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This happened to me in January of this year... SM

Posted By: MissouriMT on 2007-08-28
In Reply to: DILEMMA - siren

You have every right to feel paranoid and betrayed.  That is exactly how I felt.  My employer, knew well in advance that they were going to outsource the entire department and yet our supervisor told us in a meeting that they were looking at outside services for overflow work only and that we should not be worried, our jobs were safe.


I was worried and said as much to the other MTs at the Christmas party.  Some agreed with me, but others said there was no way this hospital would even consider outsourcing transcription.  The doctors would hate it and complain. 


Next thing you know, we get an email saying in lieu of our quarterly department meeting, we were going to be scheduled for one on one meetings with the boss.  The first person went in and came back home, emailed us and said guess what, we're fired.  It was horrible, horrible, horrible!  I know that management knew months before that this was in the works.  They knew at our last meeting when they looked us in the eyes and told us not to worry. 


They acted like we should be grateful that the service that had decided to go with was offering us all jobs.  We went from hourly with incentive and excellent benefits to per line, crappy benefits, and facing the possibility of working on other accounts because ours kept running out which meant low production which meant a pay cut.


I refused to go with the service.  Maybe I'm too prideful or too bitter, but I couldn't do it, especially since the service they went with offshores.  So I channeled my bitterness into making it known to the community that their beloved community hospital was now offshoring medical info to India.  I wrote letters to all the local papers, had an interview with a local reporter, and put the hospital administrator on the hot seat for a while because he kept having to talk to the papers telling them he requested his hospital's work not be offshored.


They will not soon forget me and that helped me get over it.  Now, I'm working as an Editor and love it.  I've moved on, but as you can see, I still have bad memories. 


You have every right to feel the way you do and you should be very cautious whatever you decide.  I will never be lured into a false sense of security ever again.  I have come to realize there is no job security in transcription anymore. 


Hope everything works out for you!




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You are not alone. This has happened to me this year.
Matter of fact, got so ignored job seemed to fall through on 2 occasions, never got correct set up date, etc. Probably sales force (recruiters) way ahead of labor needs. Good luck to you!
This is January. It is always slow in January. Part of MT. sm

This is the normal situation during the holidays and January and then accounts usually pick back up.  It was that way when I worked in a hospital, that way when I had my own accounts and that way now that I work for a service.  It always picks up.


My husband and son are both in construction for the State of Illinois, working in concrete.  We know that they are always laid off for most of the winter, and we plan around it.  It is part of the job, just like it is in transcription.


Next year,  we're going to be smart about it.  We are both slow at this time of year so we are planning a vacation somewhere warm.  We'll spend on vacation what we'll save on our heating bills, not really but will save something, and on gas in our cars. 


In the next few months, these same people will complain that they have too much work and no time to do anything. 


 


Same thing happened at TT the year before in October, too.

For those of us left with TT for 2 year, there is hardly ever sufficient work to work your negotiated shift.  Always asked to flex and move right into the weekends to get enough lines, if possible to even on weekends for everyone trying.


Same thing happened to me last year. Got garbage. Left after 6 wks. Those w/
s
Same thing happened to me last year and when it picked up, it was crazy sm
For the rest of the year.
MQ until January 1, then no more.
x
Been with them since January and have
not had any problems at all. Staff is super nice and very helpful.  Was taken off of QA after my first three reports.  Vianeta is very user friendly.  Pay is mailed on time.  I have no complaints.  Line count got up to par very quickly.
I have been with KS since January. What would you like to know? nm
I'll help if I can.
Believe that's until January
but am I wrong? Information does seem contradictory, muddy at best.
I have worked for them since January...
there is definitely plenty of work, they are VERY sweet people.  I recommend them! 
I applied with them on January 4th and just got a
account starting next week.  They sent me a bogus looking transcription test with the incorrect words underlined in red (duhh, just do a spell check) and you'll ACE this test.  They also sent about 6 files to transcribe.  I have over 15 years of experience, I no longer test for positions.  I have a packed resume, so I don't feel I should.  I tested for the position I currently have, but I only had to transcribe 2 files, and the test I think a newbie could pass halfway through an MT course.  I aced that test.  I have that job, and it is wonderful with great people that get back to me in like 5 minutes when I have a question or technical issue.  I have decided that with the way my resume looks, I am not testing any longer if I ever need another job, which I highly doubt because the job I have now throws work at me left and right.  I was out of their QA in like 3 days.  They totally respect me and do not use IM at all.  They don't believe in it.  I was not impressed at all with American Transcription.  I thought the e-mail was unprofessional and also a way off base since I had applied so long ago. 
I started MW in January

It shows that they are taking out SS.  At the end of the year am I going to find out they didn't.   If they didn't.  Were is that money going? 


Is that what is going on.  They show that they are taking out and people are finding out that they didn't? 


Got the email January 8th.
nm
January 1st doomsday

In my opinion, from the 2nd conference call MDI has no clue what will happen with our pay and schedules come January 1st.  Seems like they would have asked Trascend about their pay scale, etc. but it appears they have no answers to those questions at this time (or they don't want to tell us).


