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. 

• Going back to Office Admin Work - LeavingMTinME
  • I'd leave too, if I could find something else I could do - well enough to get paid for. So far, no luck.
  • Wishin' ya' good luck in your career! - sm

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

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.  

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... 

and I can tell you that even though the doctors may sound cold when dictating, most of them are not that way in the office.  As for feeling sad for the patients, I cried at least once a week when I worked in that office (and I only worked 2 days a week).  I got very attached to these patients as many of them were coming every week for their treatments.  But in the end, I felt privileged to have worked there.  I made it my job to get to know these patients personally, to let them know that someone does care.  Many of them left our office smiling and that made me feel good inside.

My OB once asked me if it was depressing, and I told him that while losing a patient in our office was always sad, but the patients were no longer in pain, and that I would rather deal with that loss than trying to explain to a new mother the loss of a baby any day.  He agreed, said he never thought of it that way. 

I'm currently working on a children's hospital and it's very saddening some days.  The pediatric oncology is the worst, though.  You just never expect something like that to happen to your family.  You just kind of wake up one day and cancer has reared its ugly head.

Just curious.  Our Portland office closed recently. 

I had nothing but STAT reports for 5 hours straight this a.m. and then reports went back to last Friday's dictation.  I wish there were some way I could send some out to you.

Weird thing is that in the last couple of weeks I have logged on to find no work, but within an hour, I have plenty of work.  Uh oh.  Is it my turn?

Now the office staff who handles the dictation are griping because they don't like Cbay.  They say it is hard to get the work back and it always needs edited.  The docs are behind on editing because they get caught up doing other things.  I had the staff say they wish the doctors would not have drifted..  makes my head well, but you get what you pay for...  

is so that I CAN take the time to stop and feed my child, or put a band-aid on a scraped knee, or read a quick story...  My children are a priority to me and the distraction they cause is acceptable for me.  That doesn't make my work ethic any less than yours IMO, I work more hours probably.  I work some nights after the rest of my family is sleeping.  My work ethic is such that I get my work done and still give time to my children when they need it.

Years ago when I worked for a smaller company a bunch of us made a big  box of goodies and mailed it to the office.  They were such great people, helpful and cheerful. The company always sent us something and we didn't want to just send to the owner of the company so we felt a card in a box of goodies everyone could share.  Smaller places have more of a personal feel .

Now I work for a larger company and home made goodies may not be such a good idea. (The shipping alone would be a killer.)  I guess a card addressed to "everyone" will have to do it.  Thought about having X-mas cards made up with  my family picture on it and sending that to kind of help them also put a face to the name.  Too much?  Think I would be better off with just a standard card? 

Those of you that are doing anything for the office you work out of, what are you doing?  Would love to "borrow" a really good idea.

TIA

Good Luck.  I accepted an in-house position at a doctor's office after being laid off from a very large hospital. It is wonderful to be able to go and ask the doctor questions and get feedback directly from them.  It really is the way to go now instead of working for the really big transcription companies.  I feel like I am appreciated.

I have been helping out an attorney for the last 5 or 6 months because medical wasn't as busy around here, I haven't done this kind of work in quite a while.

The first time it took him 3 months to pay the bill, it was only about $300.  Now this time it's almost $800 and he hasn't paid it.  It has been 2 months and counting so I cut him off until he pays it.

He started leaving last minute stuff on my machine all the time and leaving messages that it had to get done right away, yada, yada, yada....  Now I'm screwed because he hasn't paid the bill.  I finally put new ID numbers into the dictation system so he couldn't dictate on it.  There are people out there who can't afford office staff and won't pay you either !!