Unorganized, feast or famine work, rude people, AND

• DSG (Dictation Services Group-GA) - BeenAroundMT
  • Unorganized, feast or famine work, rude people, AND - also there
  • thoughts - another DSGer
  • Current DSG'r - Red
  • They have taken on new accounts, but work is not plentiful, actually looking for a new job. - DSG MT
    • I have been running out of work with them also...frustrating! nm - anon
    • Lack of work - dolly
  • They have just taken on several new accounts. nm - DSG'r

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The nature of the transcription business, from personal experience, is feast or famine, with usually not much in between.

In other words, learn to get while the getting is good so you're prepared for the leaner days and can carve out a decent average for yourself in accordance with your budget and paycheck you have to make to pay your bills. You DO have a personal budget and know the income you need to pull in on a consistent basis, right?

Having said that, if you're with a company for several weeks, and there is little to no work at all, that's when you begin sending out resumes and executing Plan B (you DO have Plan B, right? And C and D if necessary, right?). Cycles are expected. A consistent bare trickle that never picks up, is not. That means the company has really bad personnel management skills or is losing accounts and unable to pull any new accounts in, and so it's time for you to consider your options because things are not going to change.

If this is really your situation, then you should a) notify your current employer that you're scaling back to part time or per diem (and provide them with the times you will be available) and b) get another job ASAP to make up for it. I know a few MTs that work for more than one company, part time, and between the two pull in a nice paycheck. It's smart, especially if neither of them have guaranteed work for you to fill a full-time schedule and make a full-time paycheck.

Remember, you're working for YOU, not your employer. And you should have high expectations from yourself to meet your own needs instead of relying so heavily on other people, whether they send you a paycheck or not. :)

The nature of the transcription business, from personal experience, is feast or famine, with usually not much in between.

In other words, learn to get while the getting is good so you're prepared for the leaner days and can carve out a decent average for yourself in accordance with your budget and paycheck you have to make to pay your bills. You DO have a personal budget and know the income you need to pull in on a consistent basis, right?

Having said that, if you're with a company for several weeks, and there is little to no work at all, that's when you begin sending out resumes and executing Plan B (you DO have Plan B, right? And C and D if necessary, right?). Cycles are expected. A consistent bare trickle that never picks up, is not. That means the company has really bad personnel management skills or is losing accounts and unable to pull any new accounts in, and so it's time for you to consider your options because things are not going to change.

If this is really your situation, then you should a) notify your current employer that you're scaling back to part time or per diem (and provide them with the times you will be available) and b) get another job ASAP to make up for it. I know a few MTs that work for more than one company, part time, and between the two pull in a nice paycheck. It's smart, especially if neither of them have guaranteed work for you to fill a full-time schedule and make a full-time paycheck.

Remember, you're working for YOU, not your employer. And you should have high expectations from yourself to meet your own needs instead of relying so heavily on other people, whether they send you a paycheck or not. :)

After working for a hospital medical records department for over 15 years, which I know realize was a cushy job and not the norm, and now working for 2 services and still not making enough money, I'm curious to know if anyone else is struggling financially because of the constant feast or famine syndrome.  I realize that on my FT job, they basically want transcriptionists available 24/7 even though you clearly have set schedule, and being available 24/7 is probably the only way to make your quota with the ups and downs in the work.  Unfortunately, I have 2 jobs, 2 children, a dog and a significant other and really can't be strapped to this computer day and night...not to mention I need to eat, shower and sleep....

How is one to survive?  Should I be working 3 jobs? I need help.

I know that is tough to get used to, but even when you have your own accounts, the workload can wax and wane. It can also change overnight.  I have my own accounts that wax and wane.  You can never really count on anything being absolute in this field.  These companies can only offer you what they have because it depends on the dictator and how much work there is at any given time.  Almost any company will tell you this if you haven't already experienced the same.  It is unfortunate, however, this field does require some flexibility.  I guess that may come with more years of experience and being in the know upfront that nothing is forever.  A lot of time these larger companies only can sign 3-5 year contracts.  I am an IC (not for Transcend), and when there is a need, boy the e-mails come sailing through asking can I help, but when the work is low, my e-mail is dry.  Adapting and adjusting is all part of this field for sure.    