 


When I was hired back in January they sm
offered $500.00 bonus. After the 3 months they automatically put in paycheck.
I posted this on January 12, no answer
Somebody answer, even if you have to make up sumpin.
They had an ad back in mid January, so maybe that is why it is so slow now
nm
I left Focus in January.
I have mixed feelings about them after looking back. I will say that I was very grateful to them for hiring me fresh out of school and giving me the opportunity to work in this field. As a newbie, it is very hard to find work as an MT.

When I first started with them (for about the 1st 4-6 months) everything was wonderful and I had no complaints at all. After that, however, things started to unravel. My supervisor stopped communicating with those of us on his team, workload plummeted, and everything started going to VR. I was having a very hard time keeping the bills paid because with all the VR, my paychecks were significantly less than they were before. Because it was a new system, the VR hadn't been trained yet, so each report pretty much had to be retyped from the very beginning...for half the pay rate. I have been gone since January, but I still get emails on almost a daily basis telling me there are X number of STAT reports, etc.

Anyhow, I have moved on now and work for a great company. Like I said, I am very appreciative of Focus for giving me the opportunity fresh out of school, but I'm glad I am not with them anymore.

I'm sure there are people who could be with them for a very long time and be perfectly happy. I'm just not one of them.
An ad here back in January said they paid on a
s
In January, their software was SoftMed & you still
s
Medware is just starting to in January. nm
x
Signed mine in January
so, how convenient is that?
do you realize you are posting to posts from January of

I was told last January all team leads would be

in the U.S. by summer along with the QA team.  Come May, I was canned along with a bunch of other QA and management people.  Strange dontcha think?  Now they are singing the same tune to a different audience.  See ya at the unemployment office...


Do the MQ firm scheduled start immediately or in January? nm
nm
I last used it the second week of January. Maybe your company's version was better than the compa
?
They have a history of pay problems. In January, the owner told us sm
all that she could not pay us and that it would happen again in July. I have had 8 bounced checks, dozens of late checks and a few no check situations in the past 2 years. Not sure why I stayed but I am much happier now that I moved on.
If it's the one in the Carolinas, they offer 7.5 cpl and use MPWord, or did in January. Nice
s
fixed by January, I was told. I love my boss. Maybe you sm
were not a great employee! Ever thought of that?
Well, forget about LPH average. All that is gonna change in January. sm
no more bonus money BASED on LPH but total lines. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. I hope Non-National has already left Webmedx. She doesn't deserve to work here.
They said they have very few IC positions, and this would be discussed in January with Human Resourc
thus they are going to try to get you to go full-time employee and get benefits and take a lower pay. Did you not notice how she was trying to play up the you will get benes now BS?
my first year I made 16k. Doubled that second year. Going on year 6 with (sm)

two local accounts I earned 23,000.00 and a national I earned 35,400... 58,400 this year.  Don't ask me how many hours, though, I really have no idea.  I'm pretty motivated.  (When people ask me how many hours I work a week I reply as many as it takes  I'd say 40-50/week.  I am also a fitness instructer and personal trainer, about 5 hours a week or so.  Decent money (sometimes under the table!) but mostly I just do it for fun and to be social and wear cute work-out clothes. 


that first year was a rough one... but I consider it part of my education. 


 


I'm pretty motivated. 


For radiology, Keystrokes is the best. I worked at MQ for 8 years and left in January. sm
Wish I had done it two years ago. Lots of work, easy accounts, great team leads! I am making less per report but more each check because of better account with more work available!
Last year, there was a letter sent that told us what we earned the previous year. sm
In the past, it has been all or nothing; if you did not hit the lines for full time for the year, you did not get PTO. I talked to my lead this morning about a last-minute vacation and she told me that the yearly packets are going out in a week or so and that the new policy will acrue PTO by the pay period or month. I like that a lot better, but she also made it sound like they are upping the amount of lines needed to acrue PTO. I normally get between 15 and 20,000 lines per pay period, so I am sure that will be fine but I am worried about the periods that have lower volumes, like most of January every year.
Webmedx lets you carry them from year to year sm
You can accrue up to 140 hours (I think) before you stop the accrual process. Don't have to use it all in one year.
I would stick it out, most places are slow now through the end of the year every year (nm)
x
Last year $36K part time, going to make more this year full time BUT sm

I AGREE it IS getting harder to make money.  I used to make $24 very part time 10 years ago and now...well it is Word and platforms versus WP5.1.  I got 7.5 cents a byte line then and I get 9.5 cents a character line now.  That IS a huge different in point of fact.


OH I WANT MY WORDPERFECT 5.1 BACK!!!!! Bwaaah!


I did that, but nothing happened

I have a scroll mouse, but font is still same size.  Appreicate the tip, though...never knew that one. 


Thanks for posting!


