Yes it is, and ANY percentage is too large for my comfort
Posted By: No way, no how on 2009-08-26
In Reply to: I do not believe that .sm - unhappy
ANY percentage is too high. There's no excuse for it except profits for greedy American MTSOs.
There are literally HUNDREDS of US MTs more than willing to work these odd hours that Transcend and others claim they are 'forced' to offshore because they cannot get sufficient help here.
I strongly disagree. In fact, I disgree just short to calling it out as being a bald-faced LIE.
The purpose is nothing more to increase profits for the powers that be, while all of the time hammering down the pay of the American MT.
I hope I am not alone in my stand on this. I would rather somewhere else for less money who DOES NOT offshore and who respects their MTs. Respect is something MDI-MD obviously chose to cast aside when they began negotiating their moneymaking deal while we starved, lost sleep, wondered how we would pay our bills, and yet STILL tried to be loyal to these yahoos.
Nope, not happy and checking out before my work goes to India.
I've worked too hard and am too advanced in my career to be a sitting duck.
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Comfort zone
There are halfway decent companies out there but some people are so rigid in what they want then complain when they don't have any work. Not everyone can work M-F between the hours of 7-5. This job is 24/7, 365. Why anyone would think if they were new at a company they would start with the best hours available is beyond me. That is what seniority is for. I've never worked in another industry like it where people think they are entitled...
well i'm taking some comfort in
that i'm not alone. I've taken a big hit in income due to my own slowness (at least in part). but i'm also working a little less to preserve my nerves from carpal tunnel, which after 33 yr is starting to creep in. I always felt that i could find work easy with my experience, but not so sure of that anymore either. So for me, no, not recession proof.
Agree - familiarity and comfort with a bad company
Well worth the learning curve. I invested years at MQ too but was becoming physically, emotionally, spiritually ill more and more. I feel like a bird out of prison.
I use the Microsoft wireless 4000 comfort keyboard
and had no trouble switching to it from my split keyboard. It is curved, so has a similar feel. I love being wireless. I use it with my laptop and work on it all day. I think I've been working wireless for about 2 years now and couldn't go back. I work with my keyboard in my lap, so the wireless is great.
Ummm, I work outside my comfort zone, in fact, do all worktypes on 2
both speech and traditional, and I don't have any work, either.
Percentage of tax
My account told me a good way to judge how much money to put back was to go off the previous year. If I made 30k - take 30%, 15k-15%. If however you find you are making more money than the previous year and will continue the trend take off what you think your yearly total will be, 50k - 50%.
what is the ESL percentage there?
I heard it was high. Is it bad or bearable?
ESL Percentage
What percentage of ESL's do you do on a daily/weekly basis? Which ESL dictation do you find the most difficult to do--Spanish, Indian, other? Do most companies reward you with a better rate if you tell them that you are comfortable doing ESL dictation or not? I have been thinking about this and wondering, since I am paid the same line rate to do the difficult ESL dictation (granted, not all ESL's are as difficult as others) as I am to do the clear and easy dictators, why in the world would a person ever tell the company that they are happy to do their part in transcribing ESL dictation? It is like a person is penalized for doing the difficult work by being put in the difficult dictators work pool and it really doesn't matter if you have 5 years or 20 years of experience, most places just want the work turned around immediately and it doesn't matter how horrible the dictation is--just do it!
I think that the next time that I apply for a transcription position I will say that I am not comfortable with ESL dictation (something that I have never done in my life) in order to get put into better pools of dictators. Instead of being paid more for doing this kind of work and not complaining, I feel we are penalized and seem to ALWAYS get the hard work, which is not fair at all!
As if it isn't hard enough to be an online medical Transcriptionist these days, having to learn the different styles of a bazillion different dictators on however many different accounts you work on (so as not to run out of work) and all of the hospital specs (plus learning their local terminology--city data, names of popular places in the area, etc.), the experienced are put into pools of hard dictators and the poor MT's” (boohoo!) who claim they can't do this dictation make the good money.
