cherry picking

A cherry picker is someone who manipulates the dictation system to give her or himself the better, longer reports or the known good dictators. I am not sure how people do this with at-home and internet based transcription, but when I worked at a hospital people used to check what was coming up on the big Lanier machines and take a break if they saw something bad on the horizon. If you are in a position to assign yourself work, such as a system administrator, you could take the best dictators for yourself, but it is likely if you are new you are not in this position yet.

My advice:  Stay on the good side of your coworkers and do the work that is lined up for you.  

I don't like cherry pickers for whatever reason, but I do know this.  If you hang in with the worst dictators on your account, transcribe them each time they come up, guess what - you get the hang of them and learn them, no matter how difficult they are.  That is what is ignorant about cherry picking to me, taking on the most difficult dictators just gives you an opportunity to learn and conquer no matter how slow going it is at the beginning.  I think if die-hard cherry pickers looked at it as an opportunity to learn, it would stop - I don't like anything or anybody to "whip me", so I do jobs at my company that have been kicked around all over the US for two or three hours, but the cherry picking stops here.

I do know exactly what you are talking about.  And to you other posters who ask, "how do you know"....believe me with some accounts it is very, very obvious unless you live in lallah land!!  I've been going through this cherry picking routine now for about 5 months.  Company hired one new girl who tried for several months but couldn't do the "bad" guys so she was terminated.  Now we have a new "seasoned" MT who is skipping over the same dictators.  The really SAD news is that QA doesn't want her to even try to do those docs because they can't understand them either.  So they are left for me and one other person as we seem to be the only two who can do their work!! 

I've let the "powers that be" know that this really should not be tolerated; they agree but will give her a little more time to "adjust".  Wish I could "adjust" my bills!!!!!  Anyway, smile....things will get better.     

Could someone actually tell me how an at-home worker gets information regarding cherry picking trainees from India and managers getting complaints from hospitals.  I just transcribe for MQ and don't know how one would cherry pick on this platform DQS.  No manager has ever called me to tell me the hospital is complaining about cherry pickers.  No manager has ever sent a memo telling me that the office was being closed because of cherry pickers.  I just transcribe what comes across my screen with no correspondence from managers other than account updates either slow work or bonus times.  I have no idea who else is working on the account, Indian or otherwise. 

How would one go about obtaining all of the information to establish cherry picking or not cherry picking and the nationality of the cherry picker?

Thanks in advance for any answers you can give.  Perhaps I am living in an isolated world and maybe my account is cherry picked and don't know to complain.

Sometimes it's like the game of Monopoly - I'll trade you St Charles Place for Marvin Gardens. You take a couple of choice dictatators in exchange for doing a couple that other people have trouble doing.

Another example is giving a "good show." By that I mean ... there are 20 reports on the system - Two of them are 10 minutes each and the rest are 2 minutes each. You've got two hours to get the work done, so, you do all the small reports. Changes are it'll be the same amount of lines either way, but it's psychological for the client. They think they're getting more work back.

I remember years ago when I worked in a hospital. There was one doctor who sent me screaming from the room (he sounded like a deranged chipmunk). They hired a new gal who had no trouble doing him (she also had a lot more experience than me). She knew I hated him and said, "I'll go him if you let me down so-and-so." You betcha!! We were happy as clams. I got rid of the worst one, and she got to do her favorite one.

The truth of the matter is, I would speak with those in charge and explain the situation. Tell them how you feel (very frustrated). See what they can do/say. If they won't ... personally ... I update my resume and look elsewhere.

Then again, maybe I just have a lower tolerance level than others. 

on one of your accounts, but that was to make up for the lines I lost doing a doctor on another one of your accounts that you didn't want to do because you said you couldn't understand a word he was saying. Well, duh, neither could I the first time I did him. Took me three hours to make 300 lines, thanks to you. Now we're even.

if you get an ESL that you cannot understand, type them anyway the best you can.  If you have to leave blanks, then leave them.  You will get used to the doctor eventually.  (Sometimes I think it will never happen with some!)  Also, if you send the same doctor in enough with blanks, they will usually send you samples or maybe the doctor might start actually speaking BETTER if enough MTs are having issues and send him in to QA often enough.  The cherry pickers are hurting themselves in the long run.  If the same MTs keep getting them and doing well because they are used to them, then they will not get sent to QA. 

Take as many different worktypes as  you can and as many different doctors as you can, it will benefit you in the long run, make  you more flexible. 

I HATE IT!  So unfair.

Hey all, anyone got any suggestions for picking a word expander?  I really need a good one.  I have been working without one and realize that I am severely limiting myself?  Just started working on a couple of small acounts this year.  I am very new and don't want to spend money where I don' t need to.  Thanks

My sister and I are expanding as the clinics are adding more dictators.  We were using Straight Talk, but this is limited to two dictators and one remote MT.  We need to go for more lines now.  We are trying to find the easiest system to use that is also very VERY reasonably priced as we do not have a lot of money to put out right now.  Would like suggests from anyone that has used different systems as to how many can call in, and how many can transcribe simultanesously and what the unit is called, pricing, that type of information.  We need to do this, but need to make an informed decision, rational, not just jump in. Need something that will be more useful than these were for about 1 year...now looking again...

Any suggests greatly appreciated

Tiffin

a 40-lb tub of cat litter!  For that matter, I lift a lot of things around the house...I just didn't know.  Then I really noticed it after being off for a weekend, when I got back to transcribing.  I felt like using the mouse exacerbated it.  Today (Wed) I have been taking ibuprofen and used heat, and it feels better.  I'm going to use caution with it and see how it goes.  It is probably like bursitis I had in the past, where you just have to wait for the inflammation to decrease.  Hope this helps -

When someone makes a point about family medical history going onto a child's records and possibly preventing that child from obtaining health or life insurance in the future, you start talking about identity theft, which is NOT the topic that person is talking about.

When someone talks about identity theft, THEN you start talking about how giving medical information about deceased family members could not possibly contribute to identity theft.

Stay on topic. Quit dancing around the point. Stop making vague statements about people being "paranoid" and "scared". Many posters in this thread have gone out of their way to explain exactly WHY they feel the way they do and do the things they do, yet you completely ignore that and say they lack common sense. You have absolutely NO rational basis for your arguments. They are all based on your OPINION that people are too paranoid.

When you can come up with some solid REASONS why people shouldn't be cautious with their personal information, maybe someone will be willing to listen to you. But that hasn't happened yet, and I'm not holding my breath.