One thing I learned from nationals is that sm
Posted By: fn on 2007-08-07
In Reply to: No inconsistencies. Were you there? - In shock
you never get the same response twice to the same question. Best thing to do is to ask each person the same darned questions, take names, and write down the responses and repeat them back. When you get an inconsistency, bring it up then in a very nice way. Many times a company's staff is scattered in different buildings, sometimes even in different states so they all have different information.
It's going to be a while before more companies get their programs tweaked to adjust to Vista, so it's best to get yourself a nice new or refurbished computer with XP on it. As you see from other posts, it's very possible. Maybe you can find one locally at a little tech shop.
Relax. This will eventually work itself out. You just have to go step by step. Never mind the people hassling you here. There are more of the helpful ones than the negative ones.
You will get through this. I agree, though, computer hassles are soooooo stressful!
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One thing I have learned is that
there are too many negative people on this board lately. They are so unhappy and try to make everyone else unhappy. Take everything with a grain of salt. It's unsettling to most, but then again, those that post nasty messages usually do so to rile everybody else up.
If you are talking about companies, posters do have the right to post if they feel they are wronged, but a lot of times others will rip you apart if you contradict their posts.
I was a part of this board since the 1990s and everyone used to be so nice. Not so great anymore. I usually read but do not post often for that very reason. Heck, it's gotten to the point where they try to correct your spelling if you don't do it first.
I find that those with experience with any nationals or many nationals
usually are invaluable if they have many years of experience. The more nationals they have worked for, they have been exposed to many dictators and that is a plus! I say send on the resumes if that is the case. I also find that many hospital employees whether it be for 1 year or 10 or more usually are limited in style issues, but not a major disaster.
I learned something...sm
I doubt that had anything to do with why I didn't get the job but I had no idea it was shoo-in instead of shoe-in. I had to go look it up and read the story behind the phrase. Thanks!
Learned this way sm
I used to work part-time for a service in my former life. When I came in at 9:00 AM the 8:00 AM shift had already taken all the jobs and left the worst of the worst for me. Through much blood, sweat and tears, I became used to these horrible accents one by one and later in life became one of the best in town and had a waiting list of clients. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Let them be lazy, they'll never be good doing this, just getting by by the seat of their pants.
I finally learned
after three months of lies and late paychecks I quit. Great docs, but if you can't get your money, it doesn't really matter. Don't do it!
No, just an ex employee that learned
And, they won't can you because they need all the help they can get since they are set on lying, stealing, and cheating their current employees.
Sorry to hear that you have not moved on yet, you really need to before they ruin you as an MT.
Boy, I'll tell you what I learned with my .... sm
last few QA situations, and I hate it, boy do I hate it, but I found it's best to just keep it to yourself. It doesn't do any good to complain, just got me on their crap list. They nitpicked me so bad I finally quit. They showed me whose boss.
New job. Got a wierd QA. Just let it go. I don't want to get on anybody's list again! It'll pass. Let em go pick on somebody else. I know it shouldn't be this way, but seems like that's the truth in the way it is.
Hope this makes sense - pizza's here and I'm flying here! :)
I have learned over the years
that if the going payscale for 95% of businesses is X and there is one that pays Xx2 There is ALWAYS a reason. It does not make good business to pay twice the going rate unless you are trying to overcome some HUGE draw-back. Think some about it. Do you pay a babysitter $20 for an hour if you can get one for $8 -- unless you have baby gozdilla - THEN you pay $20 for an hour.
I learned today why/how they can say that...sm
Wherever a company's payroll division is based is where they can say their business is based. Hence, the MA office does their payroll/HR, so that is how they can say they're a US-based company, no matter where the rest of their work is done. Furthermore, yes, the people that I talk to, no matter where THEY themselves are sitting, are trained to say, Yes, WE are in Massachusetts because (loophole here) they say WE and are referencing the company. Most people (me) just assume they are talking about themselves specifically. I fell for it. My mom explained all this to me today, being a manager of a financial institution. :(
I've learned ...
... that the service always blames the ISP and the ISP always blames the service, and I even talked with Dictaphone directly who told me it's the ISP and what they have to do to fix it. I've learned that using a VPN connection causes problems, as well as the Linksys router and automatic fire walls. I've been 'round and 'round and 'round about this on both ends. I gave up and just told ANYone to fix it so it's usable. And they did. I THINK it was my ISP who insisted I get rid of the Linksys, they disabled a firewall and did some managing on their end. I get disconnected only occasionally -- not enough to get excited over.
Lesson learned!!!
Thanks
Lesson learned
The main thing I learned is that I won't be asking any more questions on this board, that's for sure.
