then do the rest. Then, my supervisor left and they hired a new one who immediately called a big teleconference meeting and said we had to up production to 60 reports a day. Then, they started counting lines. Which was fine because they were still paying hourly.
Next, there was an MT who used VR software because she was blind - yes blind. Again, when I first started, I was told we had to edit her entire reports because she used the VR software and we had to make sure that everything was correct and made sense. Then, we are told only check the blanks. I wasn't comfortable with that and I continued to completely proof every word. Then I was called on the carpet not because I wasn't meeting the production quota, but because I was ONLY meeting the production quota. I told them I was proofing all of the MT's work that used VR, I was told that no one ever told me to proof every word of the VR reports and that I needed to fill in blanks and move on. When I voiced my concerns, I was told that was my job, to fill in blanks and I should move on and strive to product above the standards. Next thing you know, rumors abounded about changing the QA staff to being paid on production. So I left.
There just seemed to me to be too little concern for quality and more emphasis on quantity and I just didn't want to be part of company who would take money out of my pocket just to line their own and that's what they were doing by putting QA on production. I also am not comfortable with the job of QA being thought of as a blank filler. There is much more to the QA profession than just simply filling in blanks.
I don't know if Transcend ever did start paying QA by production, but I could see that the idea was being floated there. Maybe there was a enough protest that they didn't change from hourly.
Good luck to you!
Phoenix Medcom- Another apply a few months back, ask to take a test and never heard back??
I applied a month or two ago, received an email from someone asking if I would take a test and said she was getting ready to go on vacation for a week, so I hurried and immediately and told her I'd love to take the test. I never heard back. I waiting thinking she went on vacation and would contact me when she got back to do the test but nothing...very strange..Just wondered if this happened to anyone else.
Has everyone heard back from Keystrokes yet regarding the email we received a while back?
Just wandering why I haven't heard any response yet.
I sent them an email back in August and never heard back sm
Is this company on Long Island? I checked out their website and even tried calling once. Were you successful in contacting them? All i know is that the company is owned by some doctors.
Hopefully, you will hear back. Unfortunately, I immediately heard back from MD-IT
but somehow with over 16 years of experience, I blew the test. I was soooo disappoionted and yet pretty stunned. I am by no means perfect but I haven't flunked a test in years. I expected it in my early years but not this far down the road. I was so confident and they will not tell you which part you did not pass and why so it really just blew my mind. I must have been in shock for like two hours after I got the email. Oh well, someone will want me....hopefully. I was thinking about OSi but I don't think I could take another rejection if I never heard back.
Were the 2 days weekend days? sm
They expect everyone to work a weekend day. Their definition of team player is to actually work 6 or 7 days a week. One might consider it if the pay was there & she gave out some decent work. It is the ideal place to work if you are a workaholic with no life.
11 days is more than you would get inhouse...usually 10 days.
We have the convenience of working at home and yet you want MORE than what inhouse positions offer?
Ask if those are calendar days or biz days too nm
x
I had the same thing happen, went back to MQ, went back to KS and could not be sm
happier. I am on a different account then the first time and it is as if it is a different company. I have a great lead who leaves us alone most of the time but is there when I need her. It showed me that you can have a different experience within the same company.
I have to say that in the few weeks since they have the new office, it is much more organized probably because there are a lot of people there all the time. I had the pleasure of speaking to the new HR manager who was HR at a hospital, got my questions answered about insurance as I am going to full time and had a live voice pick up the phone.
Not all change is bad. This is one company that has changed for the better.
I was reading about the back up help. I would like also to have some back up work.
I am not getting anywhere near 12,000 lines this go around. My goal is 12,000 lines each pay period.
Back away from the hoops!! Back away!
I worked for them about 6 months - same mess to get hired - FBI check is right! It was unreal. I was so excited, though - they promised me the moon, and I really thought I had found my new home after centuries with that other company who shall not be named. What a disappointment, to say the least. All around horrible experience, and I would NEVER recommend them. Certainly they were not worth the hoops at all. Total waste of effort.
90 days
...so I'm not eligible yet, but that was the first good thing I heard about the...that their pay was about average, benefits were great.
I can't give specifics yet, so maybe someone else can help with that who already has it, I just didn't want you to feel ignored!:)
Re: A few days ago...
It was not a few days ago. It was weeks ago. They've gotten everything straightened out. I've posted in defense of this company before. They are compassionate, they are very helpful, and are all about finding ways to make us be able to do better as MTs and QAs. I love this company and hope to be there for a long time to come. Those of you who have no personal knowledge of the company need to not post in response to people who are asking legitimate questions. We hire newbies that have no experience and give them a chance. Unlike so many of the 'great' companies out there that everyone spends every day worrying about. We are onboarding more and more accounts by the week and are growing tremendously. I highly recommend this company. Good luck to any of you who decide to apply.
That's what they want... we have 60 days sm
to find another job and we can give them 1 days' notice and they'll consider it a lay-off, otherwise if we leave with no notice, they will give us bad references.
We all have those days
 It seems like I have days like this a lot lately. Isn't this job fun?
Five days for me. sm
have not yet started, just heard yesterday, but sounds good so far. Hoping this will be my last carnival! lol!
90 days
Diskriter benefits start after 90 days of employment. I have been with them since July 2006 and love it here.
It's been eight days now
And still no answers.
Despite their many good points, I disagree about the benefits. I think they are awful and very dependent on circumstance beyond the MT's control. I think they're only good for people who have been with them for a very long time and are allowed to stay on a primary account. I thought I was alone in this and even began to doubt my own abilities or chalked it up to my aging until talking to some other MTs who felt the exact same way; that every time they got good at anything their work was switched to something unfamiliar, keeping their production and wages down, and benefits next to nil. I've heard three MTs complain of this and wonder how many others there are.
yes, same here, last few days.
am getting concerned...did they overhire?
I believe it was 3 days
I think within 3 days I had heard back. In the week after that, we exchanged information, etc. Before 2 weeks were up, I was actively working on my account.
Good luck to you!! I am another happy Keystrokes employee.
Up 2 u, can take 5-7 days (sm)
They are probably checking references, background, etc. Give them a week from when you interviewed and then give them a call. They are interviewing a lot of people I'm sure since they always have ads on the boards. Can take awhile to get all candidate interviewed and make their best match for schedule and experience.
Sure you can, and use up one of your few PTO days.
I get 10 PTO PLUS 6 paid holidays!!
Gone are the days...... sm
Sorry, my opinion is that this is going to be the norm for most. I think the days of making .10 and over/line are gone unless you have already been employed somewhere for a long time. There might be just a few places that pay like this but I doubt many. Some places are even only paying .3-4/line for speech rec.
Some days yes, most days no..sm
It is usually my own fault if I don't get my lines in 8 hours. Usually related to too many interruptions, too many distractions (looking up something on internet, which leads to looking up something else and so on), or when Im not feeling well. I don't want to sound rude, but really look at why you may not be meeting your lines. You may find you have more to do with it than the system.
How often can you take days off at MDI-MD?
How do you maintain your required line count for the week if you take a day off? Do you have to make them up on other days or what? How many days in a row could you miss? I've never been an IC or SE before so just wondering since I've been reading about them being flexible.
TT these days.
All I have to say is ARRGGH. Sorry. Usually not this way, but that is the word for it. Arrrrrg. 
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