opinion question regarding taking substantial time off

I am so burnt out that I am seriously contemplating just taking the summer off.  Does anyone have any opinions on how this would hurt me come fall and job searching.  I have a job at the present time working IC that I absolutely am not enjoying.  I have tried to give it some time but it has been since November and I have not fallen in love with the job yet. 

I am wondering how will look on a resume in the fall to have a 3- or 4-month gap in my resume.  I have 8 years experience and I am sure I would have no trouble getting back in to it, perhaps with a refreshed attitude?  Has anyone done this, and how was the job search afterwards?

Thanks for any advice. 

• opinion question regarding taking substantial time off - burnt out big time.....sm
  • time off - sm
    • I may be doing the same - Mondaybrain

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to share such good tips with all of us. 

a kind word and encouragement.  I know there are others much worse off and I know too I'll get through this.  This time of year has always been tough for me since my parents died and I've really been working on putting on a happy face for my family despite how I feel, but just couldn't do it today. 

That is good advice, but I don't know if I can give them 30 days notice because another 30 days of them and I'll end up in a padded cell.  I'm thinking more like two weeks, which to me seems fair, especially considering if they found someone else to do the work for less, they wouldn't even give me a day's notice, right?

Thanks again!

I think too many times IC's are treated like employees.  The OP is an IC and has a set schedule?   If you have a set schedule (no freedom), you should be deemed an employee and given PTO days, etc.  IC's should not be made to let anyone know anything.    Two weeks is an extended amount of time and out of courtesy she should let her "client" even if that is an MTSO know in advance that she will not be available to work those two weeks.  As for toting a laptop on vacation, not me!  The whole idea of a vacation is to relax and not have to worry about typing.  Most physicians do understand that you need a vacation.  They will cut you some slack.  Not sure about a two week period though.  Someone with their own accounts that wants to take off extended periods of time (more than one week) should probably find someone to "cover".    I have also found in this profession that transcriptionists do not trust others as they could try to steal their accounts if they were to take time off leaving the account in someone else's hands literally.  All the more reason to network and find someone trustworthy who will scratch your back and you in turn scratch their back when needed.  Tit for TAT so to speak but at a fair price.

I would like opinions from everybody but especially those that have 20+ years experience in MT.  What are your opinions on the Book of Style?

This is my opinion.........I think its a bunch of crap!  Seems to me a few people got together and decided to come up with this BOS and then put it on the market as "the law" of medical transcription. Of course they make money from it.  I have wondered who gave this author or authors the authority that everything they say to do is correct and anything that deviates is incorrect?  

On top of that, every now and then they decide to change it MTs learn this baloney all over again, thus more money for them.  I see so many questions and comments on here about the BOS that it seems to me it has become the
"end all, be all" in the medical transcription profession.  Horse puckey!

I literally have seen companies especially the BIG ONE let excellent MTs get away simply because their test scores were not what the "X" wanted with the reason being a comma here and a comma there when the content was EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!

If I were hiring folks again, that BOS would go out the window and I would take an MT based on their MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION SKILLS!  The preferences for punctuation and other things can be learned on-the-job.  Not all companies think the BOS is the BIBLE of Medical Transcription.  Personally I think BOS is a crock!.

I forgot though, AAMT started all this and they are not AAMT anymore.  That tells me a whole lot too!  Money, money money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really do appreciate it. 

DixieKaye

:

I'd like anyone's opinion on getting started as a new full time MT. 

I am a new stay at home mom with two small children, one 3mo old and a 7yr old.  Until recently, I worked in a hospital/clinic setting for 10+ years.  Having gotten most of my MT experience on the job, I am now looking to trade in corporate america for working full time out of my home. 

I see a lot of job listings that require roughly a 6000 line count weekly quota and they also ask about your preferrd shift.  Currently my level is at half that much, as I was only doing IC work partime for a friend.  Also, when doing IC work, I am used to working around my schedule and not a consecutive 8 hour workshift. 

My questions are (1.) Is 6000 lines/wk the norm for what is out there or are there more flexible companies out there? (2.) Given my current work level of 1500 lines per week, am I doomed to be unemployed if I don't increase my productivity to what I have been seeing lately which is 6000 or if I can't work "shift" work?

we only had one computer so I did all my practice reports on that one.  I had made up a few shortcuts in word and one was *be* for barium enema.  Didn't give it a thought until I was reading a paper my son had written and gotten back from the teacher and the phrase *barium enema* caught my eye.  No remarks from the teacher, so I don't know if she caught it or not.  BTW, the paper was on torture in the Middle Ages, so maybe the whole thing wasn't so far fetched!

I wonder if that is what the Native People said when the white man came and took over their country. 

Goodwill or similar store and taking a tax deduction.  I spent 2 days sorting, cleaning, and pricing items, had name brand children's clothes in like new condition and I made a total of $6.00.   If I paid myself minimum wage for my time I came about about $100.00 in the whole, plus my DH and children helped some.    I have one box that I allow myself for e-bay items, the rest I take to a charity resale store and take a tax credit.  I don't have to sort, price, and it is gone, gone, gone and I feel so much better.   We still have so much clutter in my house and it makes it much harder to clean.  I don't let anyone in my house and I have put off having some repairs done because I have such much clutter.  I'm getting there and not adding to the clutter, but I'm not at the point yet that I can make a definitive decision about some items.  I have several boxes that I label, a trash box, a pieces box for all those game pieces and legos in hopes of trying to complete them, a charity box, a keep box, and the I can't decide box.   I still have way too much stuff that goes in the keep box and the I can't decide box.  I do sort through them again eventually and narrow stuff down, but still can't find a place for some of the things/paperwork and end up throwing them back in the box until next go round.  

I don't do Flylady because I don't have time for all those e-mails and I can't work with shoes on, but I do feel much better when my bed is made and my sink is shiny.   Once a week I have everyone take 15 minutes and go through their rooms with a trash bag, but my DH is the absolute worst and he puts everything in a bag and sticks it in the closest, under the bed, on the bookcase, etc. and never gets rid of anything.   We have VHS movies that he taped junk off TV that is nearly 20 years old.   He has restaurant receipts that are probably 5 years old.   He wants me to just throw all my stuff away, but he isn't willing to throw anything away.