I tell them it's harder than it looks!
Posted By: SM on 2008-03-13
In Reply to: What do you tell people when they ask about MT as job? - FLmomMT
Every one of my neighbor friends who has kids has asked me that question. They see me home all day, know I have a mortgage, car payment, etc, and think they can do it too. I always give them the example of a relative of mine who tried to teach a nurse how to transcribe. The nurse obviously had the terminology, but could not make the leap to hearing something and typing it on a keyboard. The last neighbor who asked (baby due in 2 weeks), I just said "Find yourself an account and I'll help you learn". This was 6 months ago when she first asked and, of course, didn't bother to do that. In other words, they don't want to go to school, don't want to get an account, don't want to do anything other than sit down, starting typing something and get a paycheck in 2 weeks. It seems to be one of the only professions that everyone thinks is easy (and we all know it's NOT!!!).
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Basically, harder dictators and harder reports with a lot of formatting with tables, etc. SM
give you extra lines because of the time involved in doing those particular reports. Not so much you get paid more per line, you just get extra line credit. For example:
You have a 100 line report, but it is weighted because of a table that you have to input. Then you would maybe get credit for 130 lines for that report.
I would bet its harder now being a kid than
You almost have to be mean, because mean people get respect and heard. Nice people are easier to stomp on. While your teaching your kid please and thank you, other mommies are teaching theirs to be ruthless and cruel. Truly to the core nice genuine people are so hard to find these days.
It was harder for me when they were that age too - sm
They are 6 & 7 now....though when they are home sick my work goes in the toilet basically. When they were younger ( I started when then were 2 & 3) I basically just worked when they napped and at night, about all you can do. I still get up early a few days a week and work until 11 or so despite them being in school all day (though the last day is June 1, ahhgggg, way too early this year), and will have a more radical plan this summer (i.e. work 3 a.m. to noon is my goal) so I don't have to make sure they are occupied while I work all day and I can actually spend some time with them, granted I will have to take a cat nap at some point, amazing what a 20-minute rest can do for you.
I would definitely be harder but obviously
all of their clients. I would set up an 800 call-in dictation number or a TASP and then wherever the place you move to, look for new clients in that area while keeping the old ones when you move, dialing into the 800 # to dictate (or using a hand-held and uploading, but I personally have never done it that way). I think they feel more comfortable using a service that is local to them; that seems to be their first choice. And then they will go with a national service if there is nothing available locally. I think just concentrate on whatever area you are in, build a rapport with clients in that area and do a good job for them, and then when you move just continue to have them dictating long distance on the 800#. Of course, you will have to set up to send files back electronically and not by delivering because you can't deliver once you move - so just set it up where you send files back through an FTP site or encrypted email or whatever from the beginning.
We do work harder
Than most people at an office, I think. When I worked in an office environment, it was so easy to get caught up with talking to everyone and not really getting as much work done as I should have. Here at home, I HAVE to get my work done if I want to get paid! Most people don't realize that. I think that they believe we just around and eat bonbons all day! Ain't so!
You Know WHY They Work Harder?
Because they actually think they are making good money to "live in wonderful country that is free." They don't pay taxes, they don't pay for health insurance, etc. Not to mention, they don't do a good job, you could turn 'em in and have their butts back in their own country. Fear is a great motivator.
Cost of living keeps going up and wages don't. Why would ol' Joe America keep breaking his back working for peanuts when he KNOWS it's not going to pay the mortgage? There ARE hardworking Americans out there but they have to make a profit and shouldn't have to compete with people who aren't even in this country legally.
I have never seen a harder worker than
my husband and he can do 2500 tops. He used to QA between 4500 and 5000 daily - so he can really move through reports once he learns the doctor, their style of dictation, etc. I'm on my second VR account and I'm embarrassed to tell you what I can do - I think 600 yesterday? I am dead serious. It is a whole 'nother skill....
by doing the harder dictators you....
get valuable experience and when it comes down to it, YOU are the one who looks good and has more potential for raises and promotions because you can do those and do them well when no one else can. Also, you are the one that they'll see can ultimately do ANY type of report/dictator without hesitation or problems. So let them cherrypick. They're only hurting themselves in the long run. (that is, if you work for a company who actually appreciates it's employees!)
from what i've heard, its a lot harder
I know they could care less about us, we're just numbers/slaves to them, but why don't they get a little integrity for the business, make us happy for once, in turn improving quality and giving themselves a good name, and pay by the hour while we learn this technology at least. How can any company cut pay across the board like that and get away with it?
From what I have heard, harder to break into than
a
I can assure you that it is no harder to find
good MTs than it is to find a company who treats MTs with respect (you know, not calling somebody stupid because they don't know how to use offline messenger). I don't know how to use offline messenger, either, but I am smart enough to pick up the phone and call if my Internet connection is down for a significant length of time.
scared into trying harder or leaving?
