Prepared
Posted By: intheknow on 2009-09-15
In Reply to: To further speculate on that - Prepared
You sound like one savvy person. I think any hope that either MDI or Transcend might have for getting trust from MTs would be evaporated with the way this merger was handled. It is obvious that MTs are only things like pieces of equipment. Who knows, someone will invent a faux human with a USB port and they can do away with us altogether. I am still disillusioned that America's most patriotic company could have done this.
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Prepared to be bored and much more. sm
I did legal for 9 years. I even went on to get my paralegal degree too. I loved the research, client interviews, etc., but the transcription is boring with a capital B. Tons and tons of formatting and forms as everything is different for each area of law and has to be done just so.
I was good at it, but ended up moving and couldn't find legal. I love MT so much more than legal. So much more interesting and a lot more money.
If you think healthcare is a tough field, wait until you deal with lawyers. If you want to stay at home and If you're going to go legal, study court reporting. That's where the interesting stuff is and the big bucks. Most legal transcription is inhouse so that the lawyers can have you schedule, answer phones, greet clients, take care of their trailing dockets AND do the transcription which they generally crab about if it's not done in a timely fashion even though the phone rings off the hook all day.
And if you work for a lawyer inhouse, buy suits, nice shoes and a briefcase (with an extra pair of nylons in case you get a run) and make sure your car doesn't look bad next to their caddy. They generally don't like that. :)
I did have one really great lawyer I worked for that didn't really care about all of that, but he also didn't really care about paying all that much.
Good luck!
and p.s. be prepared to hear from
*supposed* employees who will tell you it isn't so. They are lying and they are getting paid to lie. They know that American MTs are getting wise to being used by them.
Don't accept anything less than $50K and be prepared
,,,
Be prepared to be let go if you don't comply.
/
How hard is it to be prepared if
your check isn't there for one day? Wow, payday is Monday; if you get it early, great; if not, maybe don't over extend yourself....flame away if you must, but if you are truly living that tightly, maybe another job or backup plan?
Be prepared to run out of work
a lot. Feast or famine. If you're planning to get that $1500 signon bonus, forget it. The indians get all the jobs at night, nary a report left for an American to do.
Be prepared to find
another job. I don't believe this can be done anonymously, and it will probably also have tax implications for you on past tax returns.
I am prepared not to break the law
Among other things.
Will I need to file past taxes? Yeah. But I've only worked for this company for a year, so it's not that big of a deal for me.
Will it mean I have to pay MORE in taxes? VERY HIGHLY unlikely. However, even if I do, it's worth it to me.
Why? Because I would prefer to stay inside the law.
There are several reasons why it's a Very Bad Thing for companies to willfully misclassify employees as independent contractors. The least of which is that misclassification - on average - costs taxpayers money.
Second, and most importantly, because so many companies are willing to dramatically uneven the playing field ILLEGALLY, it leaves VERY little room for success for an honest company willing to provide quality service and pay their employees accordingly.
Being complicit in the cheating of one company SCREWS the majority of all other transcriptionists.
Are you really so selfish to be a cog in this machine? For what cannot be much more than a few dollars a paycheck, when you start figuring in the tax issue and the lack of benefits?
If we're going to have rules, EVERYONE should have to play by them. Or we should get rid of the rules ... and then see what happens.
Be prepared to go on welfare. (SM)
Most of the regions for Transcend are fairly good but there are a couple that the managers consistently overhire and leave us with no work. My manager and team leads do not care whether I eat or not or whether I have insurance because we have no work, but some of my friends tell me they have more work than they can do, so I guess it is just the luck of the draw. Too bad they keep a couple of bad eggs to make things stinky for some of us. One thing I learned a long time ago - do not complain or you get labeled as a complainer and then the next step is out the door. They are heartless.
If you go to the docs, be prepared to lose your job.
Although how much can that matter if you are not being paid anyway!!! I personally have never had this happen to me, but I can see where it could cause major problems on many levels (especially if you have automatic bank withdrawals). I would have to consider - Is it the client's fault? Is the company not managing money correctly? Does this happen often?
It is your employer's place to investigate this problem with the client, not you. I would strongly suggest that you not go directly to the client unless you have reached your limit with the company and no longer wish to be employed by them. Have they actually broken their contract agreement with you. If so, then I say it is every man for himself so to speak.
Be prepared to give a schedule and stick to it.
In my personal experirence, I was titled IC but let me tell you, if I was not signed on DURING THE SET HOURS I WAS ASKED TO PROVIDE, EMAILS AND CALLS ENSUED.
IC? Not so much. More like employee without employees, IMO.
Sincerely, I do hope you're prepared to work for 8 cpl now
Apparently MDI was one of the companies that paid their experienced MTs pretty well.
With the merge, you'll be making less eventually. If you quit and look for a new job, you'll be making less, way less, than you were making at MDI.
I'm another one who's BTDT, too. I went from making 11 cpl to now making 8 cpl. I tried HARD to find any company, obscure to well known, that will start off more than that. Couldn't find 'em. Probably won't ever go up, either.
Just sayin' that you should be prepared to budget your living costs for the amount of money you'll be missing each month compared to what you were making at MDI. It's awful, I know, been through it. Going to school now to do something else, getting out.
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