I asked you to SHARE HOW - not brag. That's why folks like YOU aren't credible.

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Hey there all you Indepedent contractor folks.  Just want to take a quick poll and see if you are happy being independent.  I am thinking of the making the jump over from employee to IC.  Just want to see and get a quick glance and see if you are happy or not so happy with being IC. 

Right now McDonald's in our town starts employees at $8/hour and pays benefits and some school benefits.

I have worked 30 years in transcription and make less now than I did in 1985.  That's 20 years ago.  I know more and earn less.  In fact I am a fraction above poverty level.

If you don't think MQ is getting ready to take us all below poverty level right down there with Mexico City, just hide and watch.  Or rather, sit here and think you are with a "good" company.  I didn't, because they are making millions in profit off your hard work and not sharing a penny of it with you. 

In the old days an employer spread the wealth of the company with the employees who made it happen.  This group has never heard of the concept.

I can really relate to your situation and wanted to tell you this story. 

I live at the base of a mountain.  There is an RV place out here and every winter the hunters camp and .....leave aggrevation everywhere (garbage).

Yesterday i drove the 15 miles to town to the post office where they know everyone by name.  I was packaging my book to mail and was listening to this conversation:  A gentleman handed a change of address form to the Postmaster. He says," You just moved in that new house on the hill last fall.  Is everything okay"? 

Naturally everyone looks that direction.  The gentleman says " We don't like that housing developement on the hill.  There is way too much snow".

Continuing with his story:  My wife had the kids were in the SUV and the road was covered with snow and ice. (duh, it is all winter long).  She had to stop because of the herd of Elk standing on the hill in the middle of the road.  She slid back down the hill and wouldn't drive up again until I came home from work".

So i have asked my husband for a snow maker!!!!!! Maybe they will all move back to the city.  At the base of this hill, a herd of Elk always graze in the field.  There have been many occassions i drive the grandkids that direction to watch.  The 3-year-old asks to me take him to see the funny cows.

So if anyone has a spare Snowmaker please send it to me.....I would love to drive the rest of the city folk out of there!!  

I think that you thinking you "put yourself through college" when your parents were paying your tuition and rent kind of says this is the pot calling the kettle black. 

What do you think of a manager of many MTs, who shares intimate details with each of us regarding her situation as a wife as well as sharing details of other MTs with each other, some extremely complicated and highly personal, which I believe were given to her in confidence.  Then, having her turn into a professional zealot and alienate us with her emotionless response to us which is such a contradiction to prior interactions that it leaves us spinning and feeling as if we do not know her at all.

I have come upon this before early in my career.  And I would say that changing ths subject in the conversation is the answer so to not end up in this web.  What do you think though?  It is awkward and confusing. 

 She is new at supervision and maybe it can be chocked up to that but she holds a lot of power over us and some whom she confided in during long emotion-filled  conversations, word has it, she has turned against to the point they had to transfer to another department.

It is placing a shadow over the job for me

...We are trying to figure out how to become independent, so we can make better than overseas pay.

I realize that every company/employer is different and some want verbatim transcribed.  At my company, it's never been specified, and so sometimes I trust my judgement to change things as I see fit, and other times, I flag a questionable item and explain my thought process to QA.  Oftentimes, when I do the latter, QA just leaves the questionable item as dictated, and does not respond directly to me regarding my question, which makes me feel ignored.  This leaves me feeling frustrated and feeling like the report may have returned to the doctor not 100% accurate.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about, but it's not necessarily the best example from a cesarean section note:

Rectus muscles were then separated in the midline and the peritoneum identified, tented up and entered sharply with Metzenbaum scissors.  The perineal incision was then extended superiorly and inferiorly, with good visualization of the bladder.

The bolded word is obviously incorrect and should be peritoneal.  Do you think QA and everyone else concerned would appreciate if I just used my brain and fixed this without taking anyone else's time, or is there a chance that using my judgement and changing it would come back to haunt me if this report were pulled for a QA review and someone saw that I didn't transcribe what was dictated?

I'm not a newbie.  I'm been in the MT field for almost 8 years.

really not representing the American Transcriptionist at all. I'm really just speechless. I wonder why they're making such unprofessional attacks on the US transcriptionists. 

The representative who wrote the response is either uninformed or downright deceitful in stating that the Indian transcriptionists want the CMT credentials just to have them. On the contrary, their employers are using it as a tool to get their feet in the door to get American work.

I'm just curious as to how many of Indian CMTs have been grandfathered in (not required to take any testing because of years of experience) because most of the companies who do work with them have to have US transcriptionists do a lot of heavy editing.  If this is the case, then the CMT credential is as worthless as it was 30 years ago.  Sad for our industry, really. 

I wish some retirees would start up another professional organization for US transcriptionists only <hint hint> 

Mine has been daydreaming of Leland from Dog The Bounty Hunter.  Hummina Hummina  What a hunk!   Wooooooooooooooo pour some cold water on me!

Through friends/family?  At school?  Met each other at the grocery store when you reached for the same loaf of bread at the same time?    Through an internet dating site?  

friends on public boards online......you're right, the Gay thing should never have been brought up in public......

some have class and some lack class and are uncouth....

You convinced me that it is better to let something else slide rather than the mortgage payment.  I wasn't sure what would be the outcome as we have never gone past 30 days.