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If an employee, you'd be better off being laid off.

Posted By: CynicalMT on 2009-09-19
In Reply to: No Work - seektruth

If they would just straight up lay you off, you could collect unemployment, which in some cases would be more than the money made sitting in front of the computer for 10-12 hours a day.

And, in a bit of a double whammy, the lower the rate you'll get on unemployment should the time ever come that you can actually file, as most states base unemployment is determined on wages over the last five quarters, so the longer you stick it out the harder you stick it to yourself when they start calculating an unemployment wage.

I know someone who worked 8 days in early June 2008 (his previous work was early spring 2007). He has been collecting unemployment since August 2008 in the amount of $175/week. His home is paid for, he can't drive, and with some investments that pay monthly annuities, he is able to live better than a lot of people, without the stress that MTs endure wondering how they'll make their line count.


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I am a Heartland employee that got laid off and I won't support AAMT in any way. nm
x
Better yet, go get laid!!!
:{
Soon to be laid off...
Is there a way to find out which companies keep ALL their work within the United States?
laid off sm

Well I am another statistic.  I started at Milner Voice and Data back in June.  Things started getting very slow about 4-6 weeks ago.  I asked at least a dozen times what was going on and got the answer nothing it was just slow.  I even turned down another job because they told me it was going to be ok and this was normal.


Monday morning I talked to my supervisor and she said nothing.  Molnday afternoon I went to get into the system and couldn't get in.  Went and checked the mail before I called them and got a lay off notice in the mail!  What a way to notify someone especially when I had been asking for weeks.


Excuse was that the bigggest account (not mine) lost 60% of their volume when the hospital decided to not dictate the ERs because of budget cut backs.  Because of that, other MTs taking my work.  Apparently 9 of us were laid off.


I understand cut backs if there is no work, but I DO NOT understand lying when I asked and asked and asked some more.  Because of all this, the place that offered me a job, hired someone so Milner cost me a job.


O well, I have an interview tomorrow at 2 with another company.  We will see! Really bad way for company to treat MTs.   Stay away from this company and TB!


Proscript-Laid off sm

Laid off as a result of not enough work..still waiting to hear from them..


Yep, I got the laid off today too
I've been with Cymed forever too. I did double the required amount of lines to edit, typed when needed and worked the shifts nobody else wanted.  No one is safe with this company.  SPi took a #3 company and have run it in the gound!!  I am hoping they will go belly up before they can say what the...
I got laid off yesterday...duh
...
They laid off all US MT & QA employees.
Period. And they sent all work to India. You simply are one of a few ICs they subcontract to do the few reports India can't get to in time. You are not an employee of Cbay as they don't have any US MT employees anymore.... I do find it odd how defensive you are about it though.
Yeah, I got laid off by them when they sent
all the work to India, save for a few US IC radiology people for stats... I absolutely wouldn't advise working for them. They now own Medquist and are doing the same thing to them.
I got in it about 1970 and was laid off
end of 2007. Per GP's post below, we were well thought of at one time, the administrative secretary would come in occasionally and ask a question regarding English rules and such. Then, somehow, it all changed and we began to be regarded as useless workhorses, nags if you will, and you'd better not look up or stop typing for a moment or someone would say something. I would advise it against it just for what it does physically over time to your hands, arms, shoulders and neck and back. Great way to get out of shape especially if you work 8+ hours a day. It does keep your fingers limber, but that's about all. I can't think of any other profession where you are expected not only to know so much, but keep learning, and steadily getting underpaid. Might as well try to be a Bell telephone operator, going the same way as they did and telegraphers and pony express riders.
I got laid off too,. same scenario. sm
There were several of us that got the ax with no warning.
I did 2 weeks ago. My gal was very laid back
and I really enjoyed talking to her.  There was a ton of questions about how experienced in certain areas, you had to rate yourself, and also there was a verbal test, I think 10 questions, thinks like what is hypocalcemia, what MRSA stood for, things like that.  Very easy, had a job offer about 3 hours later.
Is this the company that laid off a bunch of
MTs at Christmas and sent the work to India? 
Cbay has laid off all of their US MTs and Editors
and sent everything to India. They bought up a lot of smaller US companies and slowly transitioned EVERYTHING to India.  What more is there to say about them?  Bad news.
they did lay off- didnt outsource but laid off a lot
They bought another contract and then lost it so had new employees and not enough work to go around
Anybody here been laid off by SmartMed recently?

SmartMed employees received an email about 3 weeks ago that there would be layoffs and/or cutting back on benefits, but no subsequent followup email, so we don't know if the layoffs have occurred already, or if we should still be waiting for the other shoe to drop.  It's a wonder we don't all have bleeding ulcers (no matter what company we work for).  There just doesn't seem to be any respect for our skills or the difficulty of the job.  We are just numbers on a spreadsheet. 


I know this won't be a popular sentiment, but as far as I'm concerned things starting going to hell in a handbasket for all of us with the advent of the Internet.  When you had to go in and work at a facility, be it a hospital or an MT company, they knew who you were.  They had to see you everyday and work with you.  You really were a part of a (visible) team.  I truly believe that made it more difficult to just be let go without a backward glance.


