I'm officially a Keystrokes employee
Posted By: maddmamma on 2008-01-15
In Reply to:
I don't know if this is the right board to celebrate on but I am so excited! What a wonderful experience from the first email so far. Kim, the recruiter, was so nice and it really seems like my identity that MQ has tried to take away for the last year will be reinstated with Keystrokes. I hope it works out!!! Thanks for letting me celebrate here!
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I never officially started with them but
I interviewed and accepted a position with them when I was working for MQ. A few days later, I was offered another position with another MTSO. I put DSG on hold for a week or 2 until I felt out the other MTSO. I ended up with the other MTSO. I just didn't get a good feel from the DSG recruiter and the numerous emails that followed. It seemed they were always backlogged and wanting everyone to do more, more, more. It just didn't feel very well organized.
Judging from the research I did on them a while back, the pay is on time and there is usually work, but sometimes the sound quality isn't all that good. Apparently, they get a lot of MQ overflow. I also found out there have 2 divisions - DSG 1 and DSG 2. From what I've read, DSG 2 seems to be the worse of the 2.
Again, I never worked for DSG because I just didn't get a good feel. I'm sure others who do work there could tell you better.
QT Medical is officially out of business. sm
The hospital I work for was just notified that they are closed as of today. Did they have a lot of MTs? I feel horrible for the MTs, not a good time of year to hear something like that.
I am officially calling you out as the troll that you are.. moderator are you here? sm
if this isnt considered troll like flaming behavior, please define what is.
If this is what is to be here on MT stars, I will be leaving.
new Keystrokes employee...
I am going to be starting at Keystrokes on Tuesday...any other Keystrokes employees that I can add to my IM??? I would love to meet some new people who also work for the company...
Keystrokes benefits - are you employee or IC? SM
If you need/want benefits, you have to be an employee. Just call the office. Becky will send out the right paperwork. The benefits include 401k, life insurance, health insurance and PTO. I know that 1/1 will start bereavement, incentive, insurance going to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, better PTO, etc. The packets are due out by 12/1 but I know that they are trying to get them out sooner if possible.
Keystrokes is not IC status, only employee
and I can say, from my experience, that they really do have that much work. I have never ever even come close to running out in my year there, and they have gotten a ton of new accounts, as well as expanded ones that they already had. Also, not all accounts are on Meditech. I have 2 accounts; one on ExText and one on Chartscript. All of the accounts are different platforms depending on what the hospital or clinic uses.
Keystrokes is the only one there offering employee status. Does that matter? nm
s
I started as an IC with Keystrokes and moved to employee status after 90 days. nm
xx
Statuatory employee versus regular employee....
Can someone tell me the difference between a statuatory employee versus a regular employee? My company offeres IC or SE status....I am confused about whether switching over the SE would benefit me more than IC status that I have been for some time with them? What are the benefits and disadvantages of being an SE versus IC? Thanks for all of your help!
They hire both IC and employee. I am an employee (see message)
and I have full benefits. I am very happy that I came to work here. I came as a statutory employee from a large company. Everyone at MDI has been great to me.
Depends on if you are employee or statutory employee (sm)
Employee, 8th and 23rd of month
Stat. Employee, 15th and 30th month
Diskriter - Anyone go from their employee to hospital employee with them?
Thinking about giving up on being their employee and applying for a hospital employee position through them, they have one in PA right now that looks good. How is it for scheduling? Do you keep your line rate or get whatever the hospital pays? Who manages those accounts, is it the same PM and DR that are on the other ones? I have DR and feel like she doesn't have a clue what she is doing and it is so annoying, but I just don't have the guts to let the company know she needs to step it up a notch because the transcriptionists are not happy under her. Are QA the same people or through the hospital. They have 1 QA that is constantly asking us questions on doctors and format, things we should be asking that QA person. Annoying that new people move up to QA but people who've been there 2 or 3 years get treated like dirt and jumped account to account.
Did Keystrokes sell to Transcend? I thought Keystrokes was buying up companies sm
but I heard from another service owner that they sold out to Transcend. Anyone know if that happened?
keystrokes ad..can someone tell keystrokes their banner ad needs a hyphen...quality-minded
nm 
Did Keystrokes sell to Transcend? I thought Keystrokes was buying sm
small companies but another service owner told me that she heard that Keystrokes sold to Transcend. Is this true?
I posted this down below but meant to post it as a new thread. Before I apply with them, I would like to know as I left Transcend a few months ago and do NOT want to get back into that mess.
