Willing to work
Posted By: MT with 4 months of experience on 2007-11-18
In Reply to: I have been a recruiter for 4 different companies over the past 15 years. sm - BTDT
I do not know which company you work for, but does your company give a newbie a fair chance? I graduated from one of the top 3 schools with a good GPA. I am reliable, devoted, work overtime, weekends, and so far my worst QA result has been 99.97%. Having graduated from this top school has helped open doors although at the end of the day, I am still just an MT without experience that has to beg for an opportunity. I am honest about my strengths and weaknesses, and I do expect my employer to be honest. Why is anyone hired if there is not enough work? Why am I promised training on certain accounts, but that never happens?
There is such a huge demand for qualified, devoted, hard-working MTs, and everyone admits that a new MT requires more training, guidance, support, and feedback. Yet, there are not many companies that are willing to give a newbie a fair chance. Before even knowing the slightest thing about what a company offers, we are expected to submit all of our personal information and pass tests. I would like to know some basic facts before revealing my social security number and my present employer. Why is it not possible for a company to share basic information before I submit my personal information and take a test? They know everything about me, but I know nothing or very little about them. Most of the time we can take as much time as we would like to finish the test, but on the job we cannot take a day or even a week to transcribe a report. I do not find the method of testing to be very realistic.
As a newbie we are expected to produce like an MT that has been transcribing for several years, which is unrealistic. Instead of outsourcing, maybe the MT companies and MTSOs should consider training American MTs to do a good job. I do not mind starting at a lower cpl rate if I get training, support, guidance, and feedback so that I can learn, grow and become a very good MT. Like in other jobs the beginning pay should be low for a newbie, but there should also be room to grow, which should result in raises on a regular basis. An experienced MT should not have to work for 7 or 8 cpl. I believe there should be some standardized program regarding jobs for newly graduated MTs and pay scales. There should be a minimum cpl for a newbie and then one for every year of experience. As a newbie I find it very confusing to sort out the different types of jobs that are offered. Employed with a set schedule, a window of 12 hours, split shift, and of course the line requirements. IC with no line requirements, and I can log on when I feel like it knowing there might not be any work. IC with line requirements, and I have to commit to a certain number of hours. Many people choose IC over employment because of the flexibility while they complain that when it is convenient for them to do some work, there is no work. It seems as if every company and MTSO has a different model and no two are alike, which is very confusing.
After talking to several recruiters and business owners, reading about how companies treat MTs and working for four months, I have learned a lot. Employers, business owners and account managers love to make promises they do not keep. Even if they say they will give you feedback, advice and guidance and admit that it takes up to one year to get a handle on transcribing, you are still expected to perform like an experienced MT after a month or two at the latest. Oh, the feedback seldom happens because everyone is too busy multitasking. Even though the manager(s) know it would be better to give feedback, they choose not to because it takes time to do so!
I often see ads that state they require 98% to 99% accuracy, and these ads have typos in them. I have seen manuals, guidelines and other documents full of typos and bad grammar. These were from MTSOs that required 98% to 99% accuracy and penalized the MT for errors. How can anyone want to work for a company that does not adhere to that accuracy yet penalize the MT for not delivering it?
I know that many MTs lie about their experience, their great grammar skills, their knowledge, and they love to lie about their production rates. That is what makes it even harder for an honest newbie with a good GPA and the determination to excel to get a fair shot at a job.
Like myself, I believe that a large number of newbies are very excited, willing, capable and eager to get that first job and work hard at becoming a great MT. Then reality hits, and we find ourselves struggling to merely receive a response to a resume we sent in. We have to wait for days or weeks to hear about test results. Then we get that first job and often enough are disappointed because we know we need more training, guidance, advice and feedback but never receive it. How are we supposed to know what we need to do better, where we need to work harder if our account manager never gives us feedback. We become disillusioned and many find themselves looking elsewhere for employment. No wonder there is a lack of qualified MTs. Not everyone is a fighter!
Maybe the companies including their recruiters and the MTSOs need to rethink how they treat ambitious, devoted, eager newbies. This could open the door to a whole new generation of American MTs that will actually provide accuracy, devotion and reliability!
Therefore I ask you, BTDT, are you willing to give me a fair chance at becoming an excellent MT?
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As a whole.. nice people to work for, decent benefits but the get off/on the system, work/no work,
is maddening. I couldnt pay my bills or even work the schedule I was assigned. They would ask us not to work until work built up in the evenings and I specifically wanted to work days as I have kids etc. It just didnt work out for me but to each his own. It just seems there has to be a better balance in this business that what is happening.
I did speak with my manager. Work was promised. No work there when I needed to work.
I see the reports everyday too, but when I get work it is of bad quality, then there is no work unless I work diffrent shifts. Thank you.