 


I never got the email and got laid off yesterday... strange... sm
I wonder what is going on. Was it the one with all the unemployment info in it?
Aren't they the company that laid off a bunch of MTs and
sent work to India a few months ago.  
We were getting laid-off, wages cut, losing bennies
Like for the last 5-7 years.
I was the *half full* type until my company laid me off.
They said identical things as this DRC acquisition. They told us to just keep working as usual and do your best. Three months later (after the Indians had proper training on our accounts), they laid off the whole US MT force. The particular account I was on DID NOT want their dictations outsourced overseas but this happened anyway until this account caught wind and eventually left. These things do happen out there, and all of these people have the right to feel skeptical. These Indian company takeovers happen more often than not. We MTs need to be less naive about things and more weary to protect our occupation.
Let me sum it up for you, 80% of work is done in India, they just laid off a bunch of American

QA people, some of which were hired only a few months before they were fired, and they just now fired a lot of their upper management.  Something is in the wind at Focus and it smells like crap!  Don't work there.  If you do decide to ignore the warnings, don't believe anything they tell you!  They lie to you right up until they call and fire you.


I thought there were posts a few months ago saying they laid off 50-some people. nm

Haven't had enough java this morning...should be "I got laid off today too" and "ground&
Bad day...please forgive me :)
Statuatory employee versus regular employee....
Can someone tell me the difference between a statuatory employee versus a regular employee?  My company offeres IC or SE status....I am confused about whether switching over the SE would benefit me more than IC status that I have been for some time with them?  What are the benefits and disadvantages of being an SE versus IC?  Thanks for all of your help!
They hire both IC and employee. I am an employee (see message)
and I have full benefits. I am very happy that I came to work here. I came as a statutory employee from a large company. Everyone at MDI has been great to me.
Depends on if you are employee or statutory employee (sm)
Employee, 8th and 23rd of month
Stat. Employee, 15th and 30th month
Diskriter - Anyone go from their employee to hospital employee with them?
Thinking about giving up on being their employee and applying for a hospital employee position through them, they have one in PA right now that looks good.  How is it for scheduling?  Do you keep your line rate or get whatever the hospital pays? Who manages those accounts, is it the same PM and DR that are on the other ones?  I have DR and feel like she doesn't have a clue what she is doing and it is so annoying, but I just don't have the guts to let the company know she needs to step it up a notch because the transcriptionists are not happy under her.  Are QA the same people or through the hospital.  They have 1 QA that is constantly asking us questions on doctors and format, things we should be asking that QA person.  Annoying that new people move up to QA but people who've been there 2 or 3 years get treated like dirt and jumped account to account.
I got laid off for MT Week. Happy MT Week to me!
x
Only employee and statutory employee..no IC
nm
As an employee
I average about 8.5.  They have an incentive if you type 12,000 in a 2-week pay period and that's not too hard to do on their system.  Plus they pay higher on the weekends and at night (which I do on a split shift).  I also figure the benefits are worth it because they use United, which I like the coverage in my area.  All in all I am happy with them and I really like my team leader, that's a big plus to me.
Is this IC, SE, or employee?
nm
Yes they do, also employee and PT
positions were available when I interviewed 6 months ago.
Every employee is different.
I have found OSi to be very flexible.  I personally do not work weekends.  We are required to work holidays if they fall on your normally scheduled days; although, getting paid at 5 cpl extra.  You can also request holidays off, which has never been a problem for me.  I have never been denied on a request.
IC vs Employee
You will pay more taxes as an IC because of SSI, whereas as an employee, you do not (your employer pays half of SSI.)
You said you are an employee? Where?
Where are these 4 companies that pay $8K a quarter for bonuses?!?! Please, do tell!!

And provide enough work for you alone to do that much work?!?! Please, do share!!
When you are an employee, do you
If so, you are better off being an employee. Otherwise, the so-called self-employment tax cuts heavily into your earned income credit. It did for me at least, without having made a huge amount of self-employment income.
You can owe as an employee also

If you filled out your W9 form and put down for 10 dependents you would also owe or if your marital status changed or your deductions changed.  All I am saying is that people think that because their employer is taking their taxes out for them they are not paying their own taxes.   When you handle your own money, you just have to be structured enough to take out what an employer takes out.   See your paycheck before and after taxes and see the percentage you are paying.  When you get a tax refund that is YOUR money that the government has had for a year.   You just underpaid.  You can also overpay as a business owner or an IC and get a refund.   But with the amount of deductions I have, I will never go back to an employee full-time as I would lose another 20% to the government and not ready to give that over.


employee or IC.
 
IC or employee?
I just checked their website and it states they only hire employees? It is possible to be an IC with them?
Yes, you can be IC or employee, nm
nm
Employee
Their platform is very productive and they offer full benefits to full-time employees. For that they do expect you to work an employee schedule as they try to have the coverage issues worked out. There have been some growing pains with work flow, but my experience has been they have been resolved quickly and certainly nothing chronic. They do not pay for spaces but I took that into account negotiating the line rate. The efficient platform and getting paid for headers also helps offset the spaces issue for me.
Is this as an IC, or are you an employee? nm
X
They must be as I don't do employee (nm)
@__@
Sorry.. Employee, soon to be EX, at MDI-FL..

Definitely need to clarify that.


Pay for IC vs. employee

I'm interested to learn the average difference in pay between IC and employee--such as, if as an IC I earn 9 cpl (65 char with spaces), as a regular employee what would be the equivalent?  I'm guessing about 2 cpl less, so it would be 7 cpl as an employee.  I don't need insurance though.


Thank you in advance!


 


IC vs employee
An employer generally pays about 20% in benefits and overhead for each employee which includes medical insurance, paid vacation, income taxes, 401K, equipment, fringe bennies.   So yes, in the example you gave it would equate to about 0.2 cpl.
Employee only. nm
xx
Are you and employee or IC? (nm)
/
An employee. nm
s
Really? I am a former employee of one of those
companies and I know one of them do.
are you an employee? sm
if so they are bound to take out state taxes. If you are an IC, of course not. Oh-- and by the way-- you would have to pay your state taxes yourself anyway :)