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people skills

Posted By: desertblossom on 2005-11-05
In Reply to: My people skills are just fine. I just want to hire people who want to work. - Not think it's a cake walk (sm)

I beg to differ. I agree with the OP - your post was rude and condescending. I see no evidence of people skills in anything you wrote or in the "tone" of your post.

Also, your reply had nothing to do with her post. She was sharing good news about a hiring phase going on right now. Too bad you are so miserable that you cannot even recognize when one human being is sharing good news with others.

From what I have seen and experienced with MTSOs in the last 2 years (28 years in this business), there are many owners, managers and supervisors with no clue about how to deal with their employees.

SO, maybe you are the one who needs to find another business.


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My people skills are just fine. I just want to hire people who want to work.
I've not been ugly, I've asked questions, legitimate ones.  Please tell me what is wrong with that.  This site is not just for MTs, it is for QA Editors, Supervisors, Service Owners, there's even sections for Billers, Coders, and Nurses.   
The people who hate QA are the ones with bad skills and cannot type for nothing!
Maybe these people should learn how to bring their scores up instead of thinking their mistakes are right!
With your people skills, you'll stay unemployed. nm
x
Looking to upgrade skills, though sm

just for personal reasons, as I'm still working, etc.  I see Medword has a 9 specialty CD set for $269, and of course there is the SUM Advanced package but that's $840.  My goal is to be more employable by just broadening my skills as I've only been doing ER and clinic for years (going on 10); however, I'm certainly not made of money!  ;)  Do you think the Medword one would be okay or a waste of money?  I've heard great things about the SUM program but do you think it's really necessary?


Thanks for your thoughts!


I hope your MT skills



This is where your skills really come into play.
It will drive you mad if you let it.  Sometimes even the doctor is unfamiliar with the med especially specialists.  I have found that on an occasional basis. 
$$ should have nothing to do with your skills and conscientiousness. (sm)
you sound like one of the ones who is relatively new to the field (within the last 10 years) who pumps out reports, doesn't spell correctly, and doesn't like being corrected.  Am I right?
Gap in spelling skills, too.
I have noted that misspelled words are everywhere; spelling skills are apparently no longer valued (and I'm talking people with advanced degrees with atrocious spelling and grammar).  I need to go to the dentist and get some teeth fixed from clenching my jaws so tightly whenever a doctor says things like "he itched himself".
not too sure of skills, need advice

Just wondering if any of you have experienced a lot of "knocks" starting out in transcription.  I took an at-home course in 98 and finally got hired in 2000 and trained in office for 8 months.  I worked at home for about 3 months then my husband divorced me.  I continued to work in the medical field for the next 4 years, doing work in a hospital that included med term and typing with 98% accuracy or actual transcription.  My problem is when I find a job my feedback is that I am leaving little words out, or not paying close enought attention to detail.  What can I do to improve this?  the only thing I can think of is just keep practicing but I can't keep an actual transcripton job long enough!  What do I do? 


Looking to strengthen skills...
I have been in the field for 7 years with the same account (IM and Family Practice.)  Looking to strengthen my skills.  The areas I feel I need improvement in are grammer, proofing (something I have done very little of), and a stronger understanding of terminology.  If you have any advice on where to go from here.  I do not need a full transcription course, but does anyone offer a "refresher" and/or practice dictation in different specialties.  Thanks so much!!   
What if you were an LPN with not so hot typing skills?
Would that duty still be required of you?  Sounds like you are not that busy as an LPN.  Small office?  This was not in your original job description?  I would ask about a pay increase along with the duty increase.
thanks...just knowing there are others, same age bracket, skills, etc...does help...
like you, I LOVE this job, and actually chose it - not the other way around. Fortunately, it has not cost me anything, really, like the other poster mentioned; but I too am scared.

It is always upsetting when you life changes because of things out of your control...at our age, we are from the times when people had one job until they retired. I know that is history, but man, this way is ridiculous. Flying from job to job, no continuity, no structure. What good can come of this anyway.

like the other poster mentioned, who cares about us anyway, really. the rich only care about getting richer, and that crap about giving the tax cuts to the rich and they will 'share it' - what a bunch of fools we have been.

thanks for sharing!
Advice on expanding my skills..

