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MTSO not loyal friend, relative. Best not to treat

Posted By: them as one. They are means to an end--my $$$. on 2009-09-24
In Reply to: CONGRATULATIONS MTSO MANAGEMENT! - had to say it

ms


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I do believe your loyalty is displaced. No MTSO or national are loyal to MTs
even though they claim to be. Loyalty is earned just like respect. This is a business just like any other business. If one company cuts pay, takes away health insurance, etc, why should any person or MT be loyal to that company? If promises are made and then broken or lies are told, why should any MT be loyal to that MTSO or company?

On the other hand, yes, if the MTSO or national and their people take care of the MT and provide her/him continuous work flow, as promised, pay on time, and work together with an honest and respectful relationship, then, yes loyalty should be mutual and reciprocating.

For you to just come on here and claim MTs should be loyal to company is very improper of you!

Ok, those are my cents worth! Have a good night!
It's all relative

Up here in the Northeast I couldn't survive on $14.00 an hour - not if you got to support yourself, which I have to for me and my three children.  I average $25.00 an hour, and even though that's not too bad, even that is pretty much chump change up here.  Every time someone posts a survey about how much they make, there's a lot of MTs that seem to make in th$30-$50 an hour range.  I'm going to keep looking till I find a job where I can make $40-$50 an hour.  Then I'd be comfortable with killing myself to get in enough hours all the time.


Anyway, what I wanted to say is that chump change is different to everybody.  Personally I think at 8 cents a line you just have to work way too hard for your money.


 


 


Was it a relative?
a
cpl is relative
MQ: 10 cpl averaged (at the end) 160 to 180 lph.

At new company: 8 cpl, average 280 to 300 lph.
LOL - did you mean relative?

Although I do have a relative--sm
such as you describe, I have found that it is NEVER effective to tell her to *quit whining* *get off your butt and change your life if you are not happy* or *stop being a victim* types or responses to HER actions. It only serves to make things worse, and that is what YOU are doing, making it worse. You are NOT helping these people by yelling at them, and that is what you are doing, as well...yelling at them. You cannot *help* someone to *change their lives* by simply *telling* them to change their lives. Sometimes you have to sit back, quietly listen to their problems, and let them figure out things for themselves. Yelling at them to take control and change things on their own is only going to turn them in the other directions. You are not being, as you call it, *proactive*, you are simply dumping on the heads of someone who already feels like a *victim* and yelling at them not to feel the way they feel. That is not being *proactive* that is just plain being mean, and yes, I do see the difference, but you are not it. Sometimes people need to be taken gently by the hand and *guided* into a situation that would help to make their lives better, but simply telling them or yelling at them to *just do it* has never solved anything. ever. You need a good course in psychology 101! Yelling at people turns those people *off* and does not *motivate* them into doing better for themselves. You seem to think you are a *motivational* type person, but you are doing just the opposite. Leave them alone. Most of them will find their own way in their own time, without someone like you yelling at them to quit whining about their situations. Compassion and understanding is definately not among your strong points. Beind cruel and unkind is definately in your make up.
ESL is a relative term.
Just because they have an accent doesn't make them any more difficult to do than the average Joe.  JMHO. 
IMO, it's completely relative. sm
I have an account in Cquence which felt cumbersome at first, but then I got comfortable and produce as much there as I do typing, say, in Word offline. Recently I started a Meditech account and...hey! Cquence is absolutely wonderful compared to Meditech!! So my opinion of Cquence has gone up, for sure.


ESL is a relative term. We all know Dr. Joe EFL can be far worse! nm
nm
Yes, "best" is a relative term but (sm)
I mean best based on info by MTs on this board and by docs in the industry who refer colleagues to this fast-growing MTSO.  Guess which MTSO?  I'm not saying   Actually, this icon looks like it is waving it's middle finger instead of pointy finger, so don't mean to offend and don't think I'll use it again (lol!)
It's all relative. Depending on where you live, that might not even pay for an apartment. nm
nm
it is one thing to be loyal, but ..
you have bills that cannot wait and probably a family to feed.
And you will stay loyal to them while they RIP YOU OFF???

What kind of loyalty does such a business deserve from you?  That's the kind of attitude that allows management to rip off its workers in the first place.  Don't complain, be loyal to us, be nice, take those pay cuts and LIKE THEM!!  If you don't, well, you are DISLOYAL!!!  What nonsense. 


And trying to convince folks like you that there are some companies (many, actually), that don't deserve your misplaced loyalty is like teaching a pig to sing:  It is totally useless and really pisses off the pig. 