Not only that, but I would MUCH rather work for Keystrokes than Spheris as Keystrokes doesn't
Only employee and statutory employee..no IC
nm
Only Keystrokes. Worked at MQ until I came to Keystrokes. Started at sm
Keystrokes PT, liked what I saw and experienced, gave notice to MQ and went FT. Have not look back since. I had previously worked at 2 hospitals, for MDI, Transcend and MRC until bought by MQ. I plan on retiring here as long as they stay as they are.
No, Not with Keystrokes, visiting friend and using her pc, she got job with Keystrokes
I forgot to change the Name. I do not think Keystrokes is hiring anymore now. Would like some info about Diskriter though.
Ditto, Keystrokes is a wonderful company with wonderful people! I love working for Keystrokes!
I am just not making enough money. They are a great company though, just ask for a back up account.
Been with Keystrokes staying with Keystrokes
I was there for the promises and guess what Keystrokes is making good on those promises.
I get vacation time, 401K, and even AFLAC. My pay is great, always on time as well as accurate.
I have my main account and have been given back up accounts for which I have been fully trained and am comfortable typing on. I have great leads, great tech support and plenty of work.
Am I biased??? Yes I am biased. I am grateful everyday that I was given the opportunity to work for Keystrokes and their team. I am grateful that my company's owner is a fellow Transcriptionist that goes home at the end of the day and works like the rest of us so she knows what a hard job I have and I know that she is working to make things better for me because unlike other companies I have worked for she understands what it is I do.
Please accept my apologies that you were unhappy with Keystrokes and chose to move on before all of the promises came to fruition but don't begrudge those of us that stayed loyal and are now reaping the benefits of a GREAT COMPANY WITH GREAT BENEFITS, LOTS OF WORK AND THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THERE ARE MANY MORE GREAT THINGS TO COME!
I just want to say Thank you Lee, Jeff, Becky, Karyn, Martha, Annette, Paul and everybody else in the office for all that you do.
Keystrokes does not go by keystrokes, we go by lines. sm
1200 lines per day comes out to 150 lines per hour. Most transcriptionists are able to do 200-250 lines per hour, so this is not unrealistic, nor is it unreasonable. The hospital that I used to work at prior to coming to Keystrokes had a minimum of 185 lines per hour. The service I worked for prior to Keystrokes had a minimum of 200 lines per hour.
As an employee
I average about 8.5. They have an incentive if you type 12,000 in a 2-week pay period and that's not too hard to do on their system. Plus they pay higher on the weekends and at night (which I do on a split shift). I also figure the benefits are worth it because they use United, which I like the coverage in my area. All in all I am happy with them and I really like my team leader, that's a big plus to me.
Is this IC, SE, or employee?
nm
Yes they do, also employee and PT
positions were available when I interviewed 6 months ago.
Every employee is different.
I have found OSi to be very flexible. I personally do not work weekends. We are required to work holidays if they fall on your normally scheduled days; although, getting paid at 5 cpl extra. You can also request holidays off, which has never been a problem for me. I have never been denied on a request.
IC vs Employee
You will pay more taxes as an IC because of SSI, whereas as an employee, you do not (your employer pays half of SSI.)
You said you are an employee? Where?
Where are these 4 companies that pay $8K a quarter for bonuses?!?! Please, do tell!!
And provide enough work for you alone to do that much work?!?! Please, do share!!
When you are an employee, do you
If so, you are better off being an employee. Otherwise, the so-called self-employment tax cuts heavily into your earned income credit. It did for me at least, without having made a huge amount of self-employment income.
You can owe as an employee also
If you filled out your W9 form and put down for 10 dependents you would also owe or if your marital status changed or your deductions changed. All I am saying is that people think that because their employer is taking their taxes out for them they are not paying their own taxes. When you handle your own money, you just have to be structured enough to take out what an employer takes out. See your paycheck before and after taxes and see the percentage you are paying. When you get a tax refund that is YOUR money that the government has had for a year. You just underpaid. You can also overpay as a business owner or an IC and get a refund. But with the amount of deductions I have, I will never go back to an employee full-time as I would lose another 20% to the government and not ready to give that over.
employee or IC.
IC or employee?
I just checked their website and it states they only hire employees? It is possible to be an IC with them?
