Advice Please

I will try to make a long story short(er)... I'm an IC.  I have been doing transcription for Dr. X over five years.  His wife is the OM.  His former Transcriptionist worked in his office until she and her sister (who also worked there as an insurance clerk) got mad one day and walked out.   Last year, the sister that did insurance returned to his staff.  At that time, I wondered since they had "kissed and made up" if my job might be in jeopardy, but I said nothing and kept up my usual routine.  A couple of months ago, the sister who did transcription had a baby and decided to quit her job to be a stay at home mom.  Shortly thereafter, the OM (wife) became rather unfriendly to me, but I carried on with the attitude that the money was good as long as it lasted.  Now, to try to make this shorter -- I took vacation time last week (which my contract allows me to do) and I returned to their office promptly on Monday morning to pick up tapes to start catching up on work.  (This OM has always been antsy about getting work back and filed in a timely manner.)  On Tuesday morning, I received a phone call asking how many tapes I had done, to which I replied that I had completed all of them and would be returning them shortly.  I was told by a staff employee that the OM said to "break them up" and only bring two days back since it would "bog them down."  Since this office is 56  miles away roundtrip, I wasn't pleased with the request but did honor it without saying anything.  This morning I received another phone call from the staff and the girl asked if the OM had called me.  I replied, "No, I've been right here at the computer by my phone and you win for the first call of the day."  She responded, "I kind of felt like she was lying to me when she said she had called and you wouldn't answer."  She then said she had been instructed to tell me not to bring any more dictation back this week.  I asked why and she said she didn't know.  She then asked if I knew the doc and his wife were going on vacation next week, which I didn't.  I thought about it a few minutes and realized that payday is the 1st and 15th, so I wondered about bringing my bill over.  I called back and asked the staff girl if the doc was in.  I spoke to him and he knew nothing about any of this.  He called his wife, then called me back and said his wife said they didn't have the money to pay me, so they didn't want me bringing back work. 

Now I'm wondering if this is a farce to try to get me to quit so the former transcriptionist can resume doing their work.  Never before in five years have they not had the money to pay me.  I've never gone up on my rates to them in five years, so they're really getting a bargain for our area.  If the thought of that doesn't bother me enough, I'm now thinking about how my budget is blown for the rest of this month.  This doc and his wife have no children living at home -- I have three with two of them in college and one in tutoring for severe dyslexia (which they are aware of).  When I took last week off, we stayed at home because we couldn't afford to go anywhere this year after paying bills.  Now I'm irate that I've still got bills to pay and I'm not getting paid while they're going on a vacation.  If they truly cannot afford to pay me, the wife knew that on Monday when I came over.  Why did she let me burn my gas (a luxury these days) on Tuesday driving over there?     By the way, I asked the doc today if everything is okay on my end and he reassured me that he is still very pleased with my work and even asked why I was asking.  I didn't say anything further because I didn't want to sound paranoid; however, his wife "owns" the practice with everything in her name, not to mention the fact that she is a very controlling person.  Therefore, he would be "out of the loop" if she wants her old transcriptionist back.   Something smells fishy.  Am I right in feeling she is trying to get me to quit?  Do I quit or do I make her get some gumption and discharge me?  Thanks for your time.

• Advice Please - In a Crunch
  • Clarification - Amy
  • OM doc's wife - me2qa
    • freudian slip - me2qa
  • sounds to me like you are making an awful lot of assumptions - sm
    • Thanks - for your advice
  • Couple of things - Small MTSO/IC
    • I do have a contract - In a crunch
  • Call the doctor and request a meeting of all three.. - my thoughts
    • Just return the work, submit your bill, the scurry and find more work elsewhere. sm - won't happen
    • I agree but ask for full payment - not just partial
      • I'd force her hand while you line up other work. - Sorry
  • I think it is decided, and you can kiss this account goodbye. I would present the sm - sorry
  • I'd force her hand. sm - Amy
    • sounds like double-speak - no money but...nm - they can afford vacation?....ca-ca.....nm
  • wife OMs are always trouble -- jealous, paranoid - and rarely make good biz mgrs with hubbies' ofc
  • Sounds to me like something is going - mtanon

