Back in the days when we all worked in an office
Posted By: IKWYM on 2005-08-22
In Reply to: "Oh, I could do that..." sm - arrrghh!!
we got this new manager who I disliked immediately. She couldn't spell every day words, she had absolutely no background in MT and figured she was doing somebody to get the position. We had been promised an MT as our next manager. She said she could type 85 wpm and she believed she could handle the job - HA. We had an MT come in to interview and test and she had to ask me how to turn on the computer and how to print the report. They company lost the account and it closed down that office and the manager couldn't get another job and had to move back home with mom and dad.
I had a man looking for his wife to be able to do something where they could work and travel and he said his wife had a business degree and he felt she could do the job too. I also had an associate whose husband got fired AGAIN and she called me wanting to know how she could do what I do, like she could start tomorrow.
I've decided I'm going to tell people I'm a medical langauge specialist from now on and when they ask me what that is I'm going to say I'm a translator.
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I taped my back in the days, which worked.
nm
PS.. It apparently worked..I heard back and already submitted the paperwork back.
I'm not sure how many people they are hiring but you shouldn't stress too hard over it. Do the best you can.
I sure wish I worked in your office!
We hardly ever get an update, we run out of work, we never get answers to our questions, raises are few and far between.... its definitely an office to office, management to management thing! I hope MQ management reads some of these posts and get ideas on how they could make their office better and happier!
BACK IN THE DAYS
I remember selectric typewriters, with 3 sets of carbons and erasers and white out before self correcting until 1985 when the hospital went computer. We would go home with carbon on our faces and clothes and how many times did we spill white out.
back in the old days
I concur with above poster. we used to have fellow MTs to be that second set of ears to figure out a term. Isolation at home kind of created the need to have that second listener be its own entity. Since we only used to help each other out and not read each others reports, the whole go over them for format and grammar process did not happen after initial training. Or perhaps there were periodic reviews. I remember when we would have to deliver a report to the floor we would glance at it and couldn't believe some of the glaring errors. If we told the supervisor about it she would usually just shrug. But as MTs we had absolutely no authority and usually no access to each others' work. There was no such thing as QA or editors or whatever they may be called.
I've tried Vivarin and the 1st two days it worked great
But after that they put me to sleep like anesthesia. Go figure.
I worked at one job where the office manager would
go to the gas station on Friday afternoons to buy a case of beer for the employees. It was his version of "corporate culture". As the only female working there, it wasn't a great place to work anyways. The guys told me that the only reason I got hired was because I looked good in a skirt and the office manager was going through a divorce. My resume spoke for itself, but the comments, which got harsher after a few beers, did create a hostile work environment.
Because think of the reverse, when you worked in the office...
did you ever see the director of med rec ask doctors to dictate their old stuff, so there would be enough work for MTs? when we were low on work in the hospital,a deficiency list would be sent out, and then boom a bunch of dictation...
hospitals are doing anything and everything they can to cut costs, even as mentioned above, hiring ICs on the side. health care is purely a business now, and I would bet not a day goes by every hospital in America asks the question, how can we cut back on the cost of dictation?
if that were not true, you would not have the HUGE push for the technology and the HUGE push for outsourcing, overseas or not.
think about this, also. we are only working at home for these companies, because hospitals decided it would be cheaper than paying health benefits for full-time MTs, office space, etc etc.
I do not put anything past people who are 100% money-driven these days.
you do make a great point, though, about the billing and DRGs, etc., but I still think they are told to 'cool-it' whenever they can...
I worked in a physician's office as well.
Normally they get paid only a percentage of that. If your mother has insurance she can pretty much disregard that initial bill. The hospital my parents used also chopped off a large amount due to their fixed income. The worst part about this system is that people with no insurance and who do not qualify for the indigent write-off have to cough up the whole thing.
