Interesting posts. It is good to hear both sides

I can understand the employees who want everything and give very little back.  Very frustrating.

But then you have the situation described for the employee where there is no job satisfaction, no family/personal life allowed or frowned upon by management and no chance for promotion.   And then being compared to an Indian who has a completely different social environment. 

I know mothers who are IC and while they do take time off during the day for their kids (how dare they make dinner for those kids and hubby) but then they work long into the night after kids and hubby have gone to bed.  There are no weekends with their family either.  And the work reward is the pay will be lowered because the client wants to pay a lower rate.  It is not exactly incentive to work hard without any breaks and ignore the family in favor of what the company needs.

I remember years ago working for a start up company and the manager did not want the single girls to date at night and instead work late.  She thought they should be devoting their time to their career in transcription.  Well a Transcriptionist could do that but whether she worked harder or not the pay would be the same and she would always be a transcriptionist.  The manager on the other hand if the company did well would receive promotions and raises I am sure.  So that is the difference....management perks vs worker bee perks.  It was easy for her to give up a social and personal life because the rewards but the transcriptionist typing straight for hours and hours would see the same pay day in day out, no advancement or recognition for working harder other than not having a manager angry. 

However after reading that post I will be aware  and really give it my all. I do understand the need for a better work ethic.   I see what the management wants and needs.  Especially when managers are spending Thanksgiving with their families and the transcriptionist is working for 7 cpl with no break.  It is the American way of doing business.

• Why (Some) MTs have a bad name... - HD Wallen
  • Response to HD Wallen et al - Trish O'Neil
  • Just a thought - hangingon
  • Great post! Keeps us all grounded on what the MTSo has to put up with. - zzz
  • The state of MTing - MTness
    • Off Shore Folks - HD Wallen
      • But in the meantime, what are those of us - sm - There are just so many hours in a day...
      • I might add . . - MTness
        • It's that 'ol GREED factor, again! - no/msg. - You could never pay me enough to work in India!
    • So very true and I think sad at the same time...Nuff said...nm - Wow
    • MTing - anon
      • Interesting posts. It is good to hear both sides - Charlene
  • Job hoppers, undependable, drama queens SM - oh I know what you're saying
    • MTs become 'job-hoppers' because of a 3rd-world pay-scale, - sm - FedUp
      • FWOW - HD Wallen
        • I work 12 hr/day, 6 days/week, and my take-home pay - sm - NOT a 'McTypist'
          • if your take home is $6.50/hour and your doing quality MT work...sm - unbelievable
            • New? - Tammy
            • My, aren't we the Holy One. Talk about judgemental and - McTypist
              • if you are still working there for that particular wage...sm - unbelievable
            • make that you're doing, not your. sorry - unbelievable
              • I'll bet this one's a real joy to work for..... - NOT!
  • Hi HD. - Mel
    • Hey to you too! - HD Wallen
      • The pay cut I was asked to take was a reason I left. - Mel
  • I have been a recruiter for 4 different companies over the past 15 years. sm - BTDT
    • Why (some) MTs have a bad name - appreciative
    • If the good ones are so few and far-between, then - SM - FedUp
    • good post, but in response to 'why apply if you don't want the job'.... - zzz
    • I think you are getting what you pay for (sm) - MT
      • So true! - Jenn
      • AMEN to the max !!!! - nm - NOT a 'McTypist'
    • Willing to work - MT with 4 months of experience
      • If I were an MTSO, I would hire you in a minute! - zzz
      • Bravo! You are a smooth cookie! - see inside
        • I meant to say smart cookie! Sorry, heard snow on - the news in my area! NM
      • If the school was A or M, you would have SM - my 2 cents
        • Which school did you go to? - It was not C
          • What you are asking for is for - sm - the world has changed
    • You mention job hoppers in your post... - ..............
      • 4 companies in 15 years is not job hopping. sm - BTDT
        • I think the OP was stating that she got some - shifty people that wanted the work.
          • Offered - HD Wallen
    • It sounds like you may be a little jealous. - see inside
      • Well said . . . - MTness
        • Here is another side to look at. I am a transcription who is also an MTSO. sm - MTSO Input
  • Well can I just say - sm
  • Ack! - HD Wallen
    • LOL - NM
  • Thanks for making these points. - Always 2 sides.... nm

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if you called the office and told them that you had a medical emergency, there is no way on this green earth that they would lock you out of your account for that reason.  Absurd.  I've had to leave work due to illness.  That's part of life.  TransHealth is extremely accommodating. 

