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You're right, i spend way too much time on this board when should be working, I am just so burned

Posted By: just chilling on 2008-10-24
In Reply to: ok, I apologize. I do sympathize with and understand with you seansoned MTs but...sm - Tracey

NM


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If you will spend some time reading the company board

you'll see that the industry is more volitile than ever.  Work is being offshored to India and other countries and the garbage is left for the US MT.  Companies are going to VR.  Pay is low, you can expect to make 9 to 10 cpl average as an employee, maybe up to 11 cpl as an independent contractor.  A lot of companies cannot provide steady work and insurance is very expensive. 


I would not recommend leaving your job to pursue MT full-time.  Most companies want the experience to be current, within the last 2 years, so you could potentially have some issues with being 3 years out.


I would suggest trying it part-time to get a feel for how things are before you decide. 


 


You're working to make money, not to spend money.
These people should be ashamed of themselves taking advantage of people this way!
You're not losing it, you're burned out on your main job.
I feel for you... I am having my own "version" ;-) of these kinds of struggles. Lots of recent changes at the admin level have made my job do a 180, going from a really great one to a really crappy one.

For me, it's a struggle to get through the day with a shred of motivation. I get distracted in the way you discuss as well.

I just try to make my environment as comfortable as possible and make the best of it while I decide what the best way is to deal with the burnout... I figure if I can't change my inner brain workings so that I still like this job, I need to find another one, or this feeling will possibly get worse!

I hope it works out for you. Wish I had some better advice for you, but this really does look like burnout and extreme job dissatisfaction to me. We all wear it differently. Try to be good to yourself while you figure out a solution.


if you're female spend the day at the spa...S/M
did this recently in PA at the Athletic Club and it was fabulous - 1-1/2 hour deep heat stone massages, hair colored and/or just done up, manicures, pedicures - just a special day for the women in honor of the Moms for birthday, Mother's Day, whatever reason....quality time with Mom.....never do really need a special occasion to do this either. 
Don't spend a lot of time initially trying to get

a blank.  After you complete the dictation go back and relisten to see if you can fill in the blanks.  When I get a new ESL dictator it sometimes takes me a while to get his accent so I don't spend a lot of time trying to fill in the blanks initially.  Usually by the end of the report I have gotten the accent and can fill in most blanks.   I also have the experience to know what the blank should be in most cases, and that also helps me fill in.   If you get QA files back make copies of them and start your a notebook.  If you have the ability to relisten to files after they have been signed off when you get QA back relisten to the dictation and see if you can hear the blanks then.   When I first started doing ESLs I was so stressed because they were hard and I left a lot of blanks and I just don't normally leave blanks.  After getting QA back and relistening it seemed so clear what they were saying and I couldn't believe I had struggled so much. 


 


I spend more time out of my chair than in
nm
lol, don't blame you...I used to spend so much time
searching for sample reports, listening over and over, trying to make sense of some speedy English-speaking (incoherent, actually speaking half words and tripping over their words and stuttering because they go so fast) docs. This is a legal medical document, doc, treat it like one! And in my opinion, too many MTs and QA that try to interpret the gibberish often make more of a mess because you just can't be 100% sure in cases like these and better off leaving it blank so as to avoid the lawsuits. Don't ya think? ;)
So how much do you make for the time you spend
*Enquiring minds*, and all....
How much time are you willing to spend testing?
I'm not willing to spend more than 30 minutes or so testing for a company.  I've seen a few that are well over an hour. 
try to convince DH that now is not the time to spend...I think he's in denial...nm
nm
Maybe if you spend more time honing your skills and
x
ADHD is bull. Just maybe try to spend some time
working with her (not pushing her but just introducing new things). I am sick to death of the ADD/ADHD diagnosis of kids. I do not believe in it. Some kids DO have a little harder time adjusting to school and again there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Just talk to them every day, help them in any way you can but most importantly be there for them no matter what. It will all work itself out but DO NOT stress yourself out over what some teacher says. Most of the time they are wrong and can be proven wrong. I am a teacher, although I teach adults/teenagers in college and really..... I truly believe elementary teachers try to make it easier on themselves rather than try to work with a child that needs it.
Yeah I used to spend time carefully (sm)
crafting tactful feedback only to realize later that the MT had apparently not read it, deleted it, tossed it, whatever. You get to where you hear the same old excuses time and again and you realize that some people just don't care.

Another poster made the comment on how she didn't want someone to mother her; well, a lot of the MTs I worked with apparently did. They wanted me to be like a longsuffering mother and overlook their mistakes, take their excuses over and over and over again and offer tea and sympathy. They would repeatedly not write down what I told them, not look in reference books ("oh, I forgot you said to look there") ad nauseam.