 Why do some QA folks think they can really make you feel this way? It will eventually lead to leaving, I think. I have never QAed or feel qualified, but geez, leave the poor transcriber a little positive feedback to go on. Anyone else share this thought?
scared into trying harder or leaving
Well, it is simple things really, more style than anything. I am not a newbie, I have 5 years under my belt. Gosh, what co. do you work for?
scared into trying harder or leaving
I forgot to add: it is the way the make the feedback, like are you attempting to look anything up... or I can't believe you didn't hear what I heard....ugh!
and yes, the Velveeta is much harder to grate
xx
So sad how I work so much harder now doing the same thing...
x
at home - harder job than public
True, I make more money, but the anxiety is killer. I work harder now than I ever did in a public position. Yes, I am here for my children when they get home from school, but I could not imagine trying to do my job with a baby. Also, as others will probably agree, the money in this field is not what it used to be. Good luck.
I would think they would be lots harder than clinic but
years ago when working in a hospital setting I tried to bypass the ops, scared of them and took other things to be transcribed. My boss did me a favor- she noticed and put me exclusively on ops for months. I love them now, my favs but you would definitely not want to just jump into them if your salary depends on it. They are, I would think, some difficult than what you do now. I would ease gently into them. When I learned, was training and salary did not deviate from one thing to another so good learning experience then for me.
Maybe the are giving you the harder dictators
because they feel you can handle it? They obviously trust you to take on the harder ones. My advice, stick with it, it will get better with time.
An IC working smarter, not harder, does not
x
The harder I try, the more mistakes I make...
Go over report twice.
You're making it much harder
x
The CD is WAY harder than the actual test.
No sweat.
Melena or hematochezia. This is harder than you thought, huh? nm
x
You can work those machines harder than a lot of people do
x
Meat cooking is harder, IMHO
Remebering my childhood as an animal eater, I think it is harder cooking for meat eaters and way more expensive than vegetarian foods.
Anyone on this forum working Smarter and not Harder?
I have been in this profession 28 years now; turned 50 this December. Back in the day, I could sit down and type nonstop and be done with my work in 6 to 6.5 hours at 2000 lines. Now it is all I can do to get 1200 lines, and I am working from sun up to sun down. I work a full time employee position and part time IC position. Full time consistently running out of work, so first of year, I will be subcontracting full-time, but will also keep the part time IC position- just so I don't have all my eggs in one basket. What is the key to working less and making more?
had my expander on meant can not, and smarter not harder
I love this job.....
It's getting harder to pick. I'm afraid maybe Elliott but
hoping it's Katharine (although the second song she did last night was WONDERFUL). Elliott should NEVER have sang "I want to go home," that could stick in the minds of people when voting.
Along with this, is anyone having parties during all of the this. My DH is doing Pampered Chef and we've been invited to an AI party to do PC. The party will start at 6 and it should be lots of fun.
really? i thought flat screens were harder
on the eyes -- boy, that is good to know otherwise...
Working at home is harder than in office
Because we are our own housekeeping, tech support, errand runner, no cafeteria, ect. I have no idea why they are passing around this WAHM myth. I don't understand the savings idea either because our utility bills are higher. In an office you get paid 15 min breaks 2x a shift too. You are also paid for all the stuff you deal with that you have to deal with to work. Like talking to supervisor, sending an email, reporting a problem, ect.
To me they are harder than Indians, Spanish or anything else. Strange.
nm
People (& animals, too) will work harder to get
nm
They assign harder ESLs to slow you down.
consuming to type very difficult dictators. In the long run you're make less money per hour. What the poster means, I think, is they want the work done and don't care if you struggle for hours or all day on ESLs.
OPs are harder, and apparently only us 'oldies' love them.
;)
I'm going to write my own letter. Harder to ignore if
thousands of letters, all written differently, still say the same thing. That way they know it's not just a form-letter (like the kind they always send to US.)
I think they will see these newbies run faster and harder than we ever did if something doesnt suit.
:
no ASR is not wonderful. it is harder to correct than straight transcribe ESPECIALLY
if you use expanders and shortcuts. Sure they pump it as wonderful. That's cause the next step is taking a pay cut for this wonderful technology that actually cuts your line count, IF you are using expanders, templates and normals. Having been on ASR for 6-7 months, it is not getting better as promised as we trained the ASR.
Harder on my eyes than my ears but I find it hard to
believe that listening to dictation could cause hearing loss. Blasting music through headphones maybe, but not dictation. I've been doing this for 20 years and have not noticed any difference in my hearing.
However, my eyes get soooooo tired. I've started zooming in to make the print look bigger and that helps a lot.
funny how upgrades make work harder for us
.
Now! I work smarter - not harder. I learned through the years how to do this.