There is more to the OP's story than meets the eye. 

I'm glad to here that.  I am starting on 07/10/2006.  Everyone has been super nice and very accomodating. 

it can come back.  Posters like the rectum person need to be banned.

But the way things are going in transcription now, people need a place to vent.  There are some negative people who are negative by nature, but when everything is going to crap it's hard to be positive, and we need to be honest with each other.

If there actually was a place to send all of our legitimate complaints -- and there are many -- and someone would take us seriously and help -- maybe the situation could eventually be turned around.

And, one more thing, really bad things are actually happening to many transcriptionists today - they are NOT just WHINING.  We need a voice.

So, if you have a job that you are happy with, keep it as long as you can.  But, really, try to have some empathy for your peers who are facing REAL hardships.

place to work.  I wasn't working there full-time, but from what I saw, they have a nice benefit package, and the staff is very helpful and professional.  The only kinda scary part is that they require 99.5% accuracy (or maybe 99, cannot remember).  Fortunately, on my first QA thing before being released from QA, I did manage to achieve that (a little more actually), so I was relieved.  I guess I just do not have enough confidence in myself.  Unfortunately, they lost the account I was hired for, but they were looking for another one.  In the meantime, though, my personal life kind of took a different turn, and I ended up moving from Kansas to Colorado, so I decided one job was enough for now.

As for eTransPlus, they are also very friendly, although much more disorganized than some companies.  I was put off for a week and a half past the date I was hired to start, then when I did start, there were tech problems, then I did 4 jobs or so and ran out of work ... that kind of thing.  Again, when I decided to move, I just decided it was not worth the extra aggravation.  Still, I would recommend either company.

There are still some good companies out there, although I hesitate to comment since my experience is not recent.  I used to work for MDI-MD, and they paid VERY well at the time because you had to supply your own LD, and that was before the days of unlimited LD.  I had 5 accounts, so managed to keep myself busy, but now I read posts about people running out of work, so I do not really know.

I have heard good things about Axolotl, and I applied, but the only opening is 3rd shift with 80% ESLs, so I decided not to do it.  Their benefits are great, though - no deductible for BC/BS!  And there is a $500 sign-on bonus too.  Oh well ...

I talked to Acusis, and if you can overlook their heavy overseas connection, they have a nice benefit package as well.  The pay is so-so.  I guess no one ever pays me what I know I am worth. 

If you run into a company you are interested in, feel free to ask me.  I have been an MT for about 100 years now, so I might have worked for them! 

Good luck -- hope you find something wonderful. 

The thing with eTransPlus was not a good fit for me either.  I think it is probably a good company, it just didn't work for me as my start date kept getting pushed back, I was running out of work, there were program glitches, etc.  Sometimes some things are just not meant to be.  I hope you get on with Keystrokes again.  I know it sounds kind of gushy, but I have found them to be truly wonderful people.  I don't need someone to constantly sing my praises or anything -- decent pay and plenty of work is enough -- but it is kind of nice to hear thank you every now and then, and know that if you have a problem arise, someone will listen and try to help you. 

Again, thanks for posting -- great to hear from you!  Good luck! 

I see your point about some naysayers, but assuming the ones that are unhappy are job-hoppers and unhappy people isn't the nicest comment I've ever heard either.

I think this is really sad for several reasons. We're all at risk for our skill being replaced by VR and outsourcing, we ought to be supporting each other in ways we can make effective change by preventing that from happening as best we can and getting together and finding constructive solutions about proving that our value is just as important as expensive machinery or labor from foreign countries.