I'm poorer than when I worked an office MT job, but - (s/m)
- I'll probably live longer, too! My blood pressure has dropped 20 points (for real!) since I stopped having to deal with the annoying little "management clique" at my old job. I've also lost 10 pounds, mainly because now I only eat when I'm hungry, (usally while still working, so it's a fast meal), and not because I'm ticked off, or because I want to get away from the office. So I'm definitely eating less. If I need to run a quick errand in the middle of the day, I don't have to drive like a maniac and nearly wreck my car (or anyone else's) worrying about getting back to my desk at a certain time. I just work later at night.
It's not that I agree with what most employers think MT is worth, but I made a conscious choice to get out of the rat-race and the back-stabbing office politics, and live a saner, quieter life. Meanwhile, I'm dealing with the added poverty by clipping more coupons, buying mostly generic products, and recycling aluminum. When I start getting itchy about moving out of my crummy, low-income apartment, I just go online and see what I'd have to pay to move up to a better apartment, and it gives this one a lot more appeal. And it sure beats living in my car. ;p
Sure! I was back transcribing 2 days (sm)
after birthing GirlTeen. I would put her in my sling (the lying sideways kind, not the straight up/down front pack kind), reach around her, and type while she nursed. I also pumped so Dad could be part of the feeding thing.
I hope you can take some time off at the beginning. You need the rest; baby needs to get to know you. Yes, the first days feel like all you do is nurse and change dipes.
Best wishes!
Isn't it funny (not!) that back in the days when - (sm)
training for MT was on-the-job and free, and terminology could be learned inexpensively at an occupational center, we were treated and paid decently. Now they make you pay through the nose for an education to qualify for being an MT, and go touting how you 'HAVE TO' have a CMT or similar credential to even be considered for a job, and you get paid practically nothing, and treated like a subhuman entity.
Have never known shift lead who just worked 8 hours a day for 5 days. By the time they
:+
May I ask which office your all worked for. Sounds very familiar.
:
When I worked pathology office in a hospital
My experience was that I worked 3 times as hard for a set wage than I ever did as an MT - and in medical records as MT earned set wage plus incentive.
At pathology lab, we were responsible for getting there first thing in the morning and transcribing all the micro before 10 a.m. so the pathologists could then look at slides and dictate the gross report. Doctors tried to get the gross reports back to us by 1 p.m. -- because they had to be typed by 3 p.m. so the doctors could sign the reports, and get them back to us so we could get them sorted and in the mail before we went home. In addition, we fielded phone calls, took messages for pathologists, searched for and mailed slides when other labs requested them, provided courier coverage to transport slides and things between our lab and hospital lab in the next building, and when we had a spare minute, we entered Pap smear results from precoded sheets used by the technicians reading the Pap smears (like between 10 a.m. and noon, if we had all the micro typed)!!! Every day was hurry up and meet this 2-hour deadline, then hurry to meet the next 2-hour deadline...
I learned a lot of terminology -- but I would have to be very hungry to do it again. It is hard to describe or comprehend a pathology secretary job unless you have actually been there, done that -- you will either love it or hate it... good luck.
Started in 1979 when I was 18, worked in office at MQ while it was still
.
I worked in house in a doctor's office and it was the same for me...
and I had to answer phones, make copies, et cetera, basically was an MT/secretary...and I hated it...I am making much more money now working at home part-time...
Help! I forgot how to set my computer back 4-5 days. Anybody help?
nm
I went back to work when babies were 9 days old
And yes, you can transcribe with TWO babies on your lap. It's a royal pain getting spit-up out of the keyboard though!
And before anybody starts a flame war on me, the boys are 10 years old now and now I get to work while they're asleep.... ;)
I remember back in my hospital days...
when we had the more personal contact aspect with the docs. The ones who cared could/would actually walk back to where we were and you could ask them questions, have them correct something, etc., or the MR director could tell the heavy ESL docs to enunciate their English better, ha-ha, which sometimes actually worked. Our county coroner would tell us some interesting stories late in the evening. One lady plastic surgeon loved what she did so much, if you asked her a question, she would draw you pictures of what she did. I once handed an awful resident doc my earphones so he could hear what he was dictating; he was so embarrassed he slowed down from then on, so it made a huge difference. For a few years, to get the docs to get their charts done faster, the MR director held a contast; the winning doc would get a free trip somewhere. You would not believe how some of these guys would compete for this prize, cracked us up.
