The only thing left IS junk ESL-sm

Seems to me that newbies are getting trained on VR with many companies.  VR gets the better dictators.  Offshore is getting the simple stuff and other half of the better dictators because that's all they can handle.  Experienced MTs are left with a trunk of JUNK on their systems and getting paid no more than the new grads and offshore MTs, and very few are offering us more for our skills, accuracy and ability to transcribe the more difficult accounts. 

I've seen things change pretty drastically just in the few years I've been doing this work.  I cannot land a decent cpl for IC anymore.  I was landing better offers as a new grad than I am today with experience, and forget about landing a gravy account if you have experience.  Just isn't happening!  Bottom of the barrel crap is all I get with a bottom of the barrel paycheck to go along with it.   You have to work till your eyes bleed, your head's about to explode and fingers ache to make a fairly decent living, then people wonder why we are sometimes short on patience and PO'd all the time.  That's exactly why!  May as well be gum on a filthy shoe!

• quite concerned - nn
  • they will continue to offer low wages because there is always SOMEONE who will take it! - lkm
  • It is time to seek you own accounts to be paid what you are worth! nm - MTE
  • Not only that - Tonya
    • "Grinding my goat." Never heard that one before! LOL - Thanks for the laugh!
  • quite concerned - nn
    • some of us have been pointing to this for the past two years - sm
      • The only thing left IS junk ESL-sm - fedupmostdays
        • Have you noticed that practically all the job postings these days say experience with ESLs. It seems - MT
          • ESL - at least they're honest about it - dawn
          • these days? Where I live, ADs have said must - must be bilingual (for 25 years) ..sm

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tech guy setup SpamBayes on my computer so that they go into a junk mail file automatically.  Hope this helps...it sure helped me...don't have to see them and no danger in opening in them. 

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 get tons of junk e-mails, you know, the pass around type.  I never read them.  I don't have time and I have no reason to read them.  I am trying to make a living!  My sisters are the worst culprits!  How can I get them to quit forwarding all their junk e-mails to me!  One sister is always asking me "did you read the one about....."  to which I respond, "No, I don't have time to read those things."  She just never catches on.  I don't want to be rude, but it's getting on my nerves!  I know the simple answer would be to just aske them to quit but things are touchy between us and I don't want to antagonize and already less-than-perfect relationship with my sisters.

Thanks!

And if that wasn't bad enough it was chocolate brown.

My blinker knob fell off and I had to shove a pair of tweezers in there to work the blinkers.  I couldn't wear heels or they'd get wedged in the holes in the floor board and one tire had a big bubble in it.

I can't believe I even dared drive that thing.

It was a 1980 Chevette (or as we called it..the Shove It) lol.  When I got it, it was already falling apart, but I didn't care, I was 17 and had wheels.  It had NO power steering, NO power brakes, NO air, NO power at all.  The seat was falling through the bottom, so when you drove, your body was tilted to the left.  The horn didn't BEEP, it MOOed (not kidding).  The speakers were blown so my brother wired a speaker through the front and sat it in the console...lol.  Like I said it was piece of junk but was a lot of fun to drive around and I could fill it up with about $8.00.  A few years later when I was working I bought a Geo Storm and I loved that car.  It was actually a very nice car..but nothing tops the "Shove It."

We're transitioning to an EMR platform called Aria with a god-awful transcription section that is a step backward from the typewriter.  It's largely mouse-dependent, slow (it's through their VPN so there's often a lag on the text) and it doesn't recognize a lot of the hot keys I've utilized in Word for years.  It takes me half again as long to get through a report.  I'm usually busy at least 8 hours a day as it is using Word with most of the people I type - it would take me 12 hours if everyone were on this system right now. 

They've also changed to a "per dictated minute" rate of pay from 65 cpl w/spaces.  It's a generous per-minute rate compared to most places I've worked, and they've stated they don't want anyone losing any money in the transition, but it would take a pretty steep increase in this rate to match what I was making previously.

I'm seriously considering changing jobs, although these guys have been wonderful to work with.  Does anyone out there have any experience with this platform or any tips, websites, etc., that have information on utilizing this POS to its fullest?  Hate to jump ship prematurely - I know what's out there and it ain't purty!  

I don't think there's any cause to get upset or defensive here.  Look it up on line...even colleges are offering courses in Ebonics!  ...well of course they are more sociology-type courses, but still, people are PAYING to learn about the why's and how's of this "other" language.

A quote from one of the sites I found:

"UT-Austin's "Introduction to the Study of African American English," teaches students that the sentence, "Nobody didn't leave" is not "mainstream English with mistakes," but rather a legitimate English dialect. "Ebonics: Myth and Facts" and "African-American English" are both offered at Harvard. Penn and UCLA also promote Ebonics as a legitimate dialect in, "Introduction to African American and Latino English" and "Afro-American Sociolinguistics: Black English," respectively."

Here's the link: http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2002/september_2002_2.html

>>>How darn hard it is to quit.  I have tried everything.  Patches, gum, Wellbutrin, Zyban, cold turkey, etc.

You had the dream, but you didn't have the drive. You have to want it badly enough to stick with it NO MATTER WHAT.

I'm talking from personal experience as a former 2-1/2 pack per day smoker.

Last cigarette was May 6th, 1992. Quit cold turkey.

Think of them as arrows on a number line.

<__5__6__7__8__> 

If the arrow is pointing right, it's greater than.  If the arrow is pointing left, it's less than.  Think L (left) for Less than.

you need to basically double your production in order to break even with what you earned before by transcribing.  And they're doing VR with the better dictators so only the worst dictators are left.  And yes, they overhire, as well.

I'll never go with a national again.  Was the worst experience I ever had.  Give me a smaller company any day.  They seem to treat people better.