Yes, you can be IC or employee, nm
nm
Employee
Their platform is very productive and they offer full benefits to full-time employees. For that they do expect you to work an employee schedule as they try to have the coverage issues worked out. There have been some growing pains with work flow, but my experience has been they have been resolved quickly and certainly nothing chronic. They do not pay for spaces but I took that into account negotiating the line rate. The efficient platform and getting paid for headers also helps offset the spaces issue for me.
Is this as an IC, or are you an employee? nm
X
They must be as I don't do employee (nm)
@__@
Sorry.. Employee, soon to be EX, at MDI-FL..
Definitely need to clarify that.
Pay for IC vs. employee
I'm interested to learn the average difference in pay between IC and employee--such as, if as an IC I earn 9 cpl (65 char with spaces), as a regular employee what would be the equivalent? I'm guessing about 2 cpl less, so it would be 7 cpl as an employee. I don't need insurance though.
Thank you in advance!
IC vs employee
An employer generally pays about 20% in benefits and overhead for each employee which includes medical insurance, paid vacation, income taxes, 401K, equipment, fringe bennies. So yes, in the example you gave it would equate to about 0.2 cpl.
Employee only. nm
xx
Are you and employee or IC? (nm)
/
An employee. nm
s
Really? I am a former employee of one of those
companies and I know one of them do.
are you an employee? sm
if so they are bound to take out state taxes. If you are an IC, of course not. Oh-- and by the way-- you would have to pay your state taxes yourself anyway :)
P.S. And, yes, I was an employee.
And yes, taxes are ultimately the responsibility of the employee, but most legitimate companies withdraw taxes from the employee's paycheck. I found it difficult enough just paying my regular bills with the very low rate of pay this company offered, and it was impossible for me to also put aside extra money to pay for the taxes they refused to take out.
One of the reasons I decided to accept employment with them was because I belieevd of all the hype about them being best employer, etc., and I refused to listen to all the little warning signs that frequently popped up in my brain. I won't ever do that again.
Not the OP, but is she is an employee, sm
why shouldn't she get paid for downtime? If you worked at Burger King and no customers came in for an hour, yet you were required to be ready to service the customers, wouldn't you expect to be paid? JMHO
Now, if she is IC, she's out of luck.
Are u an employee or IC? nm
x
I am an employee
I have written a demand for payment and have not worked since not receiving my check.
Any advice on who one contacts regarding those in the legal end to contact would be most helpful if anyone knows this info.
Thanks!
IC vs Employee
I know this subject has been broached before... but, how can a company seek an IC, and then assign work each day and expect you to put in X amount of hours, etc. I don't understand this... I was under the assumption that as an independent contractor, you work when you want. You are providing the company with a service, you are not their slave and do not have to answer to them at a certain time of day. IC means work is done and returned in the manner the IC sees fit. When asked part-time or full-time, what is the answer when you are an IC? Anyone else having this trouble? I would love to hear from you... 
I also do not see how a company can put you at edit status, and then never give feedback on blanks, etc. How do you ever get out of editing? Is it the IC's job to ask about blanks when you are already receiving a smaller pay rate to be in editing and trying to make some money while learning a new account.
Are you looking for employee or IC
CIT employee
I presently work for CIT and wouldn't work anywhere else. There definitely is work out there to be done--almost too much work. Bottom line is that I firmly believe your job is what you make it. If you think it's too tough and can't be done, then guess what... It will be too tough for you and you won't be able to do it. In regards to ESL dictators... I look at it as job security. They are not going to change or go away, so my goal is to learn to master them. Any good Transcriptionist knows that a short-cut program is the way to go--work smarter, not harder. At least our platform offers you one if you do not have one of your own and it is very easy to learn to use. I presently use my own, SPEEDTYPE, with my own standards for the dictators. As for communication, if there is a breakdown in communication--maybe all parties involved are not communicating with mutual respect?? Basically I don't expect my boss to have to contact me unless it is necessary. I was given what was expected and am allowed to accomplish it without having anyone breathing down my neck, but help is there if I ask for it. As for a small company, yes, we are at this point. Sam Walton didn't start Walmart with a boatload of people, each with one single specialized job, but a few very multitalented people who were flexible and able and willing to do what was needed in order to get the job done. Look at the number employed there now--YEARS later. My point is we are growing--fast. Bottom line though, is that there is no job that is perfect for everyone, so you need to find your niche in life, determine your goals and what YOU are willing to do to accomplish them, and you may be surprised how your dream job could be exactly where you are today.
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