This will not help anything!
Posted By: MidwestMT on 2007-08-31
In Reply to: MTs NEED TO UNITE - CMT Ohio
Kind of a day late contributing here, but just saw your post. Take a step back in time: there used to be a breed of clerical-type workers called key punch operators. These dedicated workers took training, had to learn this skill, and it took some practice. It's hayday for this work peaked in the late sixties. It was all the rage to finish high school and get this (stable) and in demand kind of work. Paid about $3-4 an hour. Not bad for that era. Well, these workers too thought they'd never-ever be out of work doing this. Computers were the new sliced bread. Key punch operators used a huge keyboard kind of machine that put in those little notches in the old key punch cards used in early mainframe computers to sort and process data. State of the art. There were millions of these key punch operators working world wide. But, guess what? Who knew! Eventually, they were phased out by folks like Steve Jobs (Apple) and of course Bill G, and others, who came up with better ways to do things, ala the emergence of the desktop computer.
Well, these poor key punch operaters didn't like it, but they didn't go on welfare, they retrained themselves for something else/better. Better technology always eliminates some jobs, but creates new ones too! It's going to happen with this industry too. I don't believe a complete wipe out, and not soon, but it will come about. We're in the last days (years) of what it used to be. In the general industry opinion, we're considered clerical workers--that's it, no matter what label or credential we give ourselves.
So, not unionizing, uniting, or writing senators, governors, doctors, or anyone stops the movement of progress when it comes to better information processing methods. It's the nature of the law of improvement and innovation. I hate to see good work go overseas too, but you know what? There just realistically aren't enough good, capable transcriptionists left in the U.S. who are willing to work this hard, eventually facing burn out, either if you're working for a national service (or even your own accounts) to make a really good living at it. I'm not a naysayer, just realistic.
In my first year as an MT a doctor called me the typing girl. That put me in my place. I thought I was hot stuff! He didn't see it that way at all. And they still don't. I think they appreciate the work, but on the whole none of them gush over how great what we do is--we're a necessary evil, and way too expensive. Just ask a few! Anyway, the other day I heard Bob Dylan's great song from maybe 1963: The Times They are Changing. It's worth a listen. Kind of fits this whole scenario. The lyrics are superb, and a great message and advice. Well, much too long a post, but that's it. Just my 2 cents. Thanks.
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