Speaking for myself
Posted By: AnnuderMT on 2009-06-09
In Reply to: Give a really honest answer here - Wondering
I believe a living wage, and not a wage that I will get rich from or even be comfortable from, is a minimum of 9 cents a line, and I don't even live in a high cost of living area. Frankly, I don't know how the people NY and CA do it these days...I was able to 15 years ago easy, no more.
I believe I'm worth at least a penny a line more than that, but accept the harsh reality that I will not see that unless I set up my own service.
The 9 cents I mentioned above is harder to earn than ever- one of the side effects of VR is that the money-making dictators, the ones that enabled us to make up for the crappy ones, are now on VR, so there is no balance in what we type.
Call me greedy, but I think a skilled transcriptionist, the ones who are able to type the crud that's left after all the Dr. Smiths and Dr. Johnsons have gone to VR, deserve at least 11 cents a line, taking into account what it would cost for one VR person and 2 editors to produce the same report a lot faster.
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You are welcome for my speaking up
When you allow anger or dissatisfaction to control you for this length of time, you are not a healthy person. Please, for your health, mentally and physically, just let go and move on. I have had plenty of negative experiences in my life, but if I were to allow them to control me the way this negativity seems to control you...well, there are lock down facilities that would be happy to sedate you! Get a l-i-f-e!
Speaking of QA
I had spelled a Midwestern town Fond du Lac. Lost a whole point on my QA because of it. The Zip code book was wrong they had Fond Du Lac, but QA went by the Zip Code Book. Don't you just feel like we have to walk on water all the time?
Speaking of D & L....
Anything new on them? Seems pretty quiet on these boards the last week or so. They must be getting it together.
Only speaking for myself
But I've found Transcend to be a very good company in many ways. Being paid on time, staff is helpful. I initially had some issues with not getting any feedback but that's been squared away. I'm on the Meditech part and this is quite archaic as is the hospital system I'm working on but so what, it works. I have plenty of work and have only run out on the holidays but you will Anywhere you work. All in all its been a pretty good experience and I'm more than happy I switched from MQ to here. Oh yeah, and the pay is better than most I've found depending on your experience of course. Be ready to ask the recruiter lots of questions and take notes.
All you can do is try it and see.
Good Luck :D
Speaking for myself
I think it's one of those things that happens in a split second without being consciously aware of-- like spelling a word but getting an extra letter in it; some part of my brain hears 5 Keystrokes instead of 4, or I might only hear 6 keystrokes when there should be 7. It isn't anything that I try to do; it just happens. I assume it's the same way as in music you can 'feel' when you've not got the notes to an unfamiliar melody you're playing from sheet music just right. It just happens, and is part of what my family and I jokingly call me typing while the force is with me.
Speaking up
I'll happily name a company. I work for Transcend. Yes, the evil Transcend. And despite all the absolute negativity I read on this board regarding them, I am very happy there. I make a very, very good line rate, make a comfortable living, have a wonderful ROM and TL, and usually have plenty of work. On the few occasions the work has been low I have simply asked to be cross-trained on a new account or a new platform and have been accommodated.
I fully believe that you get back what you put in. I know that change in scary and that a lot of people are facing some huge changes right now. I was part of a merger recently too, and I was very anxious and scared. But at least TRY to make a go of it. Change is not always a bad thing. All the negativity that people spout off here is not helping anything, not changing anything, only making people angry and causing them to feel sorry for themselves and hate anyone who is making a successful go of it. I think it's very, very sad.
thank you for speaking up
We need more people like you who will champion us.
Sorry, this is Warminster MQ I am speaking about.
:
Speaking of taxes...
when paying self-employment tax, does that include unemployment taxes? I was thinking of filing since it looks like finding another job may take a long time.
Please share what you are speaking of.
Sale to whom?
Speaking as a recruiter, an MT myself as are many
I know who are recruiters, dealing with attitudes like yours makes me feel like this entire job is thankless! What the heck am I working for to do a good job? Huh? I go out of my way to be helpful to the MTs that I interview and test and to respond to their questions as best as I know how to respond. The answers I give are the ones that are given to me by my employer so I am as truthful as they are to me and I know other recruiters who also try to do their darndest to be as honest as we can.
So WHO GETS THE BAD RAP? The recruiter apparently if our company does not give us truthful answers so basically I do not feel much like being a recruiter anymore. I am personally offended at the attitude of the MTs towards the recruiters because I have to tell you that being a recruiter takes a good 10-15 hours a day of work as well as it is a 7 day a week job. I HAVE to abide by YOUR schedule MT. If you cannot interview during the day, I have to interview you at night, on weekends, or whenever I can get you.