So far in my transcription career, I have never played games with companies about things like this and have always told the truth about my strengths and weaknesses as a transcriptionist, but it's dog eat dog these days, and whatever an MT has to do or say to make the $$$ seems to be the name of the game.
Thanks for letting me vent tonight!  
What is your QA percentage? sm
I started with a company last month whose account is extremely picky.. QA is even more picky with their constant nit picky corrections.. I have never had any trouble with my QA. Always 95% or more. But this new job has me at around 85 to 89% and it just makes me angry because one person corrects a dictation one way and then another one does the opposite, removing commas that are supposed to be there, adding in them when they aren't and its all counting against me. Anyone else experience this????????
It is not so much the percentage...
of what they do now, but it is in their company forcasting goals and desires to continue to increase the usage of overseas markets.
It just reminds me of the great linen/towel factories we had here all up and down the east coast that are now no longer because labor was so much cheaper than in Southeast Asia/Asia.
We are the great consumer market of the world and prices have to be kept low so that the market keeps being driven higher and faster to keep the global economy ever profitable and everyone keep their job.
Looked what happened last summer when the Americans stopped buying cars. I rest my case.
I can figure out the percentage, but...
How does one go about figuring their estimated tax?
According to what I've read on the IRS site, we have to pay estimated taxes. Well, great. I can estimate my income at what I'm making now, just starting out, but I don't see my income staying this low, so I would eventually be underpaying. I could estimate it at a higher amount, but what if I don't make as much as I think or hope I will? I can see where getting a refund is a good thing, but I'm more worried about underpaying.
Do you pay the tax on what you've ACTUALLY made in a quarter (it kind of sounds like it) or do you go about estimating your income, say you figure you'll make $20k a year, and put 25% of that away?
Confused.
I don't know the percentage number, but I'd say
there were no more difficult dictators on the accounts I'm working on than on any other big city hospital that I've worked for over 20 years. And I say difficult dictators versus ESL, as ESL seems to be a negative; people think that foreign-born dictators are difficult to transcribe. There are a good deal of dictators on my accounts who are foreign-born, and if you look at the list of names in the physician's list, you'd think you'll be slogging away all day for very low line counts. That's not so. Most of the dictators are very good. As anywhere, there are a few really horrible dictators, both foreign-born and good old red-white-and blue Americans.
I have absolutely no complaints about TT.
They do some ASR but a very small percentage, something like less than 10%
of all their work is ASR. I am not sure what the pay for it, as I only do straight transcription.
They do pay shift differentials. I think it's a half cent for second shift and a penny for third shift.
They are wonderful people to work with and for. Everyone I have ever spoken to has treated me well. Even the President of the co. has been wonderful to me and will take my call anytime I need to speak with her (which has only been twice).
I would go for it. I am so glad I did.
Percentage and be very careful
how you fill out your return. We had an accountant who was under investigation by the IRS which led to our being audited and we found that much of what he said was allowable was NOT. i.e. You cannot deduct a room for an office unless that is all the room is used for. A guest bedroom with a bed in it is not an office.
I only know about my accounts. Percentage of
ESL relatively low. There are maybe 4 that are very challenging, a few USA born that are very challenging, but I don't have any of them on a regular basis.
Someone else answered your other questions I believe.
ESL percentage is definitely account
specific. However, my personal experience has been that I was only given 1 account, thereby allowing me to get used to the dictators. Secondly, my account has been broken down into specialties, thereby allowing me to get used to the lingo of that specialty. Thirdly, I fully believe that MDI does try its best to make sure that the client understands the need to speak clearly. I'm not saying that's how all accounts are or that that's everyone's general experience at MDI. I'm only commenting on my experience.
I think the ESL question is a standard with any company, too. 
Only a small percentage...sm
They do not off shore a lot of their work, only when the client specifically requests it. I believe the percentage is like 12 or 16 (can't remember which). They do try to get the clients to keep their transcription here, but if the client is adamant about sending it off shore, that's what they do.
I've been working OT lately due to someone leaving and not being replaced yet. There's always a need for good US-based MTs at Transcend.