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I have been an MT for over 10 years.  I also am getting burnt out, tired of my job, day in day.  However, I do love transcription and make excellent money at it, have grossed over $50,000 per year the last 5 years.  I decided to go back to nursing school and am very happy with my choice.  However, over these 10 years of transcription I have had my ups and downs.  My biggest issue with being at home working is lack of socialization, being home day in and day out with just the kids and the animals really gets to a person, sure hubby is home at night and thinks working from home is the easy life, thus the return to school and boy has my overall enjoyment of life changed once I realized I was the problem, not everyone else and I needed to find myself again.

Anyway, my biggest advice to you three-fold:

1.  Get into counseling for yourself, find out who you are and what your needs are, whether or not you think you need to, I sense you are feeling overwhelmed and need someone other than your family to talk to that can be nonjudgmental to your feelings and needs.

2.  If you're only making $100 after you pay preschool you can either keep doing it and be miserable, or quit because you are lucky enough to have a husband who can support the family without your income. (See how fast his mind changes just by losing the income you do have as to whether your job means anything.)  Or look for a different company or office that you like more and are more productive if you really want to do transcription (lots of fish in the sea as far as companies).

3.  Find a local "mom's" group where you can get out and socialize.  MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) is an excellent one that is nationwide, they have a website.  Also Mom2Mom is in a lot of areas.  They provide a once a week time for moms with kids the same age to get together, socialize, (some offer spirtual guidance some don't) and each week a different mom takes a turn watching everyone else's children at the facility that hosts it so the other moms can talk about things they have in common.  Every stay-at-home and work-from-home mom needs to socialize with adults, without their kids, or they will have a nervous breakdown eventually no matter how much they love their kids.

Sorry so long but it does get better but you have to take the first step at making yourself happy.

I know this isn't MT-related, but it has gotten me so upset that I can't work, so maybe it is MT-related after all.  Anyway, if anyone has been in this situation, can you please tell me how you successfully handled it?  My son wanted to go away for the weekend and asked to use my credit card to secure a hotel room.  We went online to Hotels.com and found a nice place.  I put in my credit card number and was given a room confirmation.  I then received an e-mail from the hotel telling me there were no rooms available.  I called the hotel and they told me I would have to address it with Hotels.com since they were the ones with my credit card information.  I called Hotels.com and they told me that my card had been swept for the entire amount of the stay ($276.00!) but since there were no rooms available, the money would be credited back to my account.  I got my credit card statement yesterday and they only credited back $71.00 of my money, causing me to incur and over-the -limit fee of another $29.00.  I don't know where to turn to get this problem resolved.  Do I call Hotels.com and ask them to reimburse my over the limit fee?  Do I call my credit card company and tell them that it was Hotel.com's fault for hitting my account for the whole amount when they said they weren't going to?  If anyone has been through this kind of thing before, I would really appreciate your input.  Needless to say, I will NEVER use Hotels.com ever again!!  Thanks in advance for your help!

I just wanted to see if anyone had any advice to give.....I have been debating changing jobs.  I currently make $15 an hour doing transcription in office.  The delima I am having is that the whole reason I started doing transcription was so that I could work from home.  I have been doing transcription for 4 years and my job is really easy and I am happy with the money, there are however other down falls with the company and I am not able to have the flexability of working at home, therefore dealing with the stress of not being able to always be there for "home" things.  I have three school age kids, and they are all very active.  My question is....Do I have a chance of finding anything else working at home or do I just try and suck it up where I am at???   I really have not started looking, so I am not sure what is actually out there.  I hate changing jobs, but I also don't want to settle. 

Just need some outside help and opinions! Thanks, KL

Want opinions about something which has come up at work and need some advice. I am the lead Transcriptionist in a department with three other people.

Last year, one of our physicians in the practice was fired and rejoined another practice in town. He currently has a lawsuit against the company about the firing.