I am plain sick of this thankless job and it is my desire to get back into training (oh, but wait--I believe you label trainers as not being very good don't you?...or maybe I will go QA full time...oh but wait, I believe QA is your dreaded enemy!). So, what is a recruiter to do? I personally have learned the programs that an MT uses for my company just so I an answer the questions that the MTs have about the program.
I am sick of the attitudes on this board and on others as far as recruiters go. It is never the fault of anyone but the recruiter apparently because you are the most narrow-minded thankless people I have ever come in contact with and if it were not too late to change fields, I would run as far from this profession as I could.
speaking of their own servers.....
anyone have a problem with Dictaphone while working on ExText adding up lines sloooooooowly as in they don't start to show for 3 - 4 hours and then trickle in???
Speaking of radiology, does there seem
Thank you in advance for any information you may have.
Second QA person here speaking up.
With my current company the finished reports are available to the MT - we cannot leave personal feedback - every company has different systems and different ways of processing the work - I wish I could leave feedback for particular MTs - and I know when I was an MT and had a question working with one particular company I never saw completed reports - this is a company problem - not QA or MT problem in most instances.
speaking of ethics
Can someone tell me how they would handle a situation in which the TASP you are typing on is also an MTSO. I was told initially they were not a transcription company, and later found out (thank you internet) they are indeed. I would like to keep competition close, but that is pushing it.
Speaking of Ron Paul...
This may belong on the Gab board or political board, but since you mentioned Ron Paul, we got some literature on him during a parade last month. I like what I read so far!
Paul Honored as Taxpayers' Friend for Tenth Consecutive Year
Anybody know more about him?
what company are you speaking about? nm
.
I stopped speaking out because SM
in the past, they had cheerleaders who came to this board who would attack people who gave true information regarding the company. It may look like the archives have little information and the reason they do is because a lot of the posts about DR have been deleted because the threads degenerated into name-calling.
The same people who attacked still work for the company (management), so I wouldn't bet that things have changed there.
Barred from speaking out
There you go! If they have spies they know they are not all that good, because if they were, no need to waste precious time trying to find out how they are perceived. Their actions shoud speak volumes. Aren't opinions and shared true experiences allowed?
If you are speaking of the posts down below...
If you are making reference to the posts down below, no, we are not talking about Ascend. I have never worked for Ascend, so I can't shed any light for you.
You are speaking to all of us, by posting
on an internet forum. Your posts are all over these boards, between MQ board and company board. I stand by my statement. Your dialect, writing style, is NOT American. I could care less what your ethnicity is, but you are pro-Indian ownership of MQ and criticizing us for our feelings. You speak, or write, with an Indian dialect. Believe me, Americans can pick it up even in the written word. I could copy and paste posts from MQ board, but the ones from this thread alone suffice: I am quoting you:
We have not to forget that all these people who perform the outscourced work are all bilingual!
By not accepting to work for a foreign employer, you shoot youtself into your foot;
Mexican do the work US citizen do not want to do,
Your written dialect is Indian, not sure which region, but I know it is Indian dialect. Americans would not say shoot yourself into your foot, or we have not to forget...its a dead give-away, and easily picked up by readers.
You also don't get the humor of a thread on the MQ board. You just have a different interpretation of our written language, and probably spoken. Same exact way that I would have trouble with your native tongue, written or spoken. So, you are going to be supportive and more trusting of employers being of your own nationality. No big deal, just pointing this out. All is fair in debate, but for you to bash and belittle we Americans for not being willing to be employed by a foreign agency is not fair, when you are of the same national origin.
Thank you Anon for speaking up!!
Thanks
speaking of Oracle
are the same people in charge of interviewing and the hiring? a few years back someone said they were not too organized. just wondering because a few years back I had applied and they said I had the job but were never getting in touch with me afterwards. I was having to make all the contacts and got tired of being strung around. TIA.
Are you sure your were speaking w/Focus?
Just spoke to them yesterday and was told that there are no hourly editing positions, only by line. When were you offered hourly?
So what stopped you from speaking SM
to your supervisor before? Are you saying that you've been sitting there feeling bad about your financial situation all this time and just today decided to call and DO something about it?
I think maybe the Grinchy bully (and I am not serious when I say that, I feel he/she was truly helping you) motivated you to take some action.