Yeah, those days are gone, but I hope to live to see the work goes back to the local hospital level. A hospital system the next town over to me did post 5 full-time Transcriptionist jobs last fall; I applied, just wanted an interview. I never heard back so I don't know how this panned out. I think I'd apply to return to in-house work if that ever happened. The job was definitely more interesting then.
No, I've worked in doctor's business office.
That is what the insurance company allows, not what they dictate. Who is to tell the doctor how long he can sit and talk with his patient. It is up to him. True insurance companies get together to decide what is the appropriate amount for the doctor to "charge" for a service but I've literally seen where the doctor sees the patient all of 2 minutes after patient is worked up by techs, but they still get paid for that visit.
I know a lot of people it helped (I worked in a doctor's office) SM
BUT you have to really want to quit before you start it. It doesn't make you want to quit - it just helps you w/ the depression and the withdrawal symptoms that come along w/ quitting. Good luck.
DId NOT work. Had to pound the keys -- took it back in 2 days. nm
x
I taped my broken tapes back in the days.
nm
I get no feed back from QA at all, zip from my MQ office.
:
I started in the file room of the urology office I worked. And I was not
going to be a file clerk for the rest of my life. I only had 2 semesters of terminology, no other professional schooling. They had a fresh from a Mayo Fellowship peds urologist coming in and needed somebody to help with the typing. First it was half file-room and half transcription. Finally he was so busy, I became full time. I was there from 1990 until 2003. I then left to free-lance and start my own business. He has since moved to Arizona and I still type for him after all these years.
You're so right - I gave my notice - 5 more days & Im back home!!
I worked at home 9 years - back in an office for a year -cannot WAIT to be back home again. Office politics and BS, silly little rules that make no sense, traffic, hours less in each day because you spend that time commuting, people who care if you have a $200 purse or not...when you work at home you can still have friends, but you get to choose who you spend your time with!
DH painted office for me. Now tomorrow I have to put it all back together.
:+
Going back to Office Admin Work
Hello everyone. I wanted to sign in and thank everyone for all the info that has been posted on this board. It was a very important web site for me during my short transcription career.
After being laid off from a company in Michigan 3 weeks ago, I have searched for and found an office manager position in a non-MT environment. I'm going back to my routes in Admin. I tried to make a career change a few years ago. Maybe it was not the financial environment to make such a change or maybe it is just not for me. What ever the case is, I'm leaving. I have invested a large amount of time and money into this dream but sometimes you have to know when to "fold 'em." Lucky for me hubby is on board and not making me feel bad about our investment or how this dream of mine drained our finances.
So, again, thanks for all the help and good luck to everyone.
I worked for them before and went back
to them recently and there wasn't enough work for me to even get my minimum done for training so I left. I don't want to have 2-3 or 4 backups just to get my minimum in so I left again.
I figure if a week has gone by, forget it. But 1 recruiter did take 10 days recently to get back
s
Early in my career I worked for a service in the office. I gave my notice after almost two years...
with them because I got a job with a hospital that paid better and had better benefits. I gave my notice and the office manager made my life heck for my remaining two weeks. He gave away my desk, my chair, my transcriber (we were still transcribing cassettes back then). I spent the next two weeks shuffled between workstations and using the crappiest equipment they had. He also refused to give me any help on my account. It was a huge family practice from which I would get at least seven 90 minute tapes a day from them. Before I gave my notice, I was the lead on the account and had three other people helping. When I gave my notice, he couldn't spare anyone to help me and I got several tapes behind. I kept telling him I was behind and he would just say do what you can.
Long story short, he tried to stiff me on my last paycheck because he said my account was way out of turnaround time and I had cost them money. He had told the owner of the service that I had never asked for help and that I purposefully held tapes back to screw them. I ended up taking them to small claims court to get my money.