Today, I saw letters typed by one of the girls in the my department for this particular doctor. (because this patient switched physician groups). Apparently she has been working for him on the side since October of 2004. I am not sure if she is still typing for him or not.

My question is this, would this be something you would bring to the manager's attention, talk to my coworker, or just let it go.

On one hand I feel she is being dishonest and not loyal to our current company. I do not know if she is saying anything about our practice to the other doctor or not. Also at looking at the letters, she set them up exactly the same way we do. Isn't this considered a conflict of interest?

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!

I worked for a multispecialty medical center for 6 years that shut down and sent all transcription out to a service.  I got a job with spheris.  I love the company itself, they are great.  But the problem is money. This is my first experience with production pay. To make what I made by the hour, I would have to produce 1500 lines a day. I am now producing about 1000 a day more or less, depending on how much research I need to do, if my cable or power goes out or if their server goes down or is slow.-- I do ER, consults, admit and discharge summaries,  no operative reports. Cant really use a lot of expansions, only for simple phrases or individual words,  no macros, mostly straight typing. I figured once I got used to their system and compiled all my provider samples and got my Expander glossaries pretty much built  I would improve, which I have, but I really cant see myself ever doing much more than 1200 a day, and that would be with no "P" breaks. I am still having to stop multiple times during the day to enter drug names in my drug glossary so I dont have to look them up all the time to see if they are generic or brand names-their spell-check doesnt have automatic caps, which is another problem for me because I am having a hard time training myself to hit that shift key, I am constantly entering text into my expander.  The terminology is not a problem for me.

I am reading that a lot of you guys are doing 400 lines an hour.!!!  My previous job didnt have a word expander, so I know I need to utilize that better. How do you do it, what am I doing wrong, what can I do to improve, do I need to just forget it and apply at Home Depot? I LOVE transcription!!!!

This advice is given too late, but for future reference...

When you have a new program, just send the information out.

Telling people a month in advance that you are going to send the information out is just upsetting.  Calling people on the phone to tell them they will get information next month but you cannot answer any questions just makes everyone more agitated.

If you think you were offering a teaser to get people excited, I am sorry to say that it backfired. As you can see from reading this board, everyone is just nervous and upset. Some people are out looking for other jobs because they think they are going to lose their SE position.

Big mistake......

Wanting to change from Hospital to working at home and a little confused about what some services are looking for as far as experience like what is basic 4 experience? 

What is so deranged about Barney?  You guys attacking right off the bat are making it less likely for people to post because of their fear of being attacked.  I don't get it.  Why don't you just let BARNEY alone and move on.  If people want to respond let them, because if you can pull up a post that Barney is attacking, being nasty, threatening, or being down right obscene, then please share it with us. 

If we all are going to be compared to Zipper and MQLOVER and so on, then you are going to see less and less responses from people and that will be thanks to you MQx4. 

don't wait until the first of the year to get away from this maniac.  Since you said he can be violent at times how do you know he won't seriously hurt or kill you before then?  Every case of domestic homicide always has had a history of violence before the violent person killed the victim. 

There are battered women shelters and homes that you can move to until you can get on your feet and get your own place. If you can't afford getting your own place now please pick up that phone and call for help.  In a lot of cities if you call 211 that will connect you to someone who can give you this information, and if 211 doesn't work in your area get the phone book and look on the front cover. 

Be sure that you and your child receive counseling for dealing with this fool.  I would personally never put up with anyone that lashed out at my child like that and your daughter needs to know that you really are sorry by showing in your actions that you're breaking away for good as well as getting her some counseling to deal with it.  If money is tight there are usually counseling services available for a sliding fee scale.  

Lastly, when you move don't let this idiot (boyfriend) know where you have moved to as he may start stalking you.  It happens a lot.  The folks working with battered women can help you get moved and obtain additional housing without him being able to track down where you're at easily.   Since you mentioned working at a hospital you can also put security there on alert that he may try to visit you there and to be available to kick his butt out and have him arrested if he breathes towards you in the wrong direction.