I'm speaking for CTS of Michigan, sorry. nm
x
But basically you are only speaking for yourself
I read your posting above and wondered if you dislike it so much, why do it? Is there not another job you can do besides this because the way it looks most companies are headed towards VR. I will make almost $190 today on the VR I work on and I am totally loving it. I would not be unhappy if I did not, would find another business.
Speaking of eating - here it is the day before
wallet and cupboards BARE! For breakfast I had my last cup of yogurt, a few stray pieces of stale Minute Rice from the bottom of the box, and a cup of very watered-down coffee (why is coffee so expensive?)
Anyway, with a hearty breakfast under my belt, now I'm feeling all revved up and ready to tackle all those scratchy-sounding dictations and ESL doctors.
NOT. I can't hear myself think, my stomach is rumbling so loudly.
Speaking of rude...
You would need to read her post under NewMT to understand some of the responses she received.
Speaking of not being perfect....
Perhaps had the individual in question actually taken a few precious minutes of her time to EXPLAIN the memo to the 'dense as a glass doorknob' IC, she would not have felt the need to post here for clarification.
While LP may not be cutting pay rates (yet), that doesn't take away from the fact the woman is rude to her employees.
To me, that's even WORSE than being paid on a VBC basis.
Perhaps next time she'll take a couple of minutes to make sure ANY employee/IC who has a question will be treated with some dignity and an explanation given when details are not clear.
I'll go back to my 'door' now, thanks.
Speaking for myself on this point
I would not mind any of this stuff if I was paid a premium for doing it. To my mind, anyway, these are the things that make me better than VR. My years of experience would hopefully enable me to hear what's buried under that yawn or determine what is extraneous conversation or know enough about meds to know whether that dose is 15 or 50, a differentiation that VR is as yet unable to do. My hope is that developing VR with the type of artificial intelligence necessary to do that kind of work is years away (at least 17 so that I can retire without having to retrain as a shift manager at Taco John).
I do, however, agree with you wholeheartedly about helping me out with geography. I'm lucky if I can remember all 50 states; knowing all cities and their burbs and the businesses in each just isn't going to happen.
BTW, I don't work for Transcend, I am speaking SM
about VR as a whole. I have used it at more than one job and your production rate DOES NOT increase.
I am speaking in terms of everything being done RIGHT on the part of the MTs. They know
how to turn in their line counts and managers usually are paid on salary or hourly and know how to do their thing. What I am speaking of is that these things have been done and the MTSO still does not do their part MEANING paying on time or correctly and THESE MTSOs are going to start getting reported to the proper authorities. No excuses. No bank errors, no posting errors, no excuses that have been used over and over. If you are an MT or a QA or a manager, you KNOW how to do what you need to do to be paid! The ones I know have done their part. No excuses for a poor MTSO or service.
Speaking the truth- I have no reason to lie....
I do speak the truth and quite possibly maybe I am the exception to the rule. I am only speaking of my personal experience with Rapid Transcript, I am not speaking of the experiences of others. The poster asked a question and I answered it based on what has been true in my case, not the case of others. I am informed of the archives and I know what has been said. I am no amature in the MT biz and I know bad things that happen to many MTs at many different companies. If my experience would have been a bad one, I would have stated that. On the contrary though, my experience with this company has been a pretty good one so far, despite bad experiences of others. So, yes I speak the truth. Not all people in this world feel the need to make up stories to try to make their situation appear anything other than what it truly is.
** Speaking from a manager's viewpoint **
I am a manager at another transcription company. Our operations department is provided with a current list of employees on a daily basis. It is very unprofessional and disorganized for a company to call a former employee to work. There is no excuse, and that is ridiculous.
speaking of outsourcing/off-shoring
The news had a segment last night about medical identity theft becoming a big problem in the U.S. Hmm. Interesting. We've been trying to tell them this for years. All one need do is jot down numbers a doctor dictates, whether the software is secure or not. U.S. MTs are accountable and it is a felony. Unless they start extraditing off-shore MTs for felony charges, then they have absolutely no jurisdiction.
I have a feeling more and more legislation about off-shoring confidential information is in America's future.
MT companies and even AAMT like to say there are not enough qualified U.S. MTs. It's not true and we know it. There are simply just not enough U.S. MTs who will work for nothing.
Tried KS too..radMT...the worst speaking...
physician I have ever had. I absolutely could not understand a word he was saying and had to leave as well. 100% true. Just make sure to ask about the level of difficulty of the ESL's on your assigned account BEFORE you take the position. God awful mess and very disappointing. 