Some people are just ugly people that take EVERYTHING personally. You can't win with people like that. They are unprofessional. I wouldn't worry about your boss' attitude. In a couple of weeks, he'll just be a memory.
Have office in back of basement, does not have a door it is an alcove-like
room. No noise from the outside at all.
I've tried to go back to the office a number of times and
I never can make the transition. One consideration is your wardrobe. You have to start dressing in office attire which is something I don't miss and found irritating when I went back into the office. I also found that after working at home for as long as I have done it, it's kind of stressful to get out there and try to be social and friendly. Office politics is another negative. Offices are very much like high school, very cliquey and filled with gossip. There is more to working in an office than just doing your job. At home, it's just me and my PC. I do the work and I get paid. In the office, there's you, your PC, the person who shares the desk with you, the person who sits across from you, the person who sits next to you, your supervisor right across the hall, the doctors knowing you by name and seeking you out to complain about their dictation, the constant ringing of phones, chattering of voices. The people you share office space with, one will always be hot, one will always be cold, one thinks it's too bright and there's a glare on her screen, and one thinks it's too dark. You can't wear perfume because the girl next to you is allergic...
I could go on...
Check out the back-up batteries at Office Depot -
I have very short power interruptions every single day, so having a back-up power supply is a must. I have two now, hooked to different pieces of equipment. I can work for nearly an hour without external power if need be. I can hear it beep and click on and then off when power is restored again, which is literally just maybe 10 seconds or so. As far as a generator goes, I have no idea, sorry.
I worked for Southern Transcription a while back.
nm
Hated it. The office politics, the dressing up, the back-stabbing. I do in 4 hours what I did in 8
at home. That hospital environment with all those women backstabbing, worrying about how long other people took for breaks or lunch, who was in favor with the supervisor, who fit in with the cliques, UGGGGGGHHHHH! I can't believe I am saying this but MQ looks good compared to those days now that you got me to thinking. (Not that good pay-wise/benefit-wise though)
I worked at Home Depot awhile back
for 3 years in the paint department. I have done them all and also taught the classes on Sundays. You might want to call your local Home Depot and ask when they have their paint classes. Lots of information, and they should let you try out the techniques as well.
I've worked for svl places that said to change it back to 100% before sending, so it must affect
s
Worked in clinic for 30 yrs and have tinnitus. I am used to back ground noise, hard to work
:+
I worked for Cbay for 3 years. I was also part of their lay off back many years ago. sm
Even though I got stuck in a lay off era, I still love the company. They paid well then. The people were nice (exception of 1 person) and if I had the opportunity I would go back again. Fortunately (or unfortunately - depending on how u look at it), I have a great paying job right now, so I am not looking for a change. I do know that at one time, they asked management to accept late paychecks, but never sure of the reason why. My check was never late.
30 hours divided by four days equals seven-hour days. Most of us have to work pretty much every day
.
Working 6/hour days, 5 days/week I make
$42,000.00, but the work is there to make more if I want to. I'm in the southeast.
2000 low days, 4000 busy days
Did 43,000 lines last month. 6 doctors.
You can "make a living" if you work 16-hr days, 7 days
and if you rarely buy anything but food and the barest essentials in clothing. My balancing act is so precarious that all it'll take is one of life's little disasters (rent increase, sick pet, major car repair) to pull the rug out from under me. Not a good feeling at all.
Have most people had good luck with their MQ office closing and moving to the regional office. Have
things gotten better or worse for you.
Yes, I lost mine. I upgraded the Office 2000 package to Office 2003. sm
I have over 2000 autocorrect entries and lost them all as well as my supplemental dictionary for my Stedman's spellcheck. Lots of grief!
Maybe you will be lucky and not lose anything. Good luck to you.
Might be able to rent one from an office supply or office machine repair shop
s
I gave a tin of toffee for each office and a Lia Sophia necklace to each office manager. ~nm~
x
I gave a tin of toffee for each office and a Lia Sophia necklace to each office manager. ~nm~
x
Office politics. That is why I enjoy working at home. In the office,
people are in other people business. Just mind your own business.
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