Still Stress-Free...
Posted By: Ciani on 2008-08-04
In Reply to: kids - Marie
Some of us still enjoy stress-free living w/o a care in the world.
We never had kids! (LOL)
More money + more peace and quiet = Stress-free living forever!
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Totally. Stress of less and less money. Stress
My health is starting to slip because I never have time for exercise anymore. I can't afford healthy, fresh foods (they spoil too fast), and I can only go to the market once every 2 weeks. I'm depressed. I'm over-snacking. I have headaches. MT work makes me feel completely hopeless. I work for this invisible, omnipotent being that affects my life so adversely, and I can't even confront them in person, because the MTSO's all exist in that netherworld of the internet. They're nothing but evil electronic impulses that chain us to our computers and ruin our lives.
Stressed? Oh, yea - you better believe it. And an entire nation of people feeling exactly like I do? That's pretty da***d scary.
Free enterprise. You are free to re-educate and retrain, as well!!!!
What's the complaint?!
You don't need that stress..
or stick with the radiology. Who needs that? You must feel so degraded! What a poor ethic that company has... I feel sorry for their clients!
Does this job stress you out?
I do love so many things about being an MT, but does it stress anyone else out knowing that you HAVE to type a certain amount to get the bills paid? I try to explain that to my husband. I seem overly stresseed a lot because like I tell him, if you have a NORMAL job and one day you just aren't feeling that great, you can still get your paycheck because you are clocked in. A foggy head or drained feeling doesn't affect your work. Being an MT, you are pushed to type or you don't get a check. You have a slow day and your paycheck is affected. It's staring to REALLY stress me out!!!
Stress at Amphion!
I left Amphion for TT, too, and I can sure relate to the stress there. Sheesh. I was on the big university account, which I really liked, but I stressed over the QA reveiws every single month, and I absolutely hated the mandatory overtime. Granted, Amphion is the ONLY MT company I know of that pays true overtime for working over 40 hours--and doesn't quibble about it--real overtime as in time and a half per hour over 40--plus your lines, which is why I will not work over 40 hours for anyone else, not as an employee, unless I get true OT. I also miss the no major holidays on that university account and I HATE the 2 weekend days per month at TT--because on those 2 weekend days all I get is crap, BUT my stress level is a lot lower now--that's a good thing. If I were on a better account, I would have absolutely nothing to complain about. HAHA.
Fortunately, we have insurance through my husband's work and it is great. I don't get these exorbitant MTSO insurance prices either. My husband's company has about 200 employees and they have BCBS and the family rate, including dental is $250, a month!
No matter where you go it is always something.
You got it!! Not to mention that the stress of
have to use our PTO for sickness rather than fun. I also never got anything of substance approved as far as days off, so my PTO time was useless, just part of the games of no work and getting sick over no work. I feel so sorry for those who stay in that situation, thinking they are going to lose out on PTO by starting over. Its your LIFE at stake, right? We are so worth more than PTO at MQ. 
Does it stress me, nope but tell you what I would do if it did
I would not sit here complaining about the lack of work, no decent salary, not enough to pay bills on and so forth. I am sure most on here lot younger than me and I can almost assure you this profession is not getting better, in fact seems to be headed the other way. Why wait on some job that stresses you, not enough money to live, cannot make it, why not find something else to do? Is it that important just to stay home and not be able to live on this pay now? There are jobs out in the world. Why not train for something that maybe would not be outsourced and make a decent living. Lots here sound like the passengers on the Titanic. Someone fill me in on just why everyone is stressing just waiting around.
Not worth the stress...move on...I did.sm
I went with a co. started on 10/25 and turned out the platform really sucked..too much stress. I quit..got hired two days later..move on. Your home is your life..you don't need to be stressed out over your work when your work is at home.