Take those rose-colored spectacles off and look at the world around you.  Just a suggestion, of course. 


Loyal to HTS - they've treated me well
I have no concern as to your credentials. I speak solely of my experience with HTS.
Let me address some of your facts. You state: Not enough tech support (not available evenings or weekends My experience: They have been available to me 24/7 for ten years. You state: No raises. My experience: Frequent raises. You state: ..their hands are tied. My experience: What does this even mean? I have never experienced anything along these lines. If there is a problem, they resolve it. Period. You state: Many people in this organization are related to the current owner (red flag). My experience: Again, what?? I know many of them, and of those I know none are related to one another, let alone the owner. Spare us your red flag. You state: The current owner makes it a habit to bash the prior owner, tell you all sorts of dirty laundry, goes on and on about how she cannot afford to give raises, yet she's managed to dwindle down this pay off mighty quick. It's an attitude thing. My experience: One of the nicest women I have every worked with/for. Very considerate of her MTs and their personal needs as well as professional. It IS an attitude thing. On both sides of the equation. You state: There is not always work. My experience: Never, ever have I not been able to work in ten years. Never. They accommodate me around every turn. If my main account is low, I can request another account and that request is fulfilled immediately. You state: (re: tech guys)..their hands are tied based on minimal programs and/or education. My experience: I should be so lucky as to have a fraction of their knowledge. You state: The owner wanted me to stay. My response: Why? No MT is indispensible. You state: The problems with HyperType are solely due to how the company is run. My experience: No clue what this refers to - not enough work? not enough money earned? tech? no embroidered golf shirts? To posters Looking and Leigh - I wish you the same success I have had with HTS. There are many MT companies out there, obviously, offering many different packages that may or may not suit your needs. Hypertype is a well-run company that has never come up short in any regard in my experience. Rest assured that if you chose to work with HTS and keep up your end of the deal in terms of providing quality transcription, you will be appropriately compensated and have the pleasure of dealing with some really great people.


Loyal Transcend employee
Everything Liz is saying is true.  I have worked for just about every transcription company out there and Transcend is the best by far.  Please don't be worried about outsourcing of work to India...that hasn't impacted my ability to get enough work at all.  A very small % is sent overseas, and this happens in almost all of the national transcription services.  They mostly provide us with 3rd shift coverage when there aren't enough American MLS to meet turn-around times.  The only thing that will keep you from getting enough work is not being willing to work on all work types and all accounts, or not wanting to adjust your shift/days to accommodat workflow.  Please try to keep an open mind and positive attitude about Transcend.  I wouldn't still be here after 8 years if this wasn't the best transcription company out there.
Manager relative told me noncomplete dont hold up.
w
I'm an IC, I adhere to a close to set schedule, am loyal and the first day that I
hear employees get preferential treatment over ICs, I'll jump ship.  I am an IC because my husband has better health benefits and they are cheaper than my company.  We still have line counts to make just like employees and bills to pay, etc, plus we don't get vacation, etc, so need to work steadily just to keep up if we do need to take a day off or are off sick.
What do you mean not loyal to their employees? please give details

I would not want to work for a company that is not loyal, but in what way are they not loyal?


I agree 100%. People should know better, but those of us are who loyal will remain so.
nm
Loyal to scammers & sweatshop labor?
We all know they aren't the slightest bit loyal/appreciative/aware of, any of their employees. To believe that is to be REALLY naiive.
TransTech is not being loyal to their MT's, so you have made a great decision

The pay is always on time, but the paycheck continues to dwindle, so makes it easier for TT to pay their MT's, for sure. 


It is so depressing that TT mgmt/lead/sups/tech/in-house clerks, etc. have absolutely no LOW PAYCHECKS. 


They have VERY MUCH OVERHIRED; however, they are losing MT's at about the same rate, but they don't care, because there are newbies that will work for practically nothing to get a start, and all they have to do is make a phone call to TT and they are hired !@!