If I  want to specialize in Orthopedic or Cardiology or some other specialty, what is the best way to do this?  I currently only do ER.


Would I  have to enroll in an on-line school or can I just use practice tapes? 


Any advice is appreciated!!


Need fast skills update
Need books/tapes to upgrade skills to do acute care work. Any advice on materials I can purchase. Going back to school is not an option right now.
Test your typing skills
http://www.arcadespot.net/play-1126.html
If your DD has previous skills she can post
resume on the on-line sites like monster.com.   There are few jobs that are legit.  If they require $$ upfront you can bet they are a scam. 
A board to discuss how MT skills can
be transitioned into another line of work couldn't hurt. No matter how secure any job or profession appears to be, the situation can change at any time. That is the reality of the workplace with mergers, technology, etc.

One of the the worst career management errors is to become complacent. I can look back on seventeen years in this profession. It has changed, and not to our advantage. I can't predict the future, but it would be naive not to at least consider other options.
Just good parenting skills -nm
m
If you are confident of your skills, testing
x
if you live among trashy people, low income people, people w/o goals or direction,
content to just get by, you by default become a part of a group. "people" have decided to group trailer people as trash. that is because there are enough people in that group to earn the title and even if you aren't trash, you are categorized by others. did i think i was trash in lower class neighborhood surrounded by people who drank and fought all weekend? no but i knew i wasn't staying and did not try to pretend that all the fools in the neighborhood were just nice folks who ended up where they were because high horse snobs deemed their neighborhood low class. people for the most part live exactly where they belong because they don't want to educate themselves, they don't mind "trash" around them and they don't want to be bothered trying just a bit hard to extract themselves from that world. they justify everything to themselves i guess saying everyone who doesn't like their lifestyle is a snob and the comedians (Jeff Foxworthy/Chris Rock, etc) who make fun of them are just ill-informed.

As for me, I fought hard to get out and don't even want to look back. It amazes me people stay for generations.
Maybe if you spend more time honing your skills and
x
She fears because of her own lack of transcription skills, sm
not because the ESL doctors do not give good patient care.  If you are not up to the job of transcribing the reports, then you should not try to do it.  But do not blame poor patient care on the ESL doctors.
Good research skills the best skill an MT
x
Your account is too easy for your skills would be my thought.
For instance, you are making very good money easily while other MTs may be on a more difficult account and making less. You may one day be looked at as a person to move into another more challenging account to keep you in the curve of pay for MTs. That would be fair, actually, when you think about it.
failed skills test for national sm

Hi all.  I have been an MT for 10 years and took a skills test for a national and FAILED. 


Oh my goodness, talk about a slap in the face!  All I know is they require 90% accuracy and apparently I failed that. 


It has me questioning my skills at this point.  PLEASE tell me others of you have had this problem!


 


Thanks


low level, low income, low education, low coping skills.
birds of a feather flock together FOR THE MOST PART.  why don't rich people move to trailer parks?  the mentality.  why do low income people stay low income?  no education.  why no education?  no forward thinking as to why some people can make money and others don't.  sorry if you don't like it, but stats don't lie.  do a google search.  there are certain neighborhoods that have income levels, education levels, crime rates.  these low income housing units, trailer park, section 8, apartments that do not require credit checks have higher crime rates, lower education levels and lower incomes.  google will answer all your questions regarding stats.  why do you think some neighborhoods are more valuable than others?  where i live the same house could be in one neighborhood and be more valuable than a house sitting in another neighborhood that is zoned for trailer parks.  why is that?  go figure.
Absolutely! Wonderful hobby and your skills will only improve.
I started knitting, quit for a year when I got discouraged because I couldn't fix my mistakes easily, then went back, determined to learn the craft. For me, what was wonderful was when I automatically could recognize what was right and wrong, and fix it easily. Now, I have more yarn than I could ever use, and more projects started than I'll ever finish. It's a lifetime hobby. There'll never be enough yarn.
I started MT to gain skills to eventually work....sm

outside my home. I was working another small business from home too and had been home for 13 years total. My MT skills got me a job as a secretary for the Army. My first position didn't pay a lot, but it was still about $3.50 more an hour than I could find anywhere else locally. In August 2006, with promotions etc., I will have had total increases in salary of 45% in two years. My next move is to start taking some college courses (which my employer will pay for) and applying for positions with a more defined career field. Having a hard time figuring out which field, as I have a lot of options/opportunity.