Not enough for the stress they're putting me through . See msg
From what I've read in the past, and my experience, they pay anywhere from 7 cpl to 10 CPL (I personally make 8 CPL with 10 years experience, no raises since I started there despite numerous requests for one). THIS IS FOR STRAIGHT TRANSCRIPTION. Most of us work on ASR now (voice recognition) which pays 70% of your pay (example, I make 0.56 CPL for ASR). I have lost a LOT of money since ASR began. I average around 150 lines per hour for ASR. I averaged around 250 lines per hour with straight transcription. In other words, I made around $20/hr before ASR, now I make $8.40/hr, just above minimum wage in my state.
I only work flex-part time now for MQ and work full time somewhere else that pays fairly with NO ASR and NO outsourcing outside of the U.S.
It is my strong belief, after 10 years of working for MQ, that we will all lose our jobs soon now that the board of directors is Indian based. Believe it or not, they can pay Indian workers even less than they pay us.
Yes, they pay shift differential, 0.5 CPL more for evening shift, 1 CPL more for night shift.
A slew of workers have left since the news so it is my belief that's why they're hiring now. If you're interested in a short-term job, fine. Good luck though.
THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY.
Don't stress. Tell her you are nervous, and she will be very nice about it. sm
You can't ask for a nicer group of people. They worked with me through my husband's long illness, house problems due to his illness, followed by a few health problems of my own that I still think are the after-shock of dealing with his illness. He is fine now, I am fine now, and I will never again look for another job because Keystrokes treated me like family, not just a number.
I had been at the Q for 17 years in some form (company I worked for was gobbled up by them) and was very nervous but they were very gracious about and put me at ease. That was 3 years ago and I am grateful that I took the plunge.
Does anyone else feel the stress mounting?
I don't know if it's just me, a bad year so far, or what, but it just seems as though this job is becoming too stressful for me. I've been doing this for almost 18 years and I have never felt as stressed as I do now. I can't even begin how many companies I've switched after a 2-4 year period because they keep changing the terms of employment that were originally agreed upon. It just seems that they expect more and more and more and give less and less. At the job I work now I have a primary account and 4 backup accounts, yet I have to sit and wait for work on all of them.
They changed platforms that doesn't pay for what was agreed upon when I took the jobs. Used to pay for everything, including spaces. Now, it doesn't pay for patient information, which I have no objection to if the information is automatically entered, but it seems like we have to enter more and more information all the time. It doesn't pay for headings in a report any more.
Every new secondary account that they give me is more time intensive than the last one. I normally work on acute care accounts, but as a secondary they gave me a clinic. I thought to myself, at least now maybe I can get some better lines because it is clinic. On this account, we have to look at an email they send every week that lists all patients seen that week. We have to search for the physician dictating, find the patient he is referring to, take all the data from the email, and then enter it into the patient information fields (none of which is paid for) and it can't be copied and pasted because it is all in different fields.
I've been so afraid to look for another job because I'm being paid a good line rate, until we go to VR rate (within the next 2 weeks) at more than 65% less than my current line rate on accounts that haven't even been trained on the system. This is just getting so frustrating. I've sent my resume out and get replies offering me 8 cpl employee or 9 cpl IC.
I'm really sorry this is so long. I just needed to vent and try to network here. If anyone knows of a good company that will appreciate having an MT with skill and experience, and will pay a fair line rate for it, can you please email me? I promise I'll keep it confidential. Thanks for letting me vent!
Did not mean to stress you out! After all we need health insurance
have not met line requirement for insurance and pharmacy... did not mean to stir a kettle, just wanted a reality check... you sure gave it to me!!!
Don't stress over gifts at Christmas -
that is NOT what the holiday is about - haven't been able to afford gifts for MANY years now - and when I can again I will be VERY conservative about it.
We have been brainwashed to think we HAVE to exchange gifts.
The best year was when I cooked a really good meal for all and placed one small gift at each place setting.
Repetitve Neck Stress Injury
 Repetitive Strain Injury Advice: Bad Neck Pain-I have a lumbar support chair but I am still getting repeat shooting pain in my neck. Is there anything I can do to ease this? Better support while I am working etc.? Any advice is appreciated before I run to the doctor.
Good question! How to handle the stress.
Would be a good thing, but what does a person do?