Many people are just realizing this,scared about the future, and trying to shop to find the best deal possible that's still out there, not realizing that they're all about the same at present, it's the state of affairs in the MT world.

If you want to stay with it and keep trying to find a way to beat VR and make a living still, that's cool, but it's okay to realize that some things are more tolerable on the job than others, and to each their own about what should be acceptable business practice. :)

turn the whole thread ugly.  Then the posts are all removed, and the company looks bad because the good was removed with the bad.  Yes, Keystrokes pays to have an ad on this forum but it is just an advertisement like the ones we have on other medical sites, in magazines, at trade shows and in other publications. 

I am going to set the record straight for those who are intersted.  If you are not, ignore the post. 

Keystrokes has grown from 5 to over 200 transcriptionists, from $50,000 in revenue to over $5 million dollars in revenue in 8 years, with the majority of the increase in the past 3 years.  This is public knowledge, available on the website, Inc Magazine site, Aspatore books, etc. so there is no reason to delete this. 

We have 100% account retention.  We recently declined meeting the price of an offshore company when a few of our radiology accounts went to voice recognition in the same health system.  We chose not to do voice recognition with them by not meeting an outragiously low price.  We do not outsource and stand firm on that regardless of what other do.

Keystrokes has been changing over the past three years, not disputed, but the changes benefit the MTs more than anyone.  Our rates are higher than many (not all) companies, our schedules have some flexibility, our managers are all MTs. 

We have caught a lot of grief on this board for various reasons, and a lot of it seems to be from the same few people.  Or from those who talk nonsense.  I truly hope that people reading these negative posts see sour grapes when they read them and understand.  Yes, there are some bitter people out there but they are ones that either did not make it through the initial period, have poor quality, have zero reliability, have made gross patient care errors or have breached HIPAA regulations.  Yes, there has been a turnover, but we have a great team in place and those who work at Keystrokes like/love working there.

We have heard that only a very small percentage of transcriptionists actually visit the MT websites for anything other than the job openings.  A big reason is the pettiness and ugliness that the posts seem to bring out.  Another is time.  A lot of MTs work on computers all day long and want to spend off work time off their computer. 

If you have questions about Keystrokes, go to the company for answers. 

I defend the company that I work for but have made a promise to myself to stop visiting here and two other sites because they really just take up time that should be spent on other things.  I hate that the bashers will still be bashers and that no one can defend a company (any company) without being attacked.  So the bashers are the only ones that post.  I wish you all the best and rest assured, Keystrokes will continue to grow as a national presence, and will continue to attract customers and MTs and will continue to make both very happy.

Once I sorted through the nasty and bitter posters and then the cheerleaders, for lack of a better word, a few companies seem to be truly good companies to work for.  All I am looking for are a few specifics that will tilt the balance for me.  I do want to say that all 3 know that I am talking to the other 2 and I was surprised at the reactions.  ALL 3 of them only had nice things to say about the other 2.  They did not bash those companies or try to sell me on theirs, just gave me facts. I was impressed by that.  There were 4 that I originally had narrowed it down to, but one of them went on and on about how the others were horrible and I would be better going to them.

Here's what I need to know about MDI Maryland, Keystrokes and TT.  I just want the facts, not the bitterness.  I would really like answers from MTs who have been at one or more of them for more than 6 months.  I think that 6 months is a good evaluation period.

Do they pay on time?
Is the pay correct?  If not, do they fix it right away?
Do they run out of work on a regular basis, not just during slow periods?
Can you reach a manager when you need one?
Does IS return your calls?
Do they give feedback if you ask for it?
Do they send work offshore that you know of (worked for a company that said no but really did)?
Do you get a good feeling from them/gut instinct?
Would you refer your friends or family to them if qualified?

Thank you in advance.  I am trying to decide by Monday and these are things that current and past employees can answer.  Please do not give me vague answers like don't go there or they're great.  I really am having a hard time choosing.