Some companies pay a percentage of your sm
regular line rate. Webmedx compensates at 70% of your regular rate - so if you make 10 CPL, you'd get 7 cpl for VR editing.
outsource overseas a percentage, which could go up...(nm)
xx
Just out of curiousity, what percentage of work was the
was it a percentage of your production or did they just pull say, 5 jobs per week, or something along those lines?
I left a company where I was doing almost 30,000 lines a month and they only did QA for my score on 4 (that is four) reports a month), so I agree, if you have a bad month, expecially if there is not a good QA ratio to productivity, the company can mess you over.
it's the percentage of reports from that batch
that random percentage number is the break-down of percentage of reports/pages from that batch that you had to have QA listen to a blank, that's all, not your QA percentage. when you leave no reports for QA, that number remains 0 percent. clear as mud? sorry. it's really no thang....
Those of you doing VR, what percentage of the report do you have to correct?
How accurate is the VR? Just wondering.
What percentage of American MTs are they using these days? (no message)
xx
It all depends on the percentage of the error assessed.
I have worked for a couple of companies who charge an extremely high amount of points for punctuation errors. If this is the case, one can definitely dip into the 80s with punctuation errors.
Small percentage to India at night....
Transcend sends less work to India that most companies, and it is public record. Deventure also sends work to India. It is a fact of life in these times, some hospitals request it. Escription work with Focus doing the most of it, has been historically sent to India. From what I read, Transcend has the largest domestic staff on Escription.
What is approx. percentage of ESLs at your company and who do you work for? sm
My company has SEVERE heavy load of ESLs, probably 85% if not more and they are hard! I have this option of going with another company. I want to try the new company but I don't want to get in the same situation I am in now only because if it is the same situation I would rather stay where I am at because I like the people I work for. There is no benefits and a few things concern me yet they are good to work for, plenty of work and pay is ALWAYS ontime every time. So this is just a poll: What is the percentage of ESLs and where do you work.
Also, do you think I should try to go with this other company part-time and keep my current job to see? The problem is I would have to get unlimited long distance and have their programs downloaded on the same computer. Would love to have any feedback for this tough situation. Thank you!
I wonder what the number or percentage of MTs that need insurance versus those that dont is. Which
is greater I wonder.
Signed up for second session. Dying to hear what percentage of cut is. (sm)
Hopefully people will post as soon as they find out. I know we are lucky to have been kept at the percentage we were. MQ cut us 10% one year and then 10% again. Have a feeling they are going to skip the gentle repeated insults and just hit us with 20 or 30% right off the bat. I hope I am wrong.
Good luck to us all.
I can't tell you, sorry, but it is a LARGE one.
,
large comp
I agree.
They have taken on several new large accounts over
the past several months.
been with 2 large nationals; will never do that again.
Much better with the smaller companies.
I have 22 employees, which is not large, but had to do the same. sm
Our state unemployment division did an audit on me and determined that the ICs are actually employees. I had to pay unemployment on everyone who works for me or who did work for me back 5 years to present and make them all employees. I had to pay fines and penalties too.
The IRS has their list of 20 checklist items but the states can have a few of their own and they have the right to enforce them.
One from our state (Missouri) states that if you perform the same type of duties as employees at the company, even if you fit the 20 items from the IRS, you are an employee.
I appealed the decision and lost. It cost me $5000 for a lawyer but still have to pay the $218,000 to them (the total with the fees, penalties, interest and payments that should have been made). It is going to force me to close our doors.
If it is a large account
your email may be one of nearly 20+ she gets per day. When you are a lead you are getting many calls and emails daily. Address the issue with the head and go over his/her head if things don't improve.
these were supposedly large sm
companies that have been around awhile. I am hearing a lot of MTs going through the same thing. Its getting ridiculous!
It is hard to get a large
group of doctors at a hospital to ALL do VR and their own editing. Smaller clinics are more likely to completely do away with MTs, as they are more inclined to do their own editing; plus doctors in clinics do not go into as much detail as hospital dictators. Clinics usually stick to a fairly standard normal template, whereas doctors in hospitals dictate all kinds of ways...That is what I have seen..