You need to use them for production & to presvent repetative stress injuries. nm
s
Free sure. There are free on-line fax
services, in fact I used one last week. Most do have limits on how often you can use and how many pages though. You obviously would have to scan pages into a document, but maybe she doesn't have a scanner either.
She could have mailed paperwork back.
Left end of July for a company paying more and I set my own hours. Much less stress too. (nm)
x
TYPO -- wow I am upset. It is causing illness due to stress !!! Does TT care? NO n/m
and inability to meet my payments that I have normally had no problem paying. It is so disgusting.
Don't send me a Happy Friday email. Send me some of your paycheck, mgmt. Nor do I want to hear you guys ROCK! If you mgmt people had no paychecks, you wouldn't be saying that, would you?
Your paychecks come from MT's -- NO ONE ELSE !!! And YOU want to pay us 1/3 or 1/4 of our line rate for your crummy VR dictation. What a disgrace !!!
Yes, it is free.
They told me that I would get a discount with steadman's and Dell, but they never said that I would have to buy anything. The only thing they said was that I would have to provide the home type of equipment (i.e. Internet, computer, foot pedal, and software for listening to the files. I received the same things you mentioned above too.
The only one I know of that is free
is Emmaus' MedCount . . . they have a link to this site and advertise here, and the company offers other software programs for sale that are designed for transcriptionists, but the line counting software is downloadable and free.
Here's the web site: http://www.mpword.com
I was unable to use the free program above . . . I had used it before, but on the computer I bought last summer, for some reason it would not work, so I purchased The Abacus.
I have seen a couple of times people posting about The Abacus being a free program, but I had to pay for it. Seems like they may offer a free trial for a certain period of time or number of usages, with limitations during the trial, but then if you do want the program you pay and they give you a code that enables the full program.
The web address for The Abacus is: http://www.theabacus.biz/theAbacus.htm
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST!
Buh bye OSI!!!
I will miss all the good MT's there but at least I will be getting paid for holidays from now on. Maybe, just maybe the good MT's still there will be right behind me. Or maybe not, and you can enjoy your little mug of candy for Christmas.
Yes! Yes!  Yes! Yes!
I think most use it because it is free and can
be used w/o a pedal if you had to. I have used their tests with other software though. I've never had trouble downloading files, you can right click and save to a file. I think they companies have always provided instructions on how to save the files too.
No 1 MAKES ME do anything. Have free
x
All 40,000 others are free to post as often as they like also.
nm
Is Turbo Tax free? (sm)
WebMedX has a list of required reference books you have to get. I'm sure I spent at least $100-$150 on them. I ordered them from amazon, so the receipt should be easy enough to get.
The debate is whether to do my taxes myself or go to H&R Block. The last couple years I had someone else do my taxes 'cuz I had a part-time IC job and deducted my phone line charges.
Hell, I could probably deduct my DSL bill this year, I suppose...
the free one does not count
,
Testing isn't free either
It costs us 10.00 for every applicant we test online. Out of 50 people I might refer who look promising, about 80% will get to the actual transcription part and say I couldn't finish, it wouldn't let me when the actual qualified people have no trouble whatsoever.
How many of you get the emails with the cover information not spellchecked? I get them that say I am very qulity conscience. I got one from a lady who worked in the surgical stockroom of a hospital and was furious when I told her that didn't qualify her to be an MT. I had a welder who wanted something different, several from people claiming to be med students or doctors, one dentist in an extremely remote part of Alaska. I get stories of I have children and I'm about to be evicted and I quit my job. I get my hospital went bankrupt and closed (yet the phone number still works). I can advertise for ops and get people asking for an ER account. I needed an Editor for a particular work type and had a lady apply who said she had 18 years experience so I let her try to edit a document. I would have had to hire somebody else just to edit her work!!! It really makes it hard for the experienced people because it's like we've heard it ALL...so you don't know who is good and who isn't!!!
Do you know what the right of free speech is?
It does not apply to private company matters, etc.
Geez.
Well, when you're free of them, please
.