My liaison always says to work on secondary when primary is low on work/no work. n/m
n/m
That's going to be nuts...I do ASR work too, plus work split shifts. We'll NEED a spread shee
NT
Work is easy, very nice owner, pays weekly, work in Word.
A majority of at-home MT is overflow work with in-house getting the bulk of the work. If they clean
s
Pay is always on time, direct deposit, very nice management to work with, and DQS platform, work
load normally busy, but low now because of the summer slow down on my accounts. Sound an issue on some accounts, but not others. Overall, wonderful company.
That is a BIG problem at TransTech is leads assigning work, rather than letting the work flow
This TT MT just admitted to that fact. It has been very obvious, as so easy to tell how work comes into our que and then gets pulled out as fast as it came in and replaced with YUKKY dictators. VERY frustrating to us other TT MT's who take the JUNK that is NOT assigned to other MT's, such as this poster.
Ever thought of a home health care aide? Usually paid training and start work right away. Can work
m
Absolutely not! I work for the best MTSO. I am have been so blessed to work for the small company I
I will share this about the MTSO I work for. I called her late last Wednesday night after Church and told her I was compelled to help out with Hurricaine Katrina in some way and an opportunity arose for a small group from my Church to go to Louisianna this coming week. Would she be able to cover my work. She told me no problem without any hesitation and even donated money for the trip.
And I am sure there are plenty of good companies out there to work for. To compare us to migrant workers is just not right.
It does work, you do not need to "make" it work.. it works in all word based programs.
x
I did some overflow work for Landmark.. they are wonderful to work for.. very nice people.. pay was
.
They have to be flexibility because of the erratic work flow. No sense in a schedule if no work..
nm
I was told Escription would not work with Vista. Turned out it wouldn't work with my sm
Office Basic Edition 2003 either, but no one could figure out why, it was supposed to.
There is actually a section on the Dell website that offers Windows XP. I haven't checked it out as I'm not in the market, so I don't know if it costs extra. I have a Dell and it's been fine for me. I hate the ESL tech department, but it seems like most of them have that now.
Yes they do send work overseas and do not hide this fact. There is plenty of work and they do pay
well. Overall, I like having work as I have been at places where you had to fight to keep busy so this works for me.
There is NO work at Transtech. Maybe they just choose special people to send work to
df
Are you required to work major holdays at KS. I know nature of biz to work them. Thanks for info. nm
nm
Great people to work for, but I had to leave due to lack of work. Hopefully that has changed. SM
Most of us who do not live in California had to go IC. When I was there, they did not have statutory status, although they told me they did when they hired me. Their pay for VR is VERY low, not a living wage. Many of the folks in the office are ex-YOG and great to work for/with. Good luck.
1200 lines daily is great if you have the work, personally, I never had enough work so
I left and have NEVER been sorry!
Don't know about radiology work load, but we have been scratching in the dirt for work for a numb
of months now. They hire, lose account, hire again before new accounts comes onboard, then have overhired, having to put new MT's on the current low workload.
Medical field is 24/7 work unless you work for a clinic or stand alone operation.
I just look at the other cool people working holidays and weekends in the ICU, ER, paramedics,and am glad to be there. When you work in a hospital for a length of time, it becomes a necessary evil to show up at the worst possible times.
Having a family or a life you'd miss from Friday at 5 PM to Monday at 8 PM must be hard and
I think that there is a place for you where they can meet your requirements (M-F). There are plenty of those jobs.
They require that you work in house until your have clean QA for 3 paydays then you can work
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All nationals I work for you only work 40 hours unless they approve overtime.
x
I'm part-time and don't have to work all weekend. I work Tues-Sat.
I've never heard that from Chronicle, of course I didn't see the ad.
The bid has nothing to do with consistancy of work. MTSO cannot control how cosistant work is.
:+
I'll love to know who you work for. I also work every weekend with no extra pay.
It'd be nice to get paid for all the nights and weekends I work.
Like I said - it depends who you work for. I work for a hospital at home - not a company. nm
x
I know two people who work 3rd shift for Keystrokes on radiology and have a lot of work. Maybe you
on an account that has enough work. I hate to hear that someone doesn't have enough work or that they have a problem because I know that Keystrokes works to find the right account for every person. They do a lot for us but you have to talk to them until you find the right account or volume or hours for you.
I think that a lot of companies are that way but there is a lot of job-hopping in transcription. Everyone is looking for the perfect job but the grass is not always greener on the other side. There are a few MTSO's really are not good but for the most part, the others don't intentionally drive people away. That would not make sense. They need us to work as much as we need them to have the work there for us.
I work on it. Usual amount of work. Not running out but not backlogged either. They seem to have
about the right staffing on it. Hope that helps.
