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This is January. It is always slow in January. Part of MT. sm

Posted By: FrustratedLTMT on 2009-01-19
In Reply to:

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. 


 




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They had an ad back in mid January, so maybe that is why it is so slow now
nm
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.
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.
This happened to me in January of this year... SM

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!


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?
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!
Depends on the account. Work on VR lately has been slow. Just like all companies, we have slow times

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.


No - it is not always slow! Depends on the company and hospital. I have never been slow this time
Slow time is usually in September when everyone is back to work/school from the summer months.

Been doing this 24 years and never slow this time of year. Actually, I am drowning in work - can't keep up.
OH - I thought part transcription, part escription, but don't know for sure
nm
They no longer hire part-time and may be eliminating part-time employees within the next 6 months.
They are going to have those that are PT go FT if possible. Some accounts require 1 weekend day, but not all. Most transcriptionists have 1 account with 1 back-up account. I know that they are hiring for hospital accounts in medical records and radiology right now.
No PTO for part-time. Not sure if you can work part-time or not since recent rule change. sm
You do pay a deposit for their equipment.
There is a part-time and a flexible part-time, just left there and they offered
me both. Flexible, however, is more or less when they need you (I.e. weekends), part-time is fixed hours.
Yes I know they hire part time because I referred someone there for part time.
They are internet based.
From what I understand, the part-time positions will be only be for those that are already part-time
It is not a restructuring of the company, just of some of the existing part-time positions.

I know that there are a few employees who have been with Keystrokes for many, many years who are part-time and they will not displaced.

Other than that, there have been many discussions why there will not be any new part-time employees hired, and I really don't think they will back down on that.
What I do when its slow

I do exactly what the email they sent out to us says.  If there isnt any work during my shift, I leave and take the kids somewhere, clean or do laundry, make dinner early or whatever.  Then when work comes in, I work.  If work is there during my shift but there isnt a lot, I take what I can and then go do my thing and come back later.   When work is slow, I do work longer  hours trying to get work in.  I get a good line count in too.  I am not in this career for others.  I am in it to feed my family.  I am in it for a paycheck.  If work is slow, I will take what I can get when I can get it.  I type fast and am productive and I will not go without. 


The email they sent out said to t ype during early morning hours or at night when the work is in there.  So that is what everyone has to do.  First come, first serve.  We all have the same chance of getting on there and getting the work.  The early bird gets the worm, ya know.  This MT that has 20,000 lines per pay.  I think that is great.  I try to get that also.  There is nothing wrong with that or unbelievable about that.  It all boils down to how bad you want it.


slow
 outdated platform, new QA guidelines for the birds.  I'm trying to find something else now.
You can slow it down (sm)
In your transnet player box, there's a box that says more or something like that. I'm not logged in right now and can't remember.  But, it's at the bottom right of the transnet player box.  Click that, and you can adjust the volume, speed, etc.
The 4th was slow for many
nm
Very slow to pay!
nm
slow down

Please tell me how.  When I do it it does not give me that option.  Help!!


Slow for me, too.
There just is not the level of work available that I would expect, sometimes nothing at all, this is on the same account you asked about, looks like the monitor took that part out. Went from a hundred report backup to a job trickling in here and there, started to dry up around Christmas but seems to me it never recovered. That's not a seasonal slump, the work may be going elsewhere.
DQM slow?

my first job is taking FOREVER to come up...anybody else?


Still slow
I guess it is feast or famine depending on account because they are still just trickling through. 
It's slow for me, too.
nm
It's Slow Everywhere
Yeah, it's just that time of the year when people have better things to do than go to the hospital I guess. In my 18 years experience in medical transcription there are always these slow times occasionally. It will pick up. I'm not worried. I socked back some when it was busy and I was getting those great bonuses TT gives us. People have been on here slamming TT saying everything from there being too many transcriptionists on accounts and even accusing them of outsourcing. That is one thing they do not do and I really feel that my statement is accurate. You can tell by the job numbers that work has been slow. I was transcribing a report a couple of weeks ago and there was a female yelling out to a doctor that was walking away and she said, Hey, get back to that office and bring us in some patients...we're hurting here. Confirmation to me. I love Transtech and plan on hanging in there with them until the cows come home. Good luck and don't worry...it's gonna pick up soon.
I do not think it is slow everywhere!
But, that being said, I honestly wonder why people feel the need to say this sort of thing out here? It makes more sense to be in touch with your company and get it straightened out than be in this state of upset when a phone call or an email might give you a direct answer.
SLOW PAY

I never did receive my last paycheck from Transform.  Got tired of fighting for it, but it's not too late to contact the Department of Labor and Attorney General, I guess.


 


YOU SAY SLOW?
If it is slow where you are already, I hope all the employees have a large bank account because the holidays are not even here yet!!  You will be out of work for 2 months.
slow
They are slow. I've been getting emails not to download work on secondary accounts so they will have enough for the primaries, but they are fair and usually let you flex your shift if you need to. They tend to get backed up in the evenings.