What had happened was, sm
I've known Linda for over a decade now. In the timeline of the article, which is during the time that I've known her, I've only known of Executive Secretarial Services. In many other interviews and articles, she's plainly stated about changing her goals and target market, hence the name change to ExecuScribe to reflect that she's not just a secretarial service. The ESS name can't attract MT clients, and she wanted to open herself up to that market. The articles and a conversation we had both reflect the same.

I think that all of this is a tragedy. This happened 15 years ago and for the RBJ to be rehashing all of this doesn't serve any constructive purpose whatsoever. What it will do is hurt Linda, her clients, her staff, and the community, which could very well trickle down to the MTSOs in our area. She paid her dues and it should have been left alone. The RBJ staff writer was wreckless and irresponsible in bringing this to the forefront. What I can't figure out is how all of this started in the first place, i.e., what made RBJ investigate into their past?

Rochester is dying and has been for years. We have no major or attractive employers anymore except for SMH and the non-degreed positions there are only a tad over minimum wage. Over half of the city population lives in poverty-like conditions and we have one of the highest murder rates in the country. On a national level, she did bring Rochester some recognition and she also provided local jobs.

Again, I think all of this is a mess. You have to admit that Linda's a tough one though. In the article, it stated that she made an "impassioned plea," but it was only ONCE and that was it. She didn't grovel. She's kept her self-respect intact. She's smart and she's also very savvy. She'll pick herself up and dust herself off and go about business. What she did build is very impressive, as have all local MTSOs, which I've had the pleasure of meeting in the past decade.

A lot of people are going to get hurt from this because of careless journalism. The mighty always fall the hardest. I don't think that any of us should rejoice in another's hardship.
this happened at my last job
People were staying up all night working,by the time 8 a.m. rolled around...no work...soooo frustrating for those of us who sleep at night. Had to get away from that, plus the boss had favorites that got all the cake work and the rest of us were stuck struggling with whattever was left over...definitely not an even distribution of work. I asked my boss about it, but of course, I was being crazy....
happens to all... happened to me
But i only was for 2 weeks.
Oh no! Not you too me2!! IT happened to me, too:)
Sorry, but that struck me as funny saying you2 me 2, happened to me2.
Something that has happened to me lately at MDI
I will dial in and get the no more reports message.  A few minutes later I will dial in and start getting reports from the night before or whatever, dictated obviously before the last time I dialed in.  My question is - where were those reports the first time I dialed in?  Do they transfer them off of the hospital system onto MDI's system and maybe they weren't transferred yet?  Just puzzles me when that happens and it's happened several times lately.
I'm sorry this happened to you. If it were me, sm

I would resign to keep my record clean, and try like heck to get another job but this time in a hospital or clinic and get my production skills up.  If you try and get another job at home (I'm under the assumption you might be a newbie), this could happen again.   You don't need that. 


As for unemployment payments, I doubt you could get them if you resigned.  You'd be better off getting another job right away. 


Good luck!  I hope things work out for you. 


 


It has happened to me too

Sort of the same thing happened to me as well, right before Christmas, different company though.  I had been told prior by someone that my accuracy was at 99%; only to be told by someone different that I was being fired because my quality had gone down over the last few pay periods, but what is odd, is I never got any type of feedback.


I am still relatively new to this profession--having only graduated in June of 2005.  I had also contacted my supervisor and asked how well I was doing prior to the firing, only to be told that I was doing great, and to keep up the good work. Then be e-mailed--not called--but e-mailed stating that I had been terminated effective immediately. That was the worst time to be fired from a job because NO ONE hires right before Christmas, and I am still trying to find another place.


Good luck to you


This happened to me.

Go to a different branch of your bank and this time DON'T tell them that you had your passcode with the card.  They can look up where the money was withdrawn and they will reimburse you (my bank did).  Then go to the police and they will send an officer with you to go to the bank wherever the money was withdrawn.  A report will be made out and they will check the surveillance tape to see who it was, as long as that ATM has cameras. 


Good luck to you!  Dont' give up on this.    


This is not what happened to me (sm)
Maybe it depends on the account, but I log off whenever I want a break.  I don't have to stay on the entire 8 hours straight.  Demographics didn't have to be filled in.  They were already there.  The only time I have to type anything on demographics is when there is a change, or I have to do a seach for the correct admission. 
What ever happened to DSG? Are they still around?
nm
This also happened to me at my last job...sm
Even when I said something...i was crazy and when my line count dropped they wondered why. They actually accused me of not working up to my potential in order to get benefits for my disabled son, well not acused, asked me if that was what was up. No, it wasn't....I left shortly after that last insult.

If I were you...I would most definitely say something and keep saying something or ask for a difficultly premium or something. It is unfair in my opinion.
happened to me, too. .. (sm)
only they disquised it as a new revised pay scale. Lots of patient demos and flipping thru schedules and faxes, low work volume... I would say look elsewhere, too.
Happened to me twice.

I submitted resume to one company, they didn't have any openings, so they sent it to another company that they knew had openings.  Guess they were buddies.  Another time, they saw my resume on monster.com