Speaking of Dell, isn't it ironic that s/m
the first time you call to place an order, you speak with a pleasant, articulate American, but any call after that goes straight to India?
The last time I called Dell, there was such a communication breakdown that I demanded to speak with an American.
you're not speaking for all accounts
nm
Ummm, well of course I'm not speaking for all accts..
However, I do happen to know that the majority of the accounts have ADT feed, which provides all the DI info right there...nice try though!
Personally speaking here ... my opinion only ...
I don't think the industry causes job hopping. I think people making poorly thought out decisions to leave over issues not big enough to leave a job for -- that is what causes job hopping.
The industry is changing, as is every other one. Many refuse to accept that and have some type of idealism that we can bring it back to its prior standing.
Therefore they are willing to leave a company because they don't want to do ESLs or difficult work; they get offered a quarter cent more here or there; they get a higher base rate there but not incentive; then come back to a lower base rate but incentive over there.
I've been at this a long time. I did a little job hopping in my early years but figured out it was hurting me and the industry more than anything. I was not making any headway.
Now that my last few years have been very dedicated and I've worked myself up in pay and benefits and, quite frankly, standing with the company - new hires want the same and they just can't get it. It will take them some personal time/effort investment to attain it, and it should.
JMHO though.
Speaking of tech support
Far too many times they have screwed it up.
Speaking of common sense...
I already told you they do random audits on QA staff. Why are you still griping about this?
Are You Speaking on Behalf of all VA Hospitals?
or hospitals near and around D.C., where are elected federal officials go? Or, hospitals on either coast, NY or CA where our celebrities go.
You speaking on behalf of those hospitals?
First, you said your problem was with never speaking to a person...
during training, everything done via IM. You were saying that it bothered you do everything via IM and you were considering cutting them loose because you didn't know if they were worth trouble. Now you're saying now all of sudden you've figured out thanks in part to a different person training you?
Sounds to me like the first person expected you to be a self-started and then assigned you a hand holder. I'm just saying there are far too many cry baby MTs out there who cry about every cotton pickin' thing.
You want to be your own boss and make your own schedule, so you strike as an IC, but then WAAAAAAAAAAAH, you can't be expected to just load the software and start working! You have to be coddled.
OR
You want to be an employee so you can get benefits but WAAAAAAAAAH, you don't work your schedule, don't produce the minimum, hate QA cause they're mean.
I owned my own service for a while and I have had people who sign on for a certain shift and then work whenever they want, but expect to accrue their PTO and retain their eligibility of benefits. I hired ICs thinking it would save me money. I spent more time training and setting ICs up with software and installing it for them because they were completely inept and I found myself wondering how they can call themselves professional when they can't install software, can't read instructions and teach themselves, can't follow samples?!?!?!?! After I spent all that time setting them up, then they only want to do a certain number of lines and leave me hanging when I really need them.
Piss on it! I sold out and now I'm an employee for a hospital working from home. But I still have a very low tolerance for whiners!
Speaking of late paychecks....
What is generally the cause of late paychecks? MTSO says their big client has not paid, thus delaying payroll. But I have to wonder if there are more things going on than what they say. Thoughts? Experiences?
Speaking from 30 years' experience
nm
Speaking of low work, does anyone have an idea when the new...
accounts are coming on? I am really, really trying to hold out and not get a second job.
thank you for speaking like a true professional. NM
x
I'm speaking of Enterprise and radnet
Don't know what the situation is on Chartmatrix side. They are still scrambling to place many of us at this very moment. We spent all last week crying and praying that this was a bad dream. Our largest account went VR and we were supposed to edit it, and upgraded our software and hardware in order to do it. But the joke was on us because the day it went live it appears the docs decided to edit their own work and just not send us any more. Very nasty surprise, and not blaming Webmedx mgt for this (they surely would not have pulled the elaborate ruse of upgrading hardware and software at their own expense), it must be the client's fault.
Still, they are now desperately scrambling to find work for the 25+ MTs on this team that are now suddenly with nothing to type. NOT the time to be bringing in more newbies, IMO!
Speaking of PT and my interview - check this out
They said PT was at least 20 hours a week. 8 hours were over the weekend, and the remaining 12 were during the week - either three 4 hours or four 3 hours. Glad they said that up front in the interview, because after that I said no thank you. The whole thing took 30 seconds. I had heard enough to make a decision. Good luck to you all, I know it is a tough thing you are all going through.
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