We're in a recession. If you want jobs, you'd
Posted By: better act fast these days. nm on 2009-02-03
In Reply to: Wow, that job was just posted. - You really made a fast decision.
nm
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My take: They're using the recession as an excuse
justify sending more work out to India. Just one more reason to convince our legislators to pull the plug on offshoring without some kind of monetary consequence for those companies that do it.
I think we're just one of too many out there looking for totally new jobs or something new. Not
s
Of course we're happy to have jobs (sm)
However, the job is becoming less and less valuable, in my opinion. The employer is becoming more and more just like every other MT company, in my opinion, yet they're doing it while using the marketing ploy that they're remarkable. Well, they're becoming less and less remarkable.
Another issue is the fact that they were not routinely giving raises before the economy tanked. Rather than give a raise to employees, they bought an MT school.
The obvious is that we're glad to have jobs. However, I'd hope to go beyond the obvious. This reminds me of the industry's typical response to requests for higher pay (how many have you heard?):
1. You get to work at home. Look at all the money on gas and clothing you save! You should be grateful. Gee, I wish I could work at home!
2. You should be doing this for the patients and not thinking of the money. It's a service industry, and we are serving our patients. [yes, I actually heard this one before]
3. You can give yourself a raise! We offer _____ (fill in the blank with any of the following: (a) weird schedules that nobody would want to work in exchange for a small incentive! (b) an Expander program! (c) overtime! (d) flexible scheduling: You can actually sit at your computer and look for work all day, catching work as it trickles in!)
So do we really need to add #4 now? Has the industry sunk so low that the answer to our complaints of not getting paid adequately and BEFORE the economy tanked and only having things get worse, is the answer really Gee, you should just be grateful to have a job. I know X number of people who have been laid off! Are we really going to excuse YEARS of this widespread poor pay in the industry and the excuses while a company buys a school (and how much did that purchase cost?) as basically just be glad you have a job? The trash man has a job. The bagger at the grocery store has a job. If that's all it is, just get any old job and be grateful, then what's so remarkable about this company that says it's remarkable?
You've stated the obvious. Yeah, we're grateful to have jobs. Yeah, we're realists. Can we get back to the point now?
You're right about the acute care jobs
There isn't much for MTs that don't do acute care. I can hear the happiness in a recruiters voice when I tell them my experience and I had my choice of 4 jobs when I changed companies recently. I am in no way minimizing the OP's situation or trying to belittle her, I am just stating what I have found. I wish her all the luck and hope something works out for her soon.
As for poster who is bashing her, what goes around comes around. You never know when you're going to be in somebody else's shoes. A lot of MT's, especially the newer ones, don't have the confidence to try to go to another company. I don't know her reasons for not changing sooner, but I'm sure she's got them and it's not for us to judge.
Any service that offshores has US QA people. We're the ones stupid enough to take these jobs
and clean up their mess!
Welcome to the recession everyone!
**
Recession proof job
In these uncertain times, just curious how everyone sees the outlook of an MT? With voice recognition, how do you see the job market in 10 years? I am an instructor at a local small community college that teaches basic transcription and this is a topic of discussion. Any help would be appreciated!
Recession proof .. ??
I think that you need to tell your students we are in a situation now that eludes all reason as tight money makes us all possible victims of this recession. If hospitals or businesses cannot borrow money in a fluid way then payrolls become a problem. Otherwise, MT is not going away, but it is changing and to stay relevant you have to change with the time and the technology, which drives the train. A dose of realism is often the best way to make a point.
As for recession proof sm
I feel pretty recession proof.
I have 2 jobs and will make more as an MT this year than I have ever have. I don't work as much or as hard as you might think. I am break taker and if I actually spent 8 hours a day physically typing I would be surprised, but I will still come up over $45K this year. It is my speed and accuracy that allows me to be the break taker I am. When I am at the keyboard, I AM ALL IN and when I break, I break.