So you get to the point where you're just sending to-the-point messages and you quit handholding. And then some people get angry because you're not "nice." Can't win for losing.
RAMS football, spend time with 10-mo old grandson

Yes, it is opening day for football in St. Louis, fall is right around the corner. 


My grandson is at that handful stage, hard to get anything done with him around but I volunteered to babysit while his parents are out Saturday night. Hope to squeeze in a few hours Sat and Sun for work as well.


Without starting a war, how much time is reasonable to spend on reasearch (sm)
when paid by the minute?

I have access to the patient's electronic chart and often use this as a tool to look up doctor names, diagnoses, etc. Often, these charts go back for years. Documents are both scanned into the patient's chart by the physician's office(a 5-page stress test would be 5 separate scanned entries) and typed directly into the patient's chart (a 5-page document would be 1 entry).

We are paid by the minute, no matter how fast or slow the doctor talks. So, if they manage to speed talk, not take a breath, and slur an entire H&P into a 1-minute report, we get paid for a minute's worth of work regardless of typing time.

Having given the above information, what would you consider a reasonable amount of time to spend on research,i.e., looking up "Dr. Smith" with no first name and no specialty or indication why the patient saw "Dr. Smith", or things of that nature.

(I've got my fingers crossed that this does NOT start any type of MT versus QA argument!!!)

Thanks.
CuriousMT

I personally will NOT spend too much time looking for a word. I listen 3-5 times if I still don'

it goes to the QA.  I am getting paid 5-8cpl, depending upon the account, as an IC and don't have the time to spend too long looking.  If I can't find something in 15 minutes I'm done.  If I got paid more I might take more time to look, but at these line rates no WAY!


I also get no feedback from QA, or very rarely.  We have one QA who is rude and puts down the MTs at every turn.  It isn't easy for the MT either.  If you aren't even listening to the dictation how do you even know WHY the MT didn't get the word, maybe the doctor is a total mush mouth and our ears are bleeding by the time we got to that word. 


I spend a good deal of time tweaking the ones in there so ummm, may give it a shot lol
dd
you have no time to switch from board to board? how can you have time to look for the drug?
x
It's not funny when you're on a board where language is one skill you're selling.
.
Not anymore. For some time now, I've been working 32 hours and am considered full time to receive
p
Working full time at home with small children is hard but part time works great
is almost impossible. You will either have to work when your spouse is home or for only a few hours during the day and then more when they are asleep. I work part time at home and my kids (2&5 now) have done very, very well. They are great kids, very well behaved, don't get into much. I stop working to check on them/give them some attention every hour or so while I work (5 hours each afternoon or so) and they get all my attention in the morning and at night. It has worked out beautifully for us.
They're still working on that...nm
ss

You're working against us, then.
?????
You better stop working for yourself then because you're the one
who started all the sniping and rudeness with your sweeping generalizations.  If trying to hire a good MT has you that frustrated, maybe you shouldn't be in management.  There are plenty of negative people out there who don't have what it takes to run a company.
Well, if you're working in Word
you can use that Word Count and do the math yourself, or there is Abacus.  I don't know of any free line counting programs.  I work in Word and just use the tools in word to count lines.  You highlight the document and count it that way through the tools menu.
They're talking about working for sm
a company doing VR, not doing VR on their own.  Those are the "editing" jobs you see. 
Does anyone else feel like you're always working
i feel like i'm typing constantly!! my whole life is type type type type type
do you ever find yourself "editing" when you're not working? sm
I find myself, like when I'm reading a menu or magazine, newspaper, etc, always finding the grammer errors, punctuation errors, spelling errors, and it drives me--not to mention my DH--nuts! I guess it's out of habit, but I can't seem to turn the "editor" in me off!  I'm always, instead of enjoying the story or article, or whatever I'm reading, looking for errors or typo's.  Does anyone else ever do this? I guess I'm obsessive/compulsive.  Think I could get work comp for that?
Nine cents is fine if you're working for someone else. sm
But, not so good if the account is your own. :)
We're working on the website for better optimization.
/
I assume you're working in Word?
Did you record the Find & Replace macro? You'd get more help if you posted your macro code so we can see where the glitch might be.
Misha, you're almost working for free--
--doing this. There are many general transcription companies that pay real money. I know, because I work for a couple. General transcription is a real industry with real people supporting families with their income. Whoever is paying this low a wage is LAUGHING at your gullibility.
Are you sure you're on the right board. Those
things are usually discussed on the company board, not the main one. 
Go to bed. Get off the thread. You're tired alright. Looks like you have been working
all day trying to defend MQ. Get some rest. When's second shift coming to relieve you. Hope they have something more original to say. RIGHT? Whoops, my caps are starting to run away with me and I can't stop myself...... I have been reading too many of the multiple personality CAP person's posts. HELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPP
...to change the magnification of your page. If you're working in
s
Works perfectly. Just keep it minimized while you're working. nm
s
There's a quick way of doing this if you're working with Express Scribe.