Learned hard w/VS
I and many, many other seasoned MTs have learned a HARD lesson trying to work with VS. Very unethical. Not a good sign when the CEO uses vulgar language to curse MTs for something not done in-house at the Company's location - no where near the responsibility of the MT - The MT doesn't even have access to the servers in the Company office. Good luck to anyone who thinks they can handle it! A definite NO if I were asked should I apply by another MT. Apparently, this is the general consensus.
We learned to type in the same era
but other than that thing that used to happen on the old strike-arm typewriters where several keys would jam up together, I cannot remember hearing a difference in the sound of various keys. When the Selectric ''ball'' came out, that problem was resolved. You must have much better ears than I do!
I learned the hard way that when someone is so hateful like
this is because they are in the wrong and can't accept it and have to blame everyone and the brother for it. Sounds like OSi and she deserve each other.
Oops-correction, s/b learned!
Need more coffee! 
Agreed. I have learned my lesson.
I've learned that when I hear:
'You won't notice any difference, except things will be even better' whether it's about a change in ownership, a switch to VR, top management change, etc., my resume should start circulating. Three times I have given a company the benefit of the doubt and adopted a 'wait and see' attitude. I've been assured that the new situation will be a worker's paradise, that they've got my back, are looking out for me, that I am the backbone of the company. I've waited, I've seen, and now I will no longer do this.
And the team leaders learned the same tricks
from them. Learned fast not to believe them or trust them, either - they all learned how to talk out of both sides of their mouths.
I had my longtime pt time job and learned 2 new pt jobs.
adf
Amen! I learned to just ignore all the naysayers on here..(nm)
**
I learned a lot about MTSO from her post..not a job for me every..I'm definitley a worker bee.
I agree. Have people not learned its always slow after a holiday?!
/
Whatever it is, I've learned that it'll generally keep until morning.
Plus if I've been jangled awake in the night by the phone, and am only half-conscious (and wholly p****d off), I'm not going to be of much use, anyway.
If it's bad news, I'd rather read it as an email while I'm having my coffee in the morning.
thanks, learned s'thing new today: I am jonesing for some money!..nm
nm
I am not afraid of VR, as I learned it many years ago on a very good platform, but they did not cut
my line rate, but instead paid me for my knowledge in the medical field. By the way, I made very good money back then, too. Cannot allow my skills to be sold at one-half my current line rate. I have more pride in myself and confidence in myself than to be paid that cut-rate by any MTSO out there.
I thinkt that Shorthand works in more platforms, learned from experience. sm
I also think that not all platforms are bad, and that discouraging a fellow MT from learning more and Expander her horizons is not right. We should all learn as much about our field as possible and keep open minds as far as new technology is concerned.
I'd watch for press releases from SPi, that's how I learned about Cymed's acquisition
xx
Nationals
A lot of people mention how they won't work for nationals and the smaller companies are so much better in their pay and treatment of employees - can anybody name some examples of smaller companies who are better? There are so many out there, a few examples would help. Thanks.
No I don't do nationals.
I have over 15 years of experience on-site and was asked by physicians to work for them from my home office. I have only tried one national, and I did not like the platform. It was VR. I'm a free spirit, I guess. I'm an independent contractor, keyword being independent. I guess once you are your own boss, you pretty much get set in your ways. I don't know. I make great money though, and to me, there is nothing unrealistic about my paychecks. They seem very real to me. They cash at the bank in a realistic fashion. I use the real money that comes from the real physicians that I work for and I transcribe for real patients and I do a REAL good job or else I wouldn't have my real good paycheck. Everything seems pretty realistic to me.
ONE OF THE BEST NATIONALS!!
Transcend is an excellent company to work for, I have not had a bad experience with anyone there.
50 nationals?
Wowser. You must have a hard time remembering your reasons for resigning. My goodness. That is a large number of companies.
11 cpl--Nationals exist!!
Check with MDI in Gaithersburg, MD. If you are absolutely top-notch, they will pay you 11 cpl and you work 2 weekend days per month. You have until 11 PM to complete your lines (at least 1000 for full time and that may have changed) each day, after that, it is a "new day." You certainly can work from 11:01 to 7:00 AM but you don't have to. They are lovely people to work for. Pay is always on time--direct deposit. You would be a statutory employee.
I IC for two nationals, neither of which care that I sm
work for another--nothing to the contrary is stated in the contract. Thank you, though, for having the integrity to ask.
I work for 2 nationals and one knows
that I work for the other. I asked them when they were hiring me if it would be a conflict of interest and they said no. Only my team leader at my main job knows I work for the second job. The only problem I have is some days I get their programs mixed up. I'm constantly hitting control S to spellcheck and send the chart when it's F7 at the other job.
Really? It's the same as most nationals offer. sm
Considering I'm just a 3-1/2-year MT I thought it was good pay. 
