To me working on a holiday is a premium service and the IC should be compensated anything

above and beyond the call of duty.  I have charged more per line when working a holiday only when it has been specifically requested that I work the holiday.  If I decide to work on a holiday just because I want to catch up or I have free time, I won't charge extra for that.

But if the client asks me to work a holiday because they need coverage, then I will charge a little more per line, usually just a couple of cents more per line.  I don't understand why anyone wouldn't "dream" of doing this.  I've known computer technicians, electricians, plumbers etc. who charge more for after hours calls and holiday calls.  Why should we be any different?

• Do any ICs with their own accounts charge extra for holidays? - tbpmt
  • My contract - spells it out
  • No. Wouldn't dream of it. NM - anna
    • To me working on a holiday is a premium service and the IC should be compensated anything - Tinks
  • No I don't. nm - ICMT

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Unless you are quite computer savvy, it does not pay to just blindly follow advice you may see from MTs who are also computer gurus as to configuring your computer for efficiency.  These so-called efficient programs are not always easily compatible with the platforms services use.  Always call your company's IT help department and ask before making a change.   

For instance, my company uses ExText, and I was not too smart to switch over Mozilla Foxfire.  I'm sure it is a great program for independent MTs who can set up whole systems with their eyes closed, but it has caused some headaches for me in my fairly computer ignorant state. 

Then when my computer got slow I figured it was a virus, so I downloaded this "highly recommended" software, PC Doctor.  Again, I'm sure it's an excellent program, but it disabled all sorts of things on my computer that I need.  And it wasn't even a free program.  Grr.  My IT person told me they use a free program.  Wish I'd done that one instead. 

And to think I do these things to speed my computer up!  I'm such an id-iot.

taking phone calls like orders for things, etc.,  showed very pregnant woman with little kids with phone headset working on computer . Raved about flexibility, own hours, fit her schedule, blah, blah....   Had to be able to work alone, etc., all the work ethics we have to have, and good typist.  Full time, they said pays VERY well, with emphasis on the "very."  I think this woman was making 12-15 an hour, can't remember exactly.  Said there were about 10,000 women doing it and it is the up and coming thing.  Check out the GMA website... I think it was "Women at Work"...... something like that. 

I've read quite a few things in the last few issues of Advance that have given me dyspepsia and even some reflux from time to time complete with a bad taste in my mouth beginning with their article on "globalization of the medical transcription team" which is just a PC way of saying offshoring of American MT jobs.

Listen, I'm all for a system of checks and balances in medical transcription and I am all for credentialling as a way of maintaining quality control in our industry.  Herein lies the rub, if we mandate credentialling, then the MTSOs have to pony up the dough!  Credentials will need to be recognized with more than just a cent more per line.  We need to be on the same playing field as the HIM employee with their RHIT or the CCS credentials. 

But will the MTSOs be willing to do that?  Not when they can pay an Indian MT a fraction of what they pay an American MT.  So if they start mandating credentials, then there should be a mandate on the MTSOs not allowing offshoring.  When everyone is prepared to do that, then they can force me to get my CMT.  Until then, I'm happy being alphabet free!

keep track of and will just be a different department. 

It looks like we will work out details over the next 6 months, talking with community college program directors as well as a few of the distance-learning course leaders to work on the recruiting end.

We will train current staff to mentor if they would like to do so and want to work in the office.

We are still working on production requirements, goals to set, pay, benefits and other fine details but we have 6 months to get it all in place with three months to pull it together after that with a tentative start date of 09/01/06.  We need to build the building as well, although that is already at the blueprint stage in a spot next to our current office. 

We did not want to cause flames and bashing by listing the company name as there are always so many negative people on this site, but we are national with over 200 transcriptionists, located outside of Chicago (40 miles west) and have the best team of transcriptionists around!

We will have an "official" announcement after the first of the new year. 

Thank you for all of your feedback and suggestions!

at my company we don't get paid for holidays either...guess that is the price of being able to work at home....sucks...we can get paid by taking PTO time but I usually just work extra when I know a holiday is coming up, but frankly who wants to work during x-mas time with the hustle and bustle....

I recently began working for a service who only pays for a holiday IF you work that day (compensation of 10 cpl).  However, if you don't work that day, you don't get paid.  I am full time with all full-time benefits.  I realize production pay is entirely different than hourly, but is this common for most transcription companies?  I'm an old transcriptionist, but new to the ways of production pay.  Thanks for any input!

It it a little hard for me to payfor holidays when the accounts don't pay the owner for holidays.  Wish I could for my help but just can't afford it.  I sympathize with you truly.  Guess I could pay a cheaper line rate to them year round and then be about to do it, but that does not seem fair.   It is hard in this business to offer many benefits as we do not get paid unless the work is done,  just like truck drivers, hair stylists, manicurists, etc.