Working from home served a huge purpose, but since DH is also self-employed, my current job adds a lot of security to our family in terms of health/life insurance, retirement, paid vacations, etc. I added up the cost of all my paid benefits vs. paying out of pocket as an independent contractor, and they were worth another 35 - 40% of my salary, which will increase once I start taking college classes.


If you are not looking in the medical field, gear your resume towards your other skills. MTs have a myriad of skills (research, computer, organizational, listening, following instructions, bookkeeping). If you are an independent contractor, you are more than an MT, you are a small business owner, which puts a host of additional skills on your plate. Get creative and look at some on-line resumes in different fields, you will probably be surprised how many skills you have. 


When I decided to look for a job, I researched all the highest paying companies/opportunities within the distance I was willing to travel and only applied to those companies. It took about a year and a few interviews, but I eventually got exactly what I was looking for. I still get calls from some of the places I interviewed/applied offering jobs.  


I think one reason MTs find it hard to have diverse skills (s/m)
is that for all these years we have been pigeonholed into just one specialty - typing medical reports. When I started MT at my organization, we had a variety of duties. Now we just sit and type. Interestingly, the few who got promotions within or out of the MT department were the ones who weren't too smart, and not very good MTs. The good MTs were kept where they were needed - doing transcription work only. And the smart ones are considered a threat to management, so they have no hope of ever advancing.

I've been to night school to try to broaden my computer skills, and the community college system is totally not on the cutting edge. Everytime I learned something useful, it became obsolete before we could ever implment it in our workplace.

I've looked into changing fields, and one of the big stumbling blocks is all the prerequisites for just about any field of study. Many of them involve the math & science classes I was steered away from due to my gender. (This was the 60s, remember... it was still legal to discriminate back then.) I looked into training as a veterinary technician, and working full-time and going to night school, getting all the classes in that I missed in high school was going to eat up about 4-5 years. It would probably take even longer to get into the vet-tech program. By the time I graduated, I would probably be in my early 70's. What veterinary hospital is going to want to hire a 70 year old newbie who will either retire or die before she's even learned the ropes at the new job?

Meanwhile, what ticks me off is that MT's are expected to have a very broad knowledge of English, medical terminology and computers, and be whiz-bang typists as well. And yet the same people that want speed, accuracy and experience, don't want to pay squat for it.
Dictators/Docs should be rated on their dictation skills!
I get so tired of hearing how hard everyone thinks it's up to the MT to keep trying to decipher poor dictation--that the CMT credential would actually help with that! I have a feeling most MTs probably wouldn't do better/worse if the had the CMT credential. I'm convinced most of us do just fine without a CMT credential if you could just understand many of the darned docs with their poor dictation techniques. How about if they were rated based on their dictation competency! Would it help if we could classify the ones that dictate with speeds like a runaway train, their poor sentence structure, ESL language incompetencies, slurring, mumbling, chewing, etc., so even a marginally competent MT could get the a document transcribed. That's where they should put the onus of responsibility for getting better quality work. My thoughts.
Sounds like a great way to use the skills you already have, but you have a real career with a future
x
Would state you are a fast learner with good computer skills
and able to pick up things quickly once you are shown. Good luck!!
Valuable post, thanks. MT plus Skills Upgrade minus Complaining = Dollars. NM
x
Yeah, we have no skills or intelligence whatsoever. We just fill in blanks! Geez! A monkey can le

Is that all you do, type?  It's not all I do either.  I have to know what I'm talking about, apparently you don't because you can just leave blanks!


so many people was wishy-washy nowadays...love to see people make
a stand for what they believe in...

it is kind of wierd those statements have to be made in the first place but guess we are an ever-transitioning country and are still young. so many different beliefs yet not much tolerance.

I found your post respectful, and right on as to how you feel. it does not seem that difficult to sift through to read and respond to messages someone might not care for...
Just remember that it is not the people on this board who short changed their people and ONLY after
caught did they (after they were suied) make an effort to look good by sending out these checks. Now, think about this--had they done this many years ago when they short changed everyone, that would have been honest. Does it not bother you that only after they know they are under the gun that they are doing this to try and make themselves look good?