I applaud you for deciding that enough is enough - now be sure to followup on your plan and don't let him try to sweet talk you with crap like "I'll change."  Rarely does an abusive person like that change. 

Good luck!

I have been working for a hospital full-time during transcription.  Due to an employee quitting our schedule is up for a major change, which will be requiring MTs to rotate shifts day to night on a weekly basis.  I determining whether to transfer out of the department and maybe taking a secretary job working set hours or may be applying full-time as an employee or IC with an online company where I can set my own hours without interrupting my life, make the same or more money and not having the headache.  Someone please point me in the right direction.  And, if you know of any companies that provide stable work, let me know.  THANKS!!!  ALLTYPE, FAST CHART, TRANSCEND, KEYSTOKES, etc.

Thanks, that helps alot.

It’s really frustrating because us MTs have children and other family priorities and then all the sudden everything changes and so does your family life.  You are hired in to do a certain shift that you desire then it changes and we have no say so.

Once the position is field all shifts will be rotated. 

Buy a puppy.

They're more cuddly, give unlimited unconditional love, are LOYAL, never lie, and communicate better than any man I've ever met!

I've tried both small crates and large ones, and it hasn't seemed to matter--he messes in both sizes when I leave him in a crate. 

I think I'm going to take the advice of another poster, for now, and try those belly bands and see if that will break him of this nasty of habit of hiking his leg on the furniture. 

But, you don't know how much I appreciate your offering of advice and not condemning me for using potty pads in the house for the dog's bathroom pleasure. I appreciate you!   

There are anywhere from 54 to 64 lines per page depending on your font, at $3.00 you lose a lot.   If I were starting right now to get my own accounts, I would invest in a microcasette transcriber -- you already have the foot pedal to do digital, and send out brochures/flyers indicating what you have to offfer.  Be prepared that a lot of clinic still want you to print out on "sticky paper" which you supply so that they can have continuous notes on a sheet of paper.   You need to call around some form places to see where you can purchaste 8 1/2 x 11 sticky paper that has perforations along the sides so they can peel it and place it in the chart.  But you don't need much to start.  But I would think twice about charging per page, at $3.00 per page on my chart notes, I would lose out big time.  I get 60 lines per page and at 11.5 cents per gross line, you do the math.    Make that call, what do you have to lose.  But if they are looking for someone they will probably want you to start soon and so like I have said go on E-bay and buy a microcassette transcriber --but stay away from Sony and Panasonic, Pearlcorder, Olympus, Sanyo are better brands.   Can get one for $60 to $90.    Good luck.

I just went through a divorce last year, so financially I haven't exactly gotten my feet completely on the ground yet, and then in September I started running out of work which made things a lot worse. (I work for MQ).  I just sold my house, and I am moving into an apartment where the rent is half my mortgage.  I plan to go back to school so I can get out of MTing all together.

My problem is this stray cat that I have.  He started hanging around our neighborhood a few years ago.  He is the sweetest thing.  I didn't want a cat at all, but my kids started giving him hot dogs, and he has never left.  He's a great cat, never messes in the house, never scraches the furniture, and loves my kids.  I got him fixed 4 months ago in anticipation of making him a housecat so that we could take him to the apartment with us, but so far it hasn't worked. 

He has his routine:  Every morning he follows all the neighbor kids to whichever car in the carpool on the block is taking them to school and then watches them leave.  He toms around the neighborhood all day, and then when I get home from picking the kids up from school, he is always on my front porch.  Then he spends the entire afternoon going in and out the front door with the kids.

I've tried keeping him in the house and not letting him leave, and he cries and cries.  Then when I get exasperated and finally let him out, he just lays down on the front porch and goes to sleep.

I don't know what to do with him.  It is breaking my heart that I'm probably going to have to find a home for him.  Any ideas on how to make him a housecat?

And, interestingly enough...I had not been sleeping well so I started taking Valerian root and I did sleep better, but that was when my symptoms started.  I felt so crappy and lethargic during the day after taking Valerian so I stopped it.  That was just last week.  So thanks for your help! It's much appreciated and I will take your advice and try these other supplements!

Thanks