Maybe I'm letting myself go too cheap?
Most nationals are going to have a lot of ESLs. sm
I was told by one MTSO owner that they needed American MTs to do that kind of stuff overseas because they couldn't ship that stuff out and expect any kind of quality in return. So as long as there are crappy ESL dictators, they will need American MTs.
I think it is funny that even their own people can't transcribe that stuff.
There are several big nationals in Florida with
hundreds of MTs. There is not just one company in FL with hundreds of MTs
Yep. Which is exactly why I'm giving up on nationals.
nm
been with 2 large nationals; will never do that again.
Much better with the smaller companies.
Nationals pay by the line, if you are an IC there is no OT - sm
You want more money, you work more basically. I don't know of any companie that pay hourly, it is all by the line, and incentive pay can up your salary. Some companies are better than others in terms of dictators and it is hit and miss until you find a good fit for yourself and your goals.
Largest Nationals?
What would you say the top 5 largest national companies are? Thanks!!
I prefer nationals. SM
I have worked years in hospital settings. It does have its advantages. Here's what I see the pros/cons are:
Inhouse Pros:
-- When you are done for the day, you're done!
-- You are not faced with family/friend disruption (see cons, too)
-- Company provides everything
-- Socializing is easy
-- Provides a change of environment
-- You have immediate access to assistance on all levels
-- HR and Payroll are usually in the same bldg and you can go down directly to them
-- Mgmt is readily available
-- You can usually view the entire workload and see how it is being distributed or balanced and have more input
-- Workload is limited to your employer's work only
Cons:
-- If you get too close to coworkers, they become intrustive on your work
-- If you don't share coworkers' perspectives, you can be given quite a cold shoulder treatment
-- You have to conform to a dress code usually
-- You have to leave the house in bad weather, park - sometimes walk a ways or even pay fo parking, etc.
-- Usually much more structured work and break times that are not too flexible
-- Usually paid hourly..sometimes with incentive plans. If you are really fast, probably not a good setup for you.
Love Nationals:
-- Work from home
-- Co provides equipment
-- Plenty of work and varieties of work
-- Paid on production -- great producers do very well
-- No worries about coworkers and social settings (getting along with annoying workers, etc.)
Yeah, those nationals are going away... NOT. SM
Hospitals and clinics outsource because they get sick of MTs saying Oh I won't work those days or that shift or something else. There are some good nationals and some bad nationals; don't lump 'em all into one.
Raiss with nationals
Anybody ever get a raise with a national company?.....seems like .08 cents forever
Nationals/Companies
I see a lot of griping/complaining/bashing regarding various companies on this board and quite frankly in 30 years of doing this, I have worked for most of them. I read complaints about ESL docs etc and quite frankly, I blame it on our educational system. When I was in school, I learned how to spell phonetically, therefore if a word had an f sound to it, I was taught that MAYBE that word could be spelled beginning with ph.
I didn't go to school to learn MT, I learned it on the job in a hospital with dictation tanks and an IBM Selectric typewriter. Right now, corporate America is going through a hard time, but yet I see MTs on here griping about the fact that they didn't get anything for Thanksgiving/Christmas/MTWeek -- well got news -- even corporate America isn't doing that any more and if they are, the companies are few and far between.
I get soooooooo tired of seeing posts to the effect of well, I only want to work M-F or what is acute care? GEEZ -- give me a break!!!! There are many companies, i.e., Sprint, Verizon, and others who offer 24/7 tech support/customer service, but I sure the heck don't hear them complaining. We are a nation now where MASSIVE corportate layoffs are going on and we are headed for a recession/depression. I would suggest that you quit complaining and posting negativity and be thankful that you have a job, no matter what.
Off the soapbox for now
I have worked for 6 nationals
one who could not keep enough MTs to carry the workload - forcing them to call EVERY SINGLE DAY I WAS OFF. I stopped answering the phone and found greener pastures where I may get called very occasionally but not EVERY off day.
Sick of nationals
Do not rule out larger private practices. I worked acute care for 13 years and then was outsourced. Then I spent 1 1/2 years messing around with Nationals and then found a position with a large orthopedic practice, 50+ docs. Very good benefits and I do work from home, though working from home was not an issue for me. With experience, these jobs are out there but you have to be willing to jump on them when they come up. Good luck.
Most nationals don't hire IC
Global Solution will not hire ICs. They called me to talk about a job but when I said I would not go employee that was the end of the conversation. I have turned down a few good jobs because one, they wanted me to be an employee or two, they wanted me to be an IC but treat me like an employee. It has sucked out there.
What nationals use Dictaphone ExText?
nm
Do you think nationals have licenses in all 50 states? Not. nm
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