I used to work for MQ and I used to like what I did. I never can say I really liked the people that I worked with, but I really think they had some of the best accounts that I have ever come across in the MT industry. I loved working the major teaching hospitals that I did, but that certainly does not mean that I enjoyed being cheated out of pay.

So chill already. People have been cheated, were lied to, and only AFTER they got caught have they tried to return some of the money they robbed us of (as well as cheated their clients).

We all have reasons not to be happy with this company and you go off on us because we are complaining of things like small refund checks of a penny or a few cents or a few hundred dollars and NO WAY to even check to find out if this is correct?

I am sorry you are unhappy all of us thinking that there is still a dead rat in the cellar, but there is still a dead rat in the cellar and nothing will bring the dead rat back.

I would hold no love for a company that I know willingly cheated the very people who helped THEM make money out of their hard-earned money.

Go take a deep breath and think about that.
rude people? I would take good pay over polite people any day
Besides that they have never been rude to me and I have been here for almost 2 years. What do you consider a bad account?

I know my account is a little tough, but I am used to it. I am tough!
Rude people? I hardly think so. They are some of the nicest people I have ever worked with. sm
Not just management, but QA as well. No one is rude. They are a very understanding staff. There is one account that is hard but all it takes is getting used to it. Once you are used to it, it is no harder than any other ESL account that you would do anyplace else. I have heard all these things about TH from the archives and I have yet to come across rudeness or any kind of thing that I have read about in the archives. I would definitely pursue them if I were you. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
2 people to do that amount of work, is she nuts? More like 20+ people - nm
x
Certain people getting raises, certain people not. Guess who is?
Say what you will about unions, the good and the bad. But, one thing they did ensure is a raise, good benefits and that you would have a job in the morning.


Yeah right, OF COURSE! How could there be other people who don't like QA people?
Could only be one.   Hahaha.  Dream on.
I agree, some people will never get it but, then again, what does it say about them as people? Not

.


I don't like people
nm
Just so happens there ARE some people who
CAN really produce and NOT cherrypick. GEESH.

Problems come from working with stinky attitudes like yours.
The people....
Did you ever think that what you take as politeness might just be their poor language skills?

Why don't you go over to India and live for awhile - they have half of our MT jobs so you should be able to find work (Healthscribe, Medware). Then, tell us how polite they are.

People are people - just because they live in another culture doesn't make them any better than us or any worse than us. It is the job, working with the public, that wears people down eventually. It is particularly easy to be rude over the phone.
There are people who don't know better, there are people

who need to be at home for whatever reason, a chronic illness, kids, caregiver to sick parents, etc.  Any job is better than no job if you need to eat.  


If there were enough decent paying jobs with honest companies no one would work for the low paying, dishonest companies.  So far I have turned down jobs with MQ because of their actions, quit a job with SS because it is a lowsy company, I have turned down 2 positions with companies that offshore.  Fortunately I got on with a company that paid a decent wage and one that doesn't offshore, though it isn't the great company that it used to be either, but it is a living. 


try something most people have a
problem with and your worth increases .. neurology and ophthalmology for instance.  Most people are afraid of the eye .. wonderful once it becomes second nature.  Oncology is another sought after skill, but takes a lot of work.  Also you might contact M-Tec to take their class in neuro or OAK Horizons .. they are both very good.
That people such as yourself
would quit airing your dirty laundry and asking for advise - and then get all pissy when people give their opinion. After all, that is what you were after right? This is MT Stars, this is NOT a military advice column or posting board. When you open yourself up on a public forum, then be prepared for what follows.

Personally, I think anyone who signs up to defend the country and then turns his back on his duty is HEARTLESS.

The military makes your obligations and consequences VERY clear.
Sure some people do need help..(sm)

The below is an e-mail that I got from a lady who lives in Houston.  These are her observations only, but it sure does make you think about all of the self-righteous out there who really don't understand another person's hesitation in taking many of the people in to our communities.  Some of them come from a whole different kind of mentality.


 


Well...

 

I feel sorry for these people - they have lost everything - they have nothing. I blame their own government at least a bit for not evacuating the ones that were too poor or had no way to evacuate.

 

That being said, it isn't going as well here as the media makes it out to be. Anthony has been down the to the Astrodome as required by the Fire Department, and I went down on Saturday with a friend of mine.