I am also aware that MT is changing, but not going away. I don't feel taken advantage of and I don't feel I am underpaid. I don't think that corporations are squeezing me or that I have overseas competition. I feel that as MTs go, I am sitting right up there at the top of the heap. If either of my companies start reducing staffing levels, I will not be one of the ones they let go. In the one case, I know I would be the first on the list to be retained. I don't actually worry about having a job or finding a new one when needed. My problem is usually fielding offers and deciding which one to pick.
This is not most of us though and I understand that. I worry for those of you who are not at the top of this profession and will have to worry about where it is going a lot sooner than I shall.
Healthcare and recession
we have an aging population, I know I'm one of them. Many actually have health benefits and will have Medicare. Healthcare is pretty recessionproof. Some of your slowdown may be due to the economy, but there is undoubtedly some change in management reason also. If people wait to see the doctor, they will not necessarily get better. Clinic work, however, I think will stay busier than acute care until this medical neglect lands people in the hospital.
I don't think there is such a thing as a recession proof job... sm
but I sure can tell you this...I have been doing transcription for 13 years. I have done it in house and at home, at home since 1998. I have worked for so many companies I can't even remember most of them from Lanier to Medquist to Spheris to Cardioscribes to Transform. I could go on and on. My three children are young but not so young anymore that I can't leave them alone for a while during the day now. My oldest is in high school now and all I can say is that I have had enough with this transcription bullcrap business. When I tell people what these transcription companies have done to me, their eyes bug out of their heads. I had gone to work for Cardioscribes leaving a very good paying job only to have them tell me that they weren't going to pay me because, as a salaried account manager, they felt I didn't work enough the two weeks before. They decided to pay me for only five days of the pay period instead of 12, took their sweet time sending the check, and then fired me. Now I have a really pretty $400 phone bill from conference calls that I get to pay with no paycheck. I had one company tell me after working 90 hours in a 2-week period and after sending in my timesheet, Gee, quite frankly, we really just can't afford to pay you this kind of paycheck for QA so we are going to change your pay from hourly to a cents per line salary retroactive for the last two weeks. They took my paycheck from $1350 to $500 then fired me two days after I received my almost $800 short paycheck. MDI you ask??? I currently just got hired by them. My training was to start on Oct. 7 and you know what... they don't even have enough work on the account to get me through my DQA training, which lasts for two weeks where you can only type 20 minutes per day, and the liason went out of town so I was told not to bother to type until Monday!!!! However, when they hired me, they expected me to commit to so many lines per day and I had to commit to working at least 3 holidays and one day on the weekend, and this is all as an IC!!! The other company that I was just hired for took three weeks to get me hired and now has sent out 3, either broken or the wrong foot pedals. I have spent these years as an MT hanging around all day waiting for work (sometimes for weeks and months) and some, if not most days, getting no work at all. I worked for Focus Infomatics as a SWAT QA and watched them fire 50 people in a weeks time for absolutely no reason at all and most of those people were just hired within a week who left good jobs to go work for them. I had one company tell me on a constant day-to-day basis that there just wasn't any work available. This went on for three months until they finally decided to put their work into a pool. When I got access to viewing the pool, you should have seen the work available but I sat for three months with no work at all and no paycheck either. I complained to the payroll person about the lack of work and she said she didn't understand because she was processing some really great paychecks and as far as she was concerned, nothing had changed within the company so she couldn't understand why I had no work. I was an IC for that company and everyone else was an employee. The owners knew everyone because they worked with everyone while in-house at a big hospital before the MT manager decided to open up his own MT company. All of the MTs at the hospital decided to go with him so he gave all the work went to them, although I was told by them that my work was excellent. They are now being investigated for cheating the MTs on their line counts, I believe. I have had QA people send screaming e-mails regarding work that I did telling me that the dictator was a truly horrible dictator but that I did a horrible job and that they don't get paid to fill in the words or phrases that I couldn't get. Last year, a month before Christmas, I got axed by CBay as a QA as they eventually ax everybody they hire. I couldn't even buy Christmas gifts, not even one. We had to purchase one