P/S:  I was a employee at one time for Transcend, but I do believe they are offering contracts at this point to IC as I did see a recent post. 

I work part-time with a daily number of lines to complete, no set schedule.  My work is usually pretty steady, but over the holiadys when things slowed down, I decided to get another part-time job.  I ended up in direct home sales.  I make more money at it than I do MTing and I get to set my own schedule.  I usually do 2 shows a week, averaging about $150 to $200 per show.  The shows take about 3 hours in total and the computer work is about an hour or less. 

It also gets me out of the house and gives me a break from my kids.  I will say that I'm pretty fortunate that my husband has a M-F 8-4 job, so he's able to be home with the kids on the evenings I do these. 

I keep a separate checking account for my business and it's really neat to watch it grow.  I'm saving the money for a rainy day (or famine) and when I get to a certain amount, we're putting in a pool.  I'm halfway there already.

No way would I stay attached to my computer.  If things are slow, I put that time into my new business and work on getting new shows booked or party games or invitations.  There's always something productive to do. 

this is business baby, it's not your mama's house or church.  Suck it up and do your job.  Not everyone is nice.  Not everyone wakes up in the morning and sings with the birds and whistles while they work. 

at one time they decided to not pay for any report with anything QA (and QA was a real joke) could call an account-specific error.  There were hundreds of pages of account specifics.  Even worse than that was that within the same account, there were doctor specifics...and hundreds of doctors!  By the time you figured out who wanted what, you wasted a tremendous amount of time. 

My QA person was not an MT - never had been.  She had a BOS and maybe 2 Stedman's Word Books, but she knew it all. 

I do know they have more accounts than they used to, and the "Gerger" of Gerger-Moretti is gone, so maybe things have changed.

is after being offered a position three times by this company over the past few years and each time I have been turned off by how unorganized they are over there.  I had the same experience this past week with them not getting back to me.  Then they did and told me about two positions.  I told her the one I was interested in but needed an answer about the ins.  Then they called me back the next day but she forgot why I was even waiting for the call and then to top it off was told the position that I was interested was no longer available.  This is the third experience with them.  I don't have time to tell you about the first two.  Incredible.  I have a better job offer from TT (actually to return back to them on a better account) and Axolotl which I will decide on by tomorrow, and another from Transcend which I am turning down but Transcend is right on, very organized, answered all my questions, and told me what all she had available and I picked the one I wanted, no surprises and no being left hanging, immediately sent me the ins info by email before we even got off the phone!  That is the way a company should be run as far as HR is concerned.  The two that I am deciding on also are very efficient in answering ALL questions in a TIMELY MANNER and are organized.  Debbie is great and Axolotl is very very nice and polite and immediately sent me the information I needed such as INSURANCE.  I need to have questions answered before accepting a position.  I will not go in blindly.  I have a chronically sick daughter for crying out loud and some companies did not even have the decency to respond to me on ins. so they got nothing back from me.  Oh and get this when I finally did get the ins. information from KS it was this!! http://www.geoaccess.com/phcs/po/  No information on nothing, just a provider look up and when you click on the home icon and travel your way through the website trying to find info there is nothing that states anything about what the coverage is!!

I will never apply for KS again.  Three strikes and your'e out!!

the owner sends out UGLY and NASTY emails to the MTs. The communication is just a disorganized mess and they hire you as an IC, but pretty much treats you like an employee.  Emdat sucks and pretty much the accounts are not that great.  VERY hard to get your lines in Emdat platform.  They LOVE to FIRE....when in actuality.....(that is the term they use)...you cannot FIRE an IC, you can lock them out of the system and I guess that is firing, but those two words have always been a pet peeve of mine....hearing when MTs are fired as ICs....Just my opinion

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