Maybe is it for a particular account. I work M-F. You are required to work one weekend an month.
a
I used to work for a company who separated the MTs by work type daily. sm
regret ever leaving that company. we had a max of 4 MTs typing a large training hospital with clinics. i was assigned consults and discharges with consults being my priority. another MT had ops and admits, etc. it worked so much better. we were RARELY out of TAT and each of us were trained on other report types for backup in case someone need to take off. not to mention that we were easily able to learn the ESLs because we got them repeatively enough to learn them, set up templates, etc. much, much more productive for us as MTs, for the company as work flow, and i am sure for the dictator because they got someone who knew them and their dictations well enough to be accurate. i don't understand why large MTSOs cannot comprehend how much more beneficial that would be.
I actually left about a year ago and work for another company that's running out of work. Have to
x
I so wholeheartedly agree with you. Don't work for KS but work for SS - another company bashed
Works GREAT for me and I love SS. I never really care what the negatives are as I have found they are usually people that can't make their lines, don't work the hours they commit to or just overall do not care!
don't like ASR/VSR -- all work going that direction -- causing very low work situation for awhile
Just a little message since you asked. Hardly any regular paid transcription work left for TT MT's (transcribing as in the old days, I am speaking of).
I have 4 accounts, doing all work types, and I usually have enough work but this is the slow time of
year so we are scrambling a little for lines. Easy platform, paychecks DD, always on time.
I work for an all-US company and refuse to work for one that offshores. Best of luck to you. nm
nm
NO WORK at Transtech -- did no good to work the holiday for 1.5 lines, did it?
I am sure the office staff will share their PAID HOLIDAY MONIES with us who sit here with no work. This has gotten to be such a frustrating profession. I guess I need to relocate to Houston so that I can work in the office, too, and reap those wonderful paid benefits that us at-home piecemeal workers do not get.
yes, but I was told as an IC that if work was slow ICs get no work since they are nto employees
nm
Steady work? Fairness in doling out the work?
Am so tired of crap work because I can do it, am getting burned out because of just that, crap work all the time. One of the reasons I am looking at other companies.
I work for a small national. I have steady work, usually
extra if I want it. I make 10 cpl as an employee, get vacation, 401K matching, PTO, wonderful QA, lots of ESL dictators but mostly decent ones, direct deposit, no IM, no nasty e-mails, no phone calls asking me to work extra day after day. Saying that MTs are surprised at how much money they make because they have steady work even though the line rate is low sounds like a line a used car salesman would use. A low line rate is a low line and an insult, especially since without the MTs you wouldn't be able to pay your bills.
Just because everyone else sees to be going to India is like the saying you parents would say if everyone else jumped off the bridge .... Many companies sell out, but you don't HAVE to sell out. You choose to get more bang from your buck but I've seen the work that comes back from overseas and I would never put my name to it.
You might can fool some of the people some of the time, but it won't fly with me.
tons of work because no one wants to work for slave wages
think about it
Feast or famine. Always a different work load every day, and you often run out if the work gets
s
I used to work there and know people who still do...they have no work on clinic account but if you
are acute care or have experience in acute care you will be fine...
Work PT for a company and noticed something odd. When I work the day shift I get (sm)
actually fairly good dictators, a couple of toughies, but no more than one would expect. When I do the late afternoon/early evening shift it is like night and day. I get some really crummy dictators and tons of problem/miscoded reports.
They have said that there is no cherry picking able to be done with this program so I just have to wonder if the crappy dictators can't get to the dictate stations until after 4 p.m. or what?
Nuff said, back to work. Thanks for letting me air it out.
I want to know why ICs are still allowed to work when employees aren't getting work!!!
ICs should be the first to get NJA!!!!
Agree. I have said this before --- y'all whine about no work but when there's a ton of work
do you? Just wondering. I find this perceived hostility completely out of character for TT.
Is it a nice place to work and did you have work all the time. nm
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Isnt it sad. We just want to go to work every day on our shift, work our 8 hours and be done with it
Instead I sit here hours hoping the Indians leave some work for us so we can at least get our 8 hours in. Nothing like logging onto you shift and being told no work. Nice.
Encompass- How are the accounts and work flow? Do you have a lot of work?
I need to keep busy. I cant sit here every day hoping for work so I'm looking elsewhere.
Much good work going to India. Bad work left
xx
I do not work for them, but I have done recruiting for companies of their type of work
It is A LOT different than regular medical transcription. The pay is a little less (unless you are proficient and fast), but the work is harder in that there are multiple people speaking and the nature of the medical advisory boards are quite detailed. I receive quite a few resumes of medical transcriptionists wanting to do this type of work, but when you test them, it is a whole different ballgame.
Good luck and let me know how you do on the test!
Webmedx - low work ? Can you make up lines when work available (sm)
or do you have to schedule a make up time or just do without the lines?
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