I have found that large places
like hospitals, banks, insurance companies offer the best benefit packages to part-timers. In fact I once worked 10 hours a week at a bank just for the benefits package. PT MT at home with benefits, however, I don't think you will find. It's hard enough finding FT with benefits and the premium isn't $800 a month.
Yes, 2 large hospitals. Both accounts out. nm
nm
When I worked for a large national, they
had a gal from New York using a steno machine. She consistently turned out over 20,000 lines every 2 weeks/pay period. So if you know the steno machine, you can make megabucks in transcription. She always won awards at this biggest national.
The accounts are so large you get them some days
and other days none. I too have had days when that seems like all I get. Sometimes I will go 3 months before I get the same doctor. She should have asked them to route her a variety that day or try another account. There really is a break in period with any new account but Transtech really is the best company out there and they are willing to work with their MTs.
Um, not exactly - some of the VERY LARGE companies do the same thing!
Trust me. lol
I do a large number of ESLs and usually
don't have issues, but when I worked at SS their ESL dictators on at least 1 account were horrendous. They were bad dictators on top of the sound quality being the worst I've encountered in my 20 years of MTing. Management was a joke and you couldn't believe a word the CEO told you. I worked in QA and the quality of the transcription was very bad. Someone asked me if the work was done in India and I said it may very well be because it was so bad that it pretty much had to be done over. I had some suggestions on how to better run things and was offered a management position to implement them, but I declined.
The reason there is a lot of work is because they can't keep MTs. I agree not all companies, not matter how good they are, are a good fit for all MTs, but if a company has constant turnover there has to be a reason for it. I work because I need the money and I don't see any reason to waste my time going with a company that has the reputation that SS does. There have been a handful of MTs who despite all the negatives about SS decided to accept positions. A couple of MTs have come back about a month layer apologizing for not believing us and said everything we said was true.
I would not refer my worst enemy to this company.
Would anyone work for a large national co, with a
I use the company provided computer. They had a change in computers and I was sent a new one. Since that time, the foot pedal provided has not worked. I can hear reports, but I cannot backup or move ahead using the pedal. To hear something again, I have to bang my foot on the pedal. To move ahead forward or go backward for any length, I must go to playback page and manually move the cursor to where I need to be.
I have put up with this for five years. Yes, that is right, FIVE YEARS!!!! I have called our so-called Help Desk numerous times and I have been sent two more pedals, neither of which work, or, rather, work the same as the original pedal. I have asked for help from countless people. The Help Desk states I am the only one having the problem. The supervisor says I am the only one having the problem. I know one other person on my team who is also having having the problem, but we are too ashamed to really raise heck. I am disgusted.
By the way, it is the most commonly used foot pedal. Even their ad states it works with any computer. I just had to vent.
Large nationals don't like radiology because of TAT
xx
I was offered a very large rate of pay, so you
z
I know they just got a large hospital account near me.
xx
They have recently gotten a very large account. Probably
xx
Large deductible and everything out of pocket.
xx
A REALLY large system with several hospitals. nm
Is this a large hospital with MANY Hispanic
dictators, probably over 75%? I heard they only had 1 account on DQS, a new one they picked up in August. I am working on that account and would love to switch.
It's a large company, Passing, SM
offering a variety of opportunities and mixed experiences. Different platforms, different managers, and different accounts all over the country. Transcend kept me happy with lots of good work for a long time before my account went offshore without notice. I was then switched to another very good and interesting account, where the way the lines were counted was adjusted down again without notice (by the same account manager). If that hadn't happened, I'd be there still, and I have no doubt that the many people who say it's a great company are honestly reflecting their own experiences.
Knowing what I do, if I were you I'd go ahead with the training but, as with any company, be firm up front that as a pro you expect to be assigned to good accounts with lots of work. Then call on them immediately (first 2 days) to correct the situation if they are not, and mean it. I've never been in MT personnel, but I imagine they hire a lot of people who don't pan out, engendering an attitude that adversely affects the way many others are treated before they have a chance to prove themselves. If they allow it. Best wishes.
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