Platform runs too slow for my expander

Spell checker you have to provide.  Management - I experienced two good team leads, neither of whom are there anymore, other than that, not impressed.  Have had situations where what I earned did not match what I was paid.   Last team lead I had had a problem with being rude and expecting everone to drop their previously scheduled lives for her, while she was virtually unreachable to us otherwise.  They do something every year and can a bunch of editors or MTs, bizarre yearly ritual.  Perhaps things will be different now, perhaps not.  Good luck either way!

• Any thoughts on Interpro? Line count, spell checker, platform, management, pay rate? nm - Wondering
  • Interpro - two words - STAY AWAY - Dishonest, unprofessional, disorganized
  • Platform runs too slow for my expander - not hard though, s/m

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I haven’t worked for WebMedX for a couple of years, but the numbers I had to work with then were as follows (DISCLAIMER:  Just as I was leaving, they were thinking about totally revamping their bonus system, so the numbers below are probably not currently accurate, but will give you some idea of what WMX thinks their MTs are capable of): 

140 lines per hour average minimum.  New employees placed on 90 day probationary status to learn platform and account specifics.  Expected to reach 150 lines per hour average after 4 weeks.  Line defined as 65-character line, which includes all body characters and spaces inclusive of formatting characters such as bold, italics, underlines, caps and tabs.  Header and footer characters are not included in the line count.

Bonus paid as follows (in addition to your base pay per line): 

Average lines/hr   Bonus per line

160 to 180  =        .0015

181 to 220  =        .0030

221 to 250  =        .0050

251 to 275  =        .0075

276 to 299  =        .0100

300+           =        .0150

This is for the average for the entire two week pay period, so if you have a really great day and hit 500 lines per hour, then have several really bad days at 100 lines per hour, they take the average over those two weeks. 

HOWEVER, if you fall below 140 lines per hour average, they DEDUCT pay:

0 to 124     = - .005

125 to 139 = - .0025  

WMX is definitely looking to make a profit, so my way of thinking is they feel confident in offering a bonus that will not affect their bottom line and, as far as they are concerned, not going to be achieved by the majority of the MTs working for them.  In fact, when I left, many MTs were complaining that they were no longer getting the same bonuses as they had just a few months prior and they were MTs who had worked for WMX for several years and were already very familiar with the platform and accounts. 

As far as getting back up to speed, there are several factors that prevent smooth transition.  First, you are on 100% QA review for the first couple of weeks, at least, and depending on the Editors you get, you may have to completely rethink what you have learned before.  Then, there is the dreaded time clock.  It is totally automatic.    From the minute you log on to get your first report, you are on the clock.  If you stop to look up a drug or find a new surgical instrument, your line count is affected.   They tell you to log out for everything when you are not actually typing.  That means even 2 minutes to stretch or go get a drink from the kitchen.  Next, they seemed to have a lot of platform slowness.  There were times when you could sit for a minute or more just to switch from the demographics page to the actual transcription page, or when trying to release the report.  Sometimes, the platform would just freeze altogether, and you had to reboot.  And they do periodically run out of work, depending on the accounts you have.  So, if you want to keep your line count up, you have to keep logging off, which makes an 8 hour shift turn into a 10 to 12 hour day.  Some people with families just don’t have the time for that.  Not to mention, if they are in overtime, if you already have to put in a 10 hour day to get an 8 hour shift in, overtime will probably have to be on your days off.  Also, most of their accounts are now going to ASR/Speech Recognition, and that system has many bugs left to be worked out that has caused many MTs to complain that they are not making as much money as they were before. 

I am sure there are WebMedX MTs just itching to correct me and let you know how great WMX is.  The above are my personal observations/opinions while working for them, just to give you another perspective. 

Good luck.      

Honestly though, I have only had 2-3 times in the past 2 years where it was like the other day...no work... It did pick up later but I just think it's important not to make someone think we're overloaded with work all the time. That would not be fair to them if they end up with high expectations.

On Transcend platform you have to click, click, click all day and still get errors, change screens constantly -  its a nightmare to work in. 

I worked for a small local company, and only did proofreading, no transcripton, so I'm embarassed to say I don't even know what an expander is.

I have one that I use to help me with DQS on my full time job, but find it doesn't work that well for me with JLG and I don't want to take the chance of having it set up for JLG and then screw up my FT job.  I also haven't been able to figure JLG's out (don't laugh!) correctly and I'm looking for something else to supplement it/replace it so I can get my line count up higher (only working there part time).  What Expander works for you???

Do you use shorthand? 

I came from a company that used word perfect and honestly I loved it because I was used to it.  Setting up and using macros was easy for me and came naturally after all that time.  I have tried some free demo Expanders and have a hard time getting used to the automatic additions but I'm getting there.  I have not been impressed with the demos and can't see spending the money on the ones I've tried.  I have since been using the word auto correct and auto text. 

I'm thinking about trying Instant Text from the reviews on here and other forums, but the price tag is a little put offish for me.  I don't mind putting the money into if it gives me the money in return, obviously.  Has anybody tried this and regretted the purchase?  Being Christmas time and having 3 kids and a large extended family to think about the coming month, I don't want to put this kind of money into myself, aah, y'all know what I mean. 

Shortly, is it totally worth it to buy for myself at this time of the year???