blanks are fine, just don't guess. hopefully others left the same blanks.
Posted By: lilworried on 2005-10-26
In Reply to: Questions about testing for a company - Not feeling so positive
nm
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Just a guess here but perhaps her blanks indicates she was willing to ask for help and
?
Blanks
I've left blanks before in tests if I was not 100% sure, and it has never counted against me. They may have included difficult areas in the tests intentionally to see how you wound handle it. Good luck. I found KS to be too disorganized for my taste.
If I see blanks like that...
I provide the website I found it from and tell him/her to do the research...if I can find it easily, so can they...
QA is more than filling in blanks and
3.5 cpl is ridiculous. People who take these jobs do not deserve any more than they wind up earning and they make these companies think they can get away with it. The only way to get paid to QA is to get paid by the hour, and I do not mean $10 an hour either! Shame on these companies. They will use the excuse that they cannot afford to pay higher. Don't buy it. It is not true. It is greed and nothing less.
Blanks on test
No, the dictator was pretty clear, but he said a few things that I just was not able to make out.
Question on blanks
I am a fairly green MT, but I do my best not to leave any unnecessary blanks.
I am wondering what types of blanks you run across that you feel are ridiculous and just out of laziness.
Can you give some examples?
Blanks do not count against you
They would rather you leave a blank than to guess. As with any company, there are ESLs. There are good ones and bad ones.
QA can be strict. We transcribe verbatim unless of course it is a gross medical error and then a blank is left and the report is sent to QA. If you type the wrong wrong word and it affects the meaning, it is a higher deduction but there is also a deduction for errors made not affecting the meaning.
I have worked for Axolotl for a long time and I have never worked for a better employer. If you have any questions you can e-mail me or post on here and I will try to answer you.
Blanks can be a good thing!
They prove you know what you don't know! Very important in this work. Just be sure that all else you transcribe is right on.
My goal was always for 100% (thanks Scrapper), but really no more than two blanks in say 3-6 reports, and that has landed me lots of offers.
My first test, btw, was with MedQuist. I asked before transcribing the test how the scoring system worked in order to judge when to say when if it got impossible. No harm in asking!
oh wait, let me fill in the blanks:
you must be a bitter person to hate your job so much
there's no way VR will be able to do all the accents
once they go to India, they will be back for American quality
our jobs will never go away...
there. I already put them in there so no one has to run their long posts saying the same thing that is always said...
You aren't docked for blanks unless maybe
How does Axolotl define a line? Do they pay for spaces, headers, footers, & expansions? Are you docked for blanks or sending things to QA? If so, how much. you keep leaving the same blank after receiving corrections. They would rather you leave a blank than to guess. Line is 65 characters, pay for spacers. There are acute care and clinic accounts and I don't know if they pay differently for them as far as headers/footers. I have no footers, only have to fill in date in headers so not sure how they pay. I don't know why wouldn't get paid for expansions, I get paid for normals and I have some normals as expansions so I guess they do pay for them.
Figure out as much as you can and leave blanks.
Sometimes they give you a mumbler to see how you respond. Never guess... Just do the best you can and send it back. Good luck!
Mercy, of course filling in blanks is ok BUT
not 30, 40, 50 or 60 blanks in EVERY report from the SAME LAZY/UNTRAINED MTs. Don't criticize QAs who have a problem doing this baloney. One company I used to work for NEVER did audits and what they got was swiss cheese reports from people who didn't care, and I was simply wondering who the companies are who don't put up with that now since I've been away a few years. Thank you.
banning blanks in reports
How do you ban blanks in reports? I've been in the MT business, from the ground up, for years and sometimes even I can't hear what the heck the doc is saying. Are you saying that you put an asterisk in there instead of a blank or are you banning blanks altogether? That would make for a not-so-good end result I would think......once again, another tactic to give up quality which the entire MT world used to strive for. I was once very proud to be an MT, and now I don't even like to mention it, especially if I'm visiting the doctor's office. I always get an earful.
He probably means you have to send any blanks to QA.
Not so unusual. I have had accounts like that for years..first at YOG, then the evil Q, now at Webmedx. I suppose it gets resolved with the facility's QA/med recs.