gift for each one of our children and we had to put those three gifts on a credit card. I am now extremely overweight, smoke like a chimney because of massive financial stress and the stress of having no life, have absolutely no friends and absolutely ZERO social life, and I am virtually financially ruined (credit score is less than 500). I have had it with this field. It was ok to do this when my children were very young as I had no choice because I couldn't afford daycare for three kids. My husband works very hard but there is no way we could afford $400 a week for childcare back then. The key words here are I had no choice. I do now though I am getting the hell out of this crap before anyone else has the chance to screw me over. It seems to me that the ones who are making more and more money only make it because they are putting in more hours...not because their cents per line has increased. I have read on these boards that MTing is the only job where the salary goes down after years of experience instead of increasing and that is the absolute honest truth AND THAT IS JUST WRONG!!! I have interviews set up, one with a job just about a mile down the street from where I live, and I just can't wait! I can't wait to have a normal paycheck every single week. I can't wait to not be screwed over anymore! I can't wait to make friends again! I can't wait to be out of my house every day and be social every day with human beings and be glad to come home at the end of the day! Maybe this year I can even buy my kids some Christmas gifts. Every person who asks me about MTing I tell them, don't you dare go near MT work. It will ruin your life. As far as your questino about a recession proof job, there really is no job that is recession proof, but after reading my post and hopefully realizing that this can happen to you too as it does so many of us MTing, do you think that a recession is what you really need to be worrying about? YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE DECISION YOU MADE TO GET INTO THIS FIELD!
I don't thing depression or recession has anything to do with it. sm
I think it is because all the work is going overseas and since the companies have that option, they don't care anymore. In fact it is not just our professon but all of corporate America does not care about employees and then they wonder why the employees don't do a good job for them. It is a 2-way street. Just my 2 cents!
Cherrypicking is when you work from a pool of jobs and being able to reject the worst jobs to those
,
Monster Jobs and Career Builder usually have a few path jobs. nm
s
Don't think any do except for those in-house jobs. Some QA jobs are paid hourly. nm
s
They didn't take our jobs, QT gave them our jobs. The account is now
back in the hands of US MTs, or will be in just a couple of weeks.
Are MTs that are looking for jobs finding good jobs right now with everyone looking or is it
getting more difficult to find a good job. I am most interested in jobs for experienced MTs with more than 10 years service. I wonder if it is better to put a resume on or just keeping applying or what is the best way to go about this.
Look at all the jobs on the jobs boards.
You can find a job and won't have to apply for unemployment. You would be surprised how many companies need qualified MTs! Go get 'em and get 'em now!
Don't wait until the 11th hour. Too many needs to put your hat in the unemployment slot.
What they lost is our gain.
Hope you're enjoying those slave wages you're earning.
.
So you guys feel you're getting paid what you're worth with VR?
I'm not trying to be snarky. I've never done VR, so I'm trying to understand.
You're happy with your paycheck with VR? Do you find the files to be as bad as the original post implied?
So you're telling me, basically, they're bad news?
They offered me 0.095/line and you know - it sounded too good to be true, but I SWEAR the recruiter told me they do not outsource. Oh brother... I just wish they'd be honest. I really don't know what to do.
Not the OP, but they're supposed to take out all the other taxes as you're an employee with th
s
No, they're not losing money....they're gaining!
If a company charges their clients by the line, I'm sure that line rate does not go down even though the MTs pay does.
ASR pays about 2/3 normal line rate to its MTs. Their ultimate goal is to have the MTs do twice as much work. Therefore, the client is getting their work faster, but paying their normal rate, while corporate gets that money and the MTs get the lower line rate.
Whether the newbies want to realize it or not, MTSOs have not increased MTs' salaries in the past 10 years. They still start out at the same pay as the last century!
This used to be a very lucrative profession. Nowadays, most MTs are considered to be paid at the poverty level. You don't believe me, look it up!
Hey, you're in luck then. They're hiring! (nm)
x
If they're in Nebraska, they're www.medigrafix.com nm
m
If you're an IC, you pay all your taxes. Otherwise you're an SE or employee. nm
s
If you're PT you're required to work
8 of your hours in one weekend day. There's no extra pay for it though.
The face we're wising up is exactly why they're
xxx
We're not 'so scared' of it. We're trying to help
you to not make a huge mistake, but I guess you're determined to learn the hard way, so good luck with that.