 

The Astrodome holds around 50,000 people - and there aren't that many evacuees down there. There are bathroom facilities, but these people are squatting on the streets, parking lots, and lawns of places down around the astrodome and leaving behind urine and fecal matter. They are throwing trash wherever they are when they finish with it, and quite a few act like we "owe" them something. I can't tell you how many people were bitching about the MRE's that they were being served.

 

As high as gas prices are, I will go out of my way not to have to drive by the Astrodome (my RE's office is about 1 mile from the dome). When you stop at a stop light they come up to your car and beg - and knock on the windows. There have even been reports of some jumping in the backs of pickups and even scratching cars and trucks with knives, if you don't give them money.

 

I know that there are some good people out there, but there are a lot of bad ones too. There are some that were appreciative of the baby formula (breastfeeders - please don't jump on me here) and diapers and coloring books that we were handing out - and some that were bitching about the brand of diapers, the fact that we were only authorized to give out one can of formula per child and that we didn't have a certain kind of bottles. I even had people that refused to take gift cards from Grocery Stores - wanting money instead.

Last night, one of the evacuees was able to score some alcohol somewhere, got drunk and carjacked a car and ran into several parked cars - the police were able to pull him over after a 15 minute chase.

 

And I can't get over the smell of raw sewage in the area of town that most of the evacuees are housed. The plumbing in the toilets are working just fine - but they aren't using it. They are trashing the place.

 

I can't imagine what it must be like for them, having nothing but the clothes on their backs - but I think I would be more appreciative of whatever someone could do for me, instead of griping about what kind of bottles they were giving me to feed my kids with, and that the MRE's were cold.

 

I really have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I feel sorry for the people who couldn't leave, and got stuck in the chaos. I don't have as much sympathy for the ones who could have left, but didn't want to.

 

I am sure I sound like a cold, callous, b****, but I was absolutely amazed at the attitude of most of the evacuees that I was in contact with on Saturday.

Some people believe anything

Evacuees are NOT trashing the Astrodome! You people choose to believe anything. There are enough cameras around the Dome to show how residents are reacting. Security is very tight and strict there right now! As far as "sorry people" that were evacuated, you do NOT know their situation NOR their minds and hearts. My brother was one of the evacuees. He was a student at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He lived in Orleans parish just blocks from Ward 9. Most of Ward 9 are very poor people, handicapped and disabled, and yes there are some drug addicts and lawbreakers there. But I bet if you would look in your own neighborhood you would find them there yourself! Some people, if you could crawl out of your own self-righteous world, do not choose to be in the financial shape they are in. Let's see here, I live in NE Mississippi and people's financial status in this community is very poor. Why? Is it because we have women having babies at 15 and no daddies and no desire to better theirselves? NO! It's because our lovely government signed NAFTA and allowed all our manufacturing jobs to be taken away. So what happens to the people? They fall in the cracks!


 


Back to New Orleans. Let me tell you all about the wanting certain things to be donated. A evacuee does not EVEN get to choose what they want. How assinine of you! Do you think they just sit on the streets and wait for handouts? NO! They have to get passes to even leave the Astrodome or any other shelter. It is the Red Cross that is not taking clothing donations and asking for particular donations. My brother went to the Red Cross to get assistance and was told unless they were living in a shelter, they could not help them at this time. Where is the justice in that? We took clothing to the shelter here in MS and was told to take it back home because they didn't have the time to sort through it. They said that was the job of the Salvation Army. ALSO, our area churches wanted to adopt families and take care of them. Out of 300 families, 50 were given homes to stay in. Last Thursday, we were told by the Red Cross unless we could take them all, we could have none! It had to be the evacuee to approach us and ask, they would not allow us to come in and get families because they said it would only stir up strife. The Red Cross needs some serious reorganization! They have infuriated me!!!


 


So before you get on your high and pious throne discrediting ANYONE, why don't you come on down here in our area and just try living in the situations that are going on right now. Life is very difficult for most of those people. They have lost all of their livelihood and have no hope for the moment. It's only when loving, kind people with caliber that you do not seem to possess, try to help those that are less fortunate!


BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU
I get the garbage every darn day.  You people bite the big one and not well.