In any event, I share your shame about this profession.
Do you give it back with the blanks filled in?
I send things to QA and never hear back until I prod and prod. This is a waste of my time as well only to hear from QA don't know, we sent through with the blank. If you are filling in the blanks, then you should be giving it back to the MT with the mistakes filled in and also a way for the MT to relisten. JMO. Is this MT doing the same doc or is she being thrown new ones to learn each day? As far as the timeframe for when will she learn, there are a lot of variables to that question in my opinion. Sorry to sound sort of like huh?, but you seem like you are sort of complaining about the job you chose. If you do not like QA, why not try going back to being an MT. JMO. Good luck with the MT though.. 
How do you cite sources but not fill in blanks?!
NM
Not true. You are not dinged for anything coming through QA, blanks, etc. nm
.
You get paid for 15 lines no matter how many blanks
/
You get paid 15 lines for reports with any # of blanks
If you do a full listen you get paid for all the lines. They discourage this unless the MT is on 100% proofing because they have a massive backlog. My pay was roughly half of my pay as an MT and I was one who got fired a few months ago because they were doing away with QA's in the US. Can't imagine why they are hiring for US QA's again.
Well, if she meant she doesn't want to fill in ANY blanks...
then she's gonna have trouble finding what she considers a decent QA job!
I agree that QA is there to listen to blanks that the MT cannot understand...
However, there are times I see so many reports where people do not even try to find the blanks and think someone else is going to do that for them...I wouldn't spend hours finding a blank either but you made it sound as if you didn't even try to find the blank...obviously you are the type of MT who are not talking about so you shouldn't get offended...I don't think doing QA means your above anyone...you are there for an extra set of ears to see if you can hear a blank but some MTs take advantage of QA as a backup to not finishing the report...
I QA'd a 4-minute report yesterday with over 100 blanks
..
It they are 20-minute dictations with lots of blanks,
nm
So all three you just filled in the blanks and didn't need special equipment?
The MT I work with and I might test with them this week.
One with overwhelming ESLs that you have to keep leaving blanks for, thus losing
s
Thank you Jennifer - in turn - I think you get better quality work - less blanks! nm
nm
First of all, I think she means filling in an inordinate number of blanks. Secondly...
QA's job should be solely filling in blanks. It should be to perform routine and random quality checks, it should be researching and educating MTs on new terminology, new procedures, new drugs, it should be maintaining and updating account specs, and it should be assisting newly hired MTs in their transition from training to productive employee.
Far too many MTs see QA as a safety net and big gigantic kitchen sink where they can toss in their crap and out comes something shiny and clean, an excuse to never research a new word or look up the correct spelling of a doctor's name because QA will do the work for you and you'll still get paid for your lines.
And QA used to let MTs get away with it back in the day when they were paid hourly, but the majority of QA people are paid on production now too and so when MTs don't try hard at their jobs, that means QA picks of the slack and loses money. QA gets reports that look like swiss cheese and we have to practically transcribe the entire report to fill in the holes because of lazy MTs with the looking out of numero uno mentality.
okay so she wasted her time looking for blanks on a report that you obviously could have found yours
Now how is that her job again? The point is be responsible for your own reports and take pride in them...and being an MT is more than just knowing terminology..I am sorry you had a bad experience with QA but not all of us are like that...
If this company begins with D, your pay goes back to new-hire rate if there are ANY blanks in it
s
How is editing for them? 100% listen, fill in blanks, lots of feedback
p
You can thank DocQScribe for that. I left because of that software. Others say it's fine for them
s
Has anyone ever left Keystrokes and gone back? I left a few months ago and realize that I made a
nm
It is as simple as filling out a form. I did it when I left an MTSO and when I left sm
a non-MT position at a company years ago.
What company? I did not know that any of them offer 401K anymore.
i have it and like it just fine
the preventative maintence is paid in full. I don't remember any long waiting periods. I do think you have to have the insurance a year before you can use it for braces tho, which i also did, and i think the max payout was $1000/yr on the braces (not absolutely sure i remember correctly). it has served me well and the monthly rate was fair.