I guess I should have stated that my gals are I/C's and they get 75 to 80% of what I get from the docs on a gross line.  If I charge more to the docs, they will go elsewhere.  They just type and I do all the pick up, delivery, invoicing, etc.  I  also just got hit by the city for my business license which just went up to 3.3% of GROSS receipts BEFORE any expenses.   If your business makes less than $25K you dont have to pay for a business license but if you make $1 over the 25K you have to pay on the entire amount.   So I have to pay this even on the amount that the gals make.  Am not sure I can stay in this for long.  The city is saying that all IC's that make over $25K should pay for a license. 

The orthodox Jewish community celebrates Succoth - harvest feast 5 days after Yom Kippur

http://www.sallys-place.com/food/columns/fiszer/succoth.htm

Anybody out there working today, LABOR DAY? Expected to work the holiday, and guess what, no work! And then when it trickles in, of course the crummy junk bottom of the bucket type which add up to no lines, and getting lots of comments from QA (who is looking for something to do, no doubt).

How about we don't work a holiday, and everyone comes to work Tuesday with stuff to type, everyone makes money?

Bad idea of course, we have to remember the TATs.

Sorry to be so crabby, but thanks for listening to he vent.

Just checked with my Jewish S/O and he said maybe Purim

I just had to post this as it reminds me so much of a lady who posted about her family, saying that they were ungrateful.

I was going to take the Amtrak train to visit my family on Thanksgiving, it's only about an hour on the Amtrak, and about $80.00 for the ticket!  My stepmother says to me that it would be way to much trouble for them to drive the 15 minutes to the station to pick me up, they are having company that day.  My father would spend his whole Thanksgiving day going back and forth to the train station.  But I was welcome to come the day before Thanksgiving and stay until the day after Thanksgiving, that way they could drop me off at the train station when they didn't have company.  Company meaning her children, who have always come first.  So I am supposed to go to their house at an alloted time?  I'll be darned if I'm going to do that.

Now I'll be darned if I am going to pay $80.00 for a train ticket to spend a day with a family with this attitude.  I told them I won't be coming, I haven't had the time to spend 3 days there and have to work, and they said it would be too much trouble to pick me up at the train station on Thanksgiving.  Am I right or wrong in not going on Thanksgiving?  Any opinions?

the only ones with a family or a life.  And yes, when there is a chance to line their pockets, they will be the first to suck the work dry. 

I guess it doesn't matter.   At least I know I'm doing the right thing.  I take breaks and have my family time and everyone understands that is just the nature of the business.   I guess once people quit getting sick at times it is inconvenient for us, we can all take off.

First, thank you to everyone for your thoughts on my kids. I am feeling pretty down today. I think it's compounded by the fact that I really feel the only person in my life who has really thought that I was just the greatest was my dad, and I lost him back in October. I sure miss having someone around who just in his own quiet way lets you know that you are loved.

So, anyway, I thought about the Hallmark holiday comment below, and while you would probably think Mother's Day was one of those (I guess I did), it actually is not. I thought what I found on the holiday was interesting so thought I'd share it with you.

Origin of Mother's Day

In the times of the ancient Greeks, Rhea, the Mother of the Gods, was honored with a special festival. In seventeenth century England, "Mothering Sunday," celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent, honored England's mothers.

Jumping across the ocean, the first observation of a Mother's Day in the United States took place in 1872 when Julia Ward Howe, social reformer and poet who penned the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," suggested a day to honor mothers. This day, which she felt should be dedicated to peace, was celebrated by gatherings that she organized and held in Boston. This tradition spread, and was later organized in other areas of the country as well.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis took Howe's idea a step further and began to campaign for a nationally recognized Mother's Day. In the late nineteenth century, Jarvis's own mother had tried to establish "Mother's Friendship Days" as a way to heal the scars of the Civil War. Persuading her mother's church in Grafton, to celebrate Mother's Day on the anniversary of Jarvis's mother's death - the second Sunday in May - our Mother's Day holiday as it is now celebrated was born. Jarvis also began the tradition of wearing a carnation in honor or memory of our mothers - a coloured carnation if your mother is still living, a white one if she is deceased.

Jarvis's push to make Mother's Day a national event involved letter writing to ministers, politicians and businessmen. By 1911, Mother's Day was being celebrated in almost every state in the country. On 9th of May 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the official proclamation that Mother's Day would be a national holiday to be celebrated annually on the second Sunday in May.

Mother's Day is still celebrated around the world at various times throughout the year. There are some countries, such as Finland, Denmark and Australia that do observe the holiday on the second Sunday in May.