Where can you get this free trial? nm
x
working for free?....don't think so. sm
Look, it all comes down to getting paid. Doing their work for free isn't doig yourself a favor, just them. What did the contract agreement say that you signed? I would fax that portion back over to her and give her a date you expect to be paid. Losing invoices? More than one? Come on girl, this is a big red flag to me.
Don't you work for free?
I'd be nice to you too if you were making me all that money for a little info that you should have got in school.
it's friday free-for-all! Hoo-ha! nm
nm
guildftp is free I think sm
Someone had posted before some free FTP sites. Not all cost per month. Some are a mere $6.00 per month. It is to keep documents safe, and you'll need a password. You can also store voice files there. HIPPO is $39.00 per year I think and easy to use.
Sounds like they might be trying to get free
work done. Ten pages is excessive and I wouldn't do it.
Regardless, it is work done for free.
It's horrible that one would think that we should not get paid for any work/data that is entered by us, whether it be 1 or 10 keystrokes. It is my time and I am not doing it for free.
What do you mean work for free?
Maybe I should specify that when I stated dock I meant QA score being docked. Maybe you were thinking money/pay?? LOL
unless you like to work for free
stay away due to the recruiter and the company as a whole unless you like to work for free...just do a search and you will read plenty of negatives on this shameful company and all of their affiliates.
What about MT Desk? They are free and very
nm
Yes, if she actually wants work, free or otherwise,
most indeed count, then an MT will have resume, advertisement, whatever free of errors. As someone who did a lot of hiring, I can tell you that if there was even one so-what error, as you say, the resume was passed over. If you can't proofread something as important as a resume or request for work, then it's hard to fathom you will proofread medical reports any better. I hope she took the advice and watches more carefully next time, rather than listen to advice that it doesn't matter.
Exactly. You should never work for free.
Our industry is bad enough for newbies without starting a trend wanting them to work for free....
If it's free, I'd do it just to make sure sm
I'm following all the rules and I'd probably learn new ones (to me) while doing it.
It's amazing how much we do for free
these days, isn't it. In the old days, we were paid for EVERYTHING, templates, headers, footers, demos, etc... and even better with gross lines. Sigh :(
So Right On!! I have to remember Free Will...
This is so true... fearing something means we are chained to that thing... even with bills we are not chained to a certain job. I suppose I will see how it goes, and as always, have a plan B, C, etc. In the meantime, have to have resources to pay the bills for the time it takes to see if it will work or not. Being the only one supporting a child, I worry about the short term of pay check to pay check... I guess that is the real fear. I long for the times when I had a secure job in this industry. I never ever thought that with a good head on my shoulders I'd be skating on thin ice in job security. But then again, many of us is going through this and I can't wait for the time when job security comes back... I will sooo appreciate it, never take it a secure job with benefits for granted ever again!
no there are free ones. I have had mine sm
for 30 days and you can click on it and do it for free for 60 more days. It just says sound pilot when I pull it up from my programs.
Go on Yahoo or Google and search free keyboard sound downloads and you will come up with a bunch. You don't have to pay anything right now, there are plenty for free.
Good luck.
no there are free ones. I have had mine sm
for 30 days and you can click on it and do it for free for 60 more days. It just says sound pilot when I pull it up from my programs.
Go on Yahoo or Google and search free keyboard sound downloads and you will come up with a bunch. You don't have to pay anything right now, there are plenty for free.
Good luck.
Well they make you do a LOT of free - sm
things, some accounts more than others, i.e., demographic work, loads of it, and hound you when it's done note quite up to the client's liking, e-mail, phone calls, looking up doctors' names and crap they're too lazy to spell, more unpaid demographics, cc's, you get my drift. How can all this be legal?
destiny is never free, is it?
I was always told that whatever I got into something is what I put into it.
You are right. You have to put something in to get something out.
I would not work for free -
If they are not answering her phone calls, do you think they are going to give her a good refrence anyway? She needs to report them to somebody, post their names here and warn everybody, and not do another report for free! Of course they are going to keep giving her work - they are getting paid.
This is the Internet. It should be FREE, and so
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