I have a pretty stress-free MT job and absolutely love it! Make good money and am enjoying life and my teenagers a bit more.
I realized that the job is not everything.
Not anymore unfortunately! They want cheaper labor to work harder!
I made more per line my first 2 weeks interning than now with a lot more bills and expenses.
I have to agree that cherrypickers will be out of work when VR takes over, since the harder reports
Even when I worked inhouse and had the opportunity to cherrypick, I didn't. Even now, I am finding out that ESLs are probably easier than than some of the American doctors in the long run, because they get down to business and dictate their report. Most times, they say the same thing over and over. Learn the doc, know his quirks and bang, you are done.
Editing at home is tough. No comparison to the office, and much, much harder
than transcribing at home, especially with kids. Wish I could help, but I can totally sympathize with you!
No I'm not making it harder. you shouldn't rely on the 'prompt to save' as your only def
Unfortunately, some proprietary platforms seem to run two instances of MSword (as best as I can tell) which prevents you from saving your normal dot. My post was addressed specifically to those who are encountering that problem. An Autoclose/AutoExit macro should save the normal dot for you, and may be the ONLY way you can save it, even if you have selected the prompt for normal save on your options toolbar.
In any case, autoclose and/or autoexit macro that saves your normal dot will ensure that most, if not all of your recent autocorrect/autotext/macros present in your normal dot are saved, should you have an unexpected power failure or crash, or if you are using a template that is provided to you by an employer -- a template which may have been programmed in such a way as to prevent your normal dot from being when you exit word.
In any case, whether or not the "prompt to save normal template" is selected really shouldn't affect whether or not the normal is saved, the normal should automatically be saved as you exit MsWord. The fact that normal.dot doesn't always save is, or worse vanishes entirely, is just one of these weird idiosyncracies which sometimes makes word (which really is a pretty wonderful program) so frustrating to use. (Hint, back up your normal.dot -- frequently!)
In my experience, the only time that a template reliably does not save is if you are writing macros (as opposed to recording macros) and if you fail to manually save your changes inside your Editor before exiting word.
I have had the experience more than once of opening word to find that my newly programmed template is gone -- sometimes representing many hours of work -- and that is where "the prompt to save" toolbar option really can be useful.
In short, I am fully aware of the "prompt to save normal" in the options toolbar (and mine is selected to prompt) and if I had thought this was best solution for the professional medical transcriptionist, I would not have bothered posting this information in the first place.
So to make a long post short: The best solution to make absolutely sure your normal dot is saved is to use autoclose and/or autoexit macros that instruct word to save your normal template, and don't just depend on the "save normal prompt" on your toolbar. Regard it as an extra precaution, which is what it really is, don't depend on it, it can get unselected, and poof your normal.dot is gone!
For someone who just writes an occasional letter or term paper on with MSword the occasional loss of the normal.dot, albeit aggravating, probably isn't all that serious, but for the MT who depends on her paycheck to support her family, losing her normal dot and its 37,954 autocorrect entries is a real economic hardship. She just might appreciate knowing that there is something she can do to prevent this from happening, even though you happen to think it is "complicated."
Isn't this forum here to provide fellow MTs with useful information they can use or not as they please? Medical transcription after all, isn't a game or a hobby, it is real grown-up work, and it is prudent to take the time do real grown up things to maintain the tools of the trade.
Unlike some posts I have seen, particularly on the word-help forum that just make me want to scream, I will not post useless or wrong information -- even if it is "complicated" -- after all it's just information. Writing autoclose/autoexit macros to save your normal dot are not pointless or useless exercises; and in any case you can disregard my posts, or not, as you please.
INMO, pros and cons to both -- easier on the hands but harder for me mentally.
nm
You hit the nail on the head. We're working harder, longer, and less pay. This is the only profe
that you make less now than you did 10 years ago. I remember making 10 cpl and thinking I should be making more. This is so depressing. Where did we lose ground, what happened. I find myself sitting here for 12-15 hours a day, every day, trying to make a living. All I have ended up with depression, weight gain, losing my friggin hair, and stressed out the max. I miss my family, my friends, and mostly my life. It went with all of the dignity I had. Now, it's considered "average" to be offered 6-7 cpl for years of experience. I do not know whether to cry, scream, be insulted, offended...or all of the above. Even 8 cpl is pathetic. I make 9 cpl now and still struggle. I am going back to what I know best..insurance billing. At least, my job will never be replaced with Indians and VR. They will always need me and I will get raises and compensated for what I know. I am done with this depressing profession. Good bye 14 years, hello bright happy future. 
Haven't heard in years. Supposedly making it harder to get money
xx
Is it harder to reach your daily line count on acute care or clinic?
nm
Orientals, although they try harder to pronounce words correctly Give 'em a A for effort (nm)
x
I've been told, "Work harder and faster, and you'll make more." Not kidding. nm
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