LOL, yea I realized that but not getting paid for typing here and

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    • typos - yippee
      • LOL, yea I realized that but not getting paid for typing here and - NJMT
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My company set me up to work from home - - - I am new at this and confused and am need of imput from others in the field. Currently I get pain 8 cents per line.  I have a quota of 7,000+ lines a week - -however the computer I have been set up with does not enable me to add programs (if I wanted to add a word expansion program) and, interestingly, the ability to set up macros in MS Word has been disabled.

With that said - - - For example, I will type a new consult on a patient that ends up being 4 pages in length.  I want to "work smarter and not harder" (who doesn't) so I incorporate word Expanders that I have in MS Word Auto Text as well as an Auto Text "intial office visit" outline which includes the doctor's "normal" exam.  All I have to do are make any necessary changes with each individual patient.  We use a nationally known dictation program/softwear which enables me to go to a "statistics" screen to see the line count for each document I have typed.  I have been finding, however, that on these 4 page consults, I am only being credited for 60 lines or so - - - aren't there 65 lines PER PAGE - - -why is it not 4 times that amount??  Looks like I am only getting paid for STRAIGHT TYPING, not for the total line count of the end product.

I get to type the stuff everyone else has rejected!

Wwwowoooweeeiiieee.. lucky me and my 3 dollars an hour!! 

System seemed nice at first but quickly turned out it wasn't.  Someone else I know told me hers kept locking up on her.  You don't have access to your Word entries and if you don't have a compatible shortcut expander, you have to start all over again in theirs.  That stinks.

I found my QA to be very, very picky, over the top, ridiculous things.  I don't think they want people to work for them because it seems you can't do anything right and I'm one who has been in this business a LONG time and no one ever complained about my work before. 

I was very disappointed as I had heard good things about MDI-MD.  Just goes to show what is right for one MT is not for another.

didn't make a lot of sense if you are going to be working an independent contractor because they don't take out any taxes at all, so changing dependents has no affect at all on your check.

Basically what the IRS is suggesting is just creative bookkeeping and you might come out better today, but come tax time and you reconcile eveything it will probably hurt you. 

is that part of the problem is that the bar has been raised as far as the skillset employees are expected to have these days. For one, computer skills are a given. It is just expected that every, even entry-level employees are proficient with computers, so the computer knowledge an MT has really isn't specialized. As far as terminology, etc., honestly learning everything I needed to know about the installation and government was harder, or as hard, as learning MT. With all the tools and communications available via computer, we are expected to be diverse and understand not only the intricacies of our own jobs but those of all the organizations that affect our jobs.

I had to learn just as many business & financial related acronyms as I did for MT including those unique to our organization, used in the financial/business industry, government/military, etc. Formatting documents etc. for business/government/military is actually harder than for MT. Learning all the financial, industrial, government, military terms, systems, and hierarchies was also much like learning MT. I started in an entry level job and was expected to pick all this up fairly quickly and pretty much on the job with no formal training because technology gave me access to all this information. This is all for a secretary/administrative support position.

My point is that since the last generation was brought up with computers, communications, and access to information so readily available, it has completely changed what is expected of office workers in larger companies. There are no more simple secretary jobs. I haven't been here two years just yet, and I am lead for an office of 50 people, expected to train 3 other clerks/secretaries under me and know everything about at least 25 different programs internal to my directorate and all the terms, acronyms, hierarchies, formatting, etc., etc., etc., related to it from personnel management to budgeting/financing, industrial production, government entities, private industry, etc.

I work with both government and private industry, as far as I can tell those in lower-level jobs are expected to be extermely diverse and well-rounded to support those in the higher-level jobs.  Those in the higher level jobs in some ways get paid more to be "expert" in their field but don't have to have nearly the skill set of the lower level employees. Most of those in higher-level jobs have been around a while, and the lower-level employees could honestly work circles around them. However, it is obvious, and everyone knows it, that as older workers begin to leave the workforce the younger/newer workers are going to be expected to know and do a lot more in the same positions simply because the base skillset of younger/newer workers is stronger and more diverse.

I don't mean to make light of what it takes to be an MT, but the business world has changed so much in the last 20 years that the bar has been raised in larger companies/industries as far as what is expected of workers. An older worker may have held the same position I am in now for 20 years, and she is not expected to have 1/4 the skillset they expect from a younger worker; yet, we get paid the same. They just expect younger workers to be more proficient in computer skills, technology, and information, and if you are not, you won't last long or go very far.

I know the going rate in our area is 14 cents per line.  As MTs most companies here pay us 8 or 9 cents a line.  Now add in the Editor rate at 4 or 5 per line..you are paying OUT more than you can charge a line.  How would companies stay in biz?

Unless all work is sent by the company overseas at pennies per line, this would not pay for a company.

just curious how this works out

per keystroke, but that'll never happen.  I just think that these national companies are going to keep finding ways to cheat us.  I found a job working for a hospital as an employee, paid hourly plus incentive, and they let us expand everything!  Somebody's gonna have to kill me to make me give up this job.  I will never go back to the national's again.

I feel for you though.  I know that for us MTs those good jobs are few and far between and some have little choice but to work for the nationals.  I just happened to luck into the job I have now.  I just applied at the right time. 

Good luck to you whatever you decide.

sadly are two very different things.  Good luck on demanding more..because someone else will just come along and take it for what they offer and they know it. 

A great woman crossed into the arm's of God this morning.  She was 80+ years of age and still doing medical transcription up to the day earlier this year when she was diagnosed with cancer and even then she came to the office just until recently.  She loved her job and everyone loved her.  She will be greatly missed in the world of transcription as well as among family and friends. 

Until we meet again.