I found it in their Knowledge Base.



  1. Go to the Settings window and select Control tab.

  2. Click the ADd button under the "System Wide Hote Key Assignment" heading (at the bottom).

  3. Now press the key conbimation that you will use for the command (e.g. Ctrl+G) and then select the "Copy Time" option from the dropdown list.

  4. Click the OK.

When you need to add the time hit your new command (Ctrl+G) to copy the time from ES and then Ctrl+V to paste it in the desired location.


Hope this is helpful!


Why isn't part time not working for you?

Hope you don't mind my asking why Spheris part time is not working out for you?  Thanks.  Just want to know what I could be getting into.


Will soon be working in Word for the first time sm

and I was going to use Shortcut, but do I need to?  Would the auto-correct feature of Word work just the same, or is there an advantage to using Shortcut?  I am an old PRD+ user, and am now using Bayscribe, which uses an Expander similar to PRD, so now am having to evaluate options.



Thanks for your input.


Too much time usually spent working (sm)
Like the saying goes, "How many people at the end of their lives say, "I wish I had spent more time working."  NOT - being with those who mean the most to us more important, of course.
Thank you so much...I got it working now! I appreciate your taking the time to help out. nm
nm
If you spent some time working instead of
you might make some of that money that you find so elusive.  All you are trying to do is stir up trouble.  I dislike AAMT as much as the next person.  I am an MT myself first, and MTSO only because I have more work than I can handle myself.  I get 14/15 cpl.  That's it.  I know in your dreams you think MTSOs are making so much more and getting rich.  I am telling you it's not true.  Maybe Medquist is getting rich, but I'm not and neither are any of the other small MTSOs I know of. 
working two jobs at same time
Okay, this may be a strange question - but here goes...  Does anybody work two different jobs, are clocked in at the same time with both?   For instance, two different companies, two different computers, clock in with both jobs at the same time, do a couple of documents with one, go to other job and do a couple of jobs, and so on...? 
I now am only working part-time but
in the past many jobs and mostly had 2 until I married my knight in shining armour. Now I am a part-timer after having worked over 20+ years at 2 really full time jobs.
I love getting up and working at that time.
It was the only time that I could actually concentrate and have quiet time in my  house.  I have a 3-year-old son and grandkids that lived with me a couple of months ago...it was hard to try to work while everyone was doing their daily thing.  So, I just started getting up and 4 a.m. was a good time.  I would stop around 8 and get my mom/son's breakfast ready and get them situated. After that I could go back to work until I was through, taking breaks in between.  I prefer the 4 a.m. thing...it works for me.  You will have to find what works for you and I am sure that you will.
Because you're all over this board today
on a beautiful Sunday attacking all the "bitter" MTs with bad attitudes.  However, you are the epitome of bitterness.  You're starting arguments and justifying your own bad behavior.  Have you ever heard the saying that when you're angry at someone, you're really angry at yourself?  Are you having a bad day, hon?  Home life got you down?  Stressed out?  All alone and lonely?  Do you just need a hug?  We're here for you if you'd like to open up about what's really bothering you. 
it seems like you're killing THIS board.

You're on the wrong board!
This particular board is for medical transcriptionists, so we can't help you. Sorry!
they're messing with the board.
again
Me, too. I told my kids that since they're not in school and I'm working two jobs
just to try to keep the utilities on, they get to do chores. Don't even get me started on holiday stress. My extended family sent me gift cards, so I'm using those to buy for the kids. I even offered to pay them $5 an hour for cleaning so they'd have Christmas money. Instead, what are they doing? Watching TV in their pajamas still. That's OK. I'm about to go unplug all the electronics in the house and give them a big chore list with NO pay.
I hate when companies treat us like we're working for pin money

Am I supposed to be happy when a company only gives me 200 or 300 lines a day when they promise you a certain amount (that is higher than that)? How would the company employees (not us lowly transcriptionists) feel if the company told them that they were only getting paid 100 dollars this pay period, that there wasn't enough work. Not enough to pay bills and keep food on the table, just pin money.


Sheesh.