If you're in the 37% tax bracket, you're making over
100K per year. Quit complaining.
You're right on it! They're just trying to cause panic.
...
How can you KNOW what you're doing without THINKING you know what you're doing?
/
If you're not doing your job, then you're not earning anything, therefore
p
they're desperate because they're sm
driving away all their employees with the horrible new changes they're implementing. It's a mass exodus, and they couldn't keep up with their work load before all the departures.
We're glad you're gone too.
The more people that quit, the more work left for me. I love it when people say they can't take doing MT anymore.
Well, i hate to tell ya, but if you're an IC, you're
nm
3 jobs
Yes, I currently work 3 jobs; 2 are national (both suck); pay okay and am an employee and the other one smaller company am an IC (are very nice) but pay a little less. Going crazy because they overhire (the 2 national companies).
4 jobs here
nm
MT jobs
MT Professional with 5 years experience.Looking for clinicial or Independent Doc MT work I can handle anytype of account.
no new jobs
Yes, I get that message a lot and I have three accounts. I have only been there a month now and I am waiting to see if it is going to change.
There are jobs for us
I went to the jobseeking site on this board and have now received 3 offers. I would like to make the moderator for this message board. This board has let us be heard. As a result of being heard, we are considered for jobs first because of our special situation. To every Heartlander, look on the jobseeking site of this board and good luck.
jobs
I consider 7 cents per line an insult. They can get the offshore people instead.
but i have 3 jobs to do it :(
xx
has anyone ever tried 2 new jobs
at the same time, and if so, how was it. I am thinking of letting go of my current job to try 2 parttime jobs to see which would lead to a better fulltime job. Whew... thanks!
2 jobs . .
Most transcriptionists have more than one job, it allows for backup when one runs low. It's not real hard to do, except I did try to learn two new jobs at one time and that was tough. Would start out with one and then the other. It was pretty stressful for a while.
Is more then just the MT jobs.
Most technical services are over seas too. Dell is the worst.. They don't even speak English... Time for the American People to step up to the plate and DEMAND their medical records stay in the States.. I do that when I go to the doctor and hospital.
Log of Jobs
I had to keep a log with companies I worked for that were responsible for the demographics, just to cover my backside. If you don't it's the client's word against yours if the wrong info gets entered. If you want names just e-mail me.
Why do you say that? There are other jobs.
nm
TT, 3 jobs?
I have just started on a hospital account. Not the best hours, have to work the major holidays, and miss things etc. Have my original job, does not pay well. Starting on another service to try it out. Now, considering TT. I was thinking with all the raves about TT, I would make that my main job (working 3rd shift) so I can do things with my family and during the holidays which I could not do with the hospital. I don't know what to do now that I hear TT might not have work for me as I need to support my family (I would take 3rd shift). I am curious as to comments. The other service job I am trying out I hear has great benefits but inflexible. Gave me the schedule I want but will be demanding in that they check line counts daily. I know this is confusing, but trying to sort out. TTers should I take the job and dump the hospital so I can enjoy the holidays and keep another job on the side? Or keep the hospital and forget any flexibility. Any comments appreciated. Thanks
Jobs
Have you just been applying recently? This is the slowest time for transcription, and a lot of companies might not be hiring at the moment because of work shortages. Keep in touch with them on an occasional basis. Regarding the comments about Amphion, I can't agree. I do a wide variety of transcription with them, some clinical, much acute care, and much surgical. The secret for me was to be willing to transcribe multiple accounts and all specialities. It's a great company to work for, and I'd recommend them. Good luck in your job search!
It's not just our jobs...
I saw on the news that there are web sites where you can assign tasks for people in India and Korea to do your web searches for just one dollar a day. One lady pays $30.00 per month and she has this task person look up whether she can buy a certain color shoes at a certain store. She's a marketing executive with just not enough time on her hands to complete all of her tasks, so she pays. Of course now it is even more advertised since it was on the news. They even showed a foreign person with a headset smiling and just ready to perform all of your tasks that you cannot get done. Can you imagine? So, it is not just transcription, it is everything.
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