Fine
So that's what was rude. Okay. But did you read my second post? I DID say work was slow. I DO know it. How many ways can I say it????? But, I am still able to get my line counts in. So are many, many other MTs at Transcend? I see many MTs asking questions for word help/account specific questions, as they are typing. They are typing. Why are they? Why are many of us able to get our lines in? Why can't you? Ask for another account. They said in the email sent out yesterday that if you want or need another account to email them, training will begin today? Why aren't you training on a new account? I have been with Transcend for awhile and have had no problems getting my line count in at all. That is what I am saying. I am not going to get on here and say anything else, as that would not be the truth from my side of it. I am not saying that you aren't having a hard time pulling work. All I am saying is that it is still possible even though slow, as I am doing it and so are others.
I think $13.50 is just fine, especially when....sm
I don't have to buy "work" clothes per se, don't have to drive into the office to work, and can be home when my kids get off the bus, thereby saving money for after-school babysitting. I live just fine on my salary and it's not for you to knock what I make or how I live...and yes, we go to the movies AND buy popcorn/sodas there! 
I have friends who make $20-25 an hour in their jobs and they drive in to work (we live in the suburbs of a major city), have to wear business clothes, and pay for daycare. Not only do they spend 2 hours a day in the car commuting to/from work but with the costs of them workintg they actually end up making less money than I do - it's all how you look at it and do the math. I on the other hand buy a tank of gas and it lasts usually 3 weeks, sometimes 4 and yet we're not deprived.
That's quite fine...sm
Not my loss 
VPN is fine as well.
/
Yep, still here. Doing fine. nm
xxx
Why is that fine?
Aren't they about the only U.S. MTSO that does that? Are they willing to make their books available to determine how soon after they are paid they pay the MTs? Sounds like it is problematic, and a well run company (which granted is not them, since they're only overflow) would be able to handle this, just like 99% of other employers or businesses do. Why is it fine? Can we tell our utility company or car note company that we'll pay them when we get paid?
I like it fine
Nothing really exciting but nice people to work with. Plenty of work with overtime and incentives quite often. Always paid on time and correctly. Rate is 0.09 for some account and 0.10 for a harder one. Every account has a few hard dictators but overall pretty good. ExText platform. 401K with 100% match of up to 4% after a year of employment. Not very good insurance. I feel secure and comfortable - just not making a lot of money. Not sure about raises. I haven't had one. Anybody else know if and when?
What co was that for? I'm sure you did fine.
zzz
You are going to be just fine sm
Every job takes some getting used to and you are never too old to learn new programs. It's just unlearning the old program and relearning the new. You'll get there. TT is very patient.
That's fine
if you are going to judge 'my tone' from posts without benefit of any one on one discussion, you are free to research the possibility of a union on your own.
I'm a straight-shooter, and sometimes that translates to some as harsh... others take my posts with a large grain of salt and/or withhold judgement. Your choice :)
I'm not willing to hold the reins here anyway, merely to help a serious interest proceed.
And by the way, the ant hill is plenty stirred up from my viewpoint. My whole intent was to see if the ants wanted to see a possible solution, or merely to continue venting...
Everything is fine at MQ now sm
We are also being paid downtime for the time we were down, so it wasn't so bad at all!
It's fine :)
Some people have no personality and just love to be negative. I guess it really bothers her that you made a career change. (holy crap)
I think we will be fine and do even better
I think we will have our pick of jobs. I am not worried about any of the names unionized workers resort to calling.
Just keep on keepin' on.
If okay with you, then fine with me
I don’t work for the company but with jobs disappearing overseas today and with most concerned about lack of work, falling salaries, and so on I would think only a matter of time before all go that way.
That's fine.
If they don't have work for me during the hours I want to work, fine. I end up taking the day off. Just part of being IC.
But the problem the OP had was MTSO dictating what hours the MT is to work such as must working from 8-5. They cannot do that. If they need someone to work a shift from 8-5, then they need an EMPLOYEE, not an independent contractor.
Sure, that would be fine
nm
Working fine for me
I haven't had any problems since beginning with Diskriter in January this year. My benefits are great and they just switched to Highmark Blue Cross because employees surveyed wanted a wider coverage area program. I meet my incentive almost every week. Working for me!
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