lots of office problems, not loyal to empls, unworkable








.
Also, if MTSOs want MTs who are loyal, hardworking, and take great pride in their jobs by truly ....
dedicating themselves to knowlegdge and producing correct, Grade A reports, then how about paying us as the highly-trained, skilled, hard-wokring, tecnical, workers we are....we are expected to always stay abreast of every medical procedure, drug, medical instrument, operatative procedure, and special procedures, in every specialty (especially for those of us doing acute care and surgical, also radiology/nuclear medicine), we must update references, computes, learn new platforms, train our ears to decipher the SLOPPIEST, LAZIEST, RUDEST dictating physicians, not to mention all the various dialects and accents from all over the world, have superior knowlegein grammar, punctuation, and style....there are highly-paid executives who cannot keep up with what we do, honestly. We have sold ourselves short for way too long, back when I first came home out of hospital, I was lucky to get 6.5cpl, back in 1994, doing all acute care, had 7 different hospitals, we were one of the first live systems. I was out of work, and after getting my associates, being a part of the AAMT (who never helped me personally), 28 years of in-house training, radiology, surgery, etc., it took me months to get someone to pay me what my knowlege/dedication/experience warranted, I still had MTSOs offering 6 and 7 cpl......what??? and I am an IC right now! I finally found an MTSO who is paying 12cpl, and I work my tail off for her, love the company, but I still believe by and large that we are being fed CRUMBS OFF THE TABLE. How do I know? I have a friend who has a company with 75 MTs, I see what she bills and what she pays, and I also know what other companies are making off our backs. Not all MTSOs, to be sure, but most. And remember MTSOs, a lot of us old-timers who were trained in hospital and college, are going to retire, if you want to attract really good young MTs for your company, you had better take a better look at your bottom line and what you are investing in...IMHO!
I've been loyal to MDI for 13 years and planned to finish my career here. I
can't even begin to express my dismay, disappointment, and feeling completely blind-sided and slapped across the face by this after a decade plus of Dorothy always saying she had too much integrity to EVER offshore, and now she's going to be in charge of sales and marketing TO offshore.  My mind is still reeling.  So not sure what you mean by loyal.  The MDI I've known and been loyal to for over a decade no longer exists.  Now I've just been left sitting here stunned wondering how she could do such a 180, or if it was just a facade all along. 
when docs give mtso a check, then mtso pays you?
nm
If that is how they treat their new MTs,
then just imagine how they must treat their MTs on average or for the long run! Gee Willikers! I doubt you'd have much positive to look forward to if you stayed. For that person to treat you that way so quickly -- she must both be used to doing so to others and gets away with it from the company. That gives her a lot of power to make other people miserable. I would let that place take a hike. I sure hope I don't run into her on my job search.

Good luck to you in whatever you decide.
Yes, when you treat the MT like....

I have to say if the MTs weren't  treated like they are in sweat shops and constantly hounded about their production and could get paid a decent wage, then maybe the quality could get better.  But, when you are paid on production and someone just out of school has yet to build up speed, and they are being hounded as to why they are not producing their line count, then they feel rushed and yes, making careless mistakes.  I have been MTing for 3 years, and I surely do wish I would have chosen another field.  I am currently getting myself ready to go back to school and get into diagnostic medical sonography.  The only thing I will miss is being able to work from home and be more available to my family.  Sorry in advance for any typos or punctuation errors. 


They have a low pay scale. They treat you like
The owner is nice enough, but she does not like to pay until her client pays her and she will make you sign a paper stating you agree to that.  Just be careful what you sign.  You might like it if you like EMDAT.  There is no training.  You train yourself through a website she gives you for EMDAT.  Again pay is low.
I don't agree-because Men treat U the way U..NM

But they are!! Treat employees very well
nm
If you treat your employees well, why

would you make the statement all but 1 would turn on you if someone offered something better?  Most MTs I know are thankful to work for someone who treats them well, something that is no longer the norm in this business, and generally stick it out for the long haul, until the MTSO offshores or there is no work or not enough work to feed our families.  Somehow it has been lost that an employee well treated and well paid is an asset, not a liability.  I don't know about you, but I appreciate respect for the work I do and the knowledge I bring to the table and that respect comes in many forms, most notably a living wage.  You can be darn sure that in these economic times and with the depressed wages we have had to settle for because MTSOs, large and small, offshore or live high and mighty off the backs of us MT slaves, I'm looking out for #1.  Loyalty and respect are earned.  Very few companies today exhibit business and/or moral practices that earn them either. 


 


I like my company. They treat me well.
industry's *standard* pay.

BUT ------ Thanks to AAMT/AHDI, greedy hospital CEO's who want more money & more management, at the expense of less of everything else (including patient care), and MTSO's without the backbone to stand by a rate that means they can pay their MT's a living wage, even *the industry's best* pay just isn't cutting it. Not as a single person, anyway.

Changing jobs would just make my situation worse. But if the payscale doesn't go up soon, I'll have no choice but to get out. I already cant ever retire, thanks to the Wall Street pigs. And thanks to greedy people buying into the MT industry to make a fast, easy buck, just makeing ends meet is getting near-impossible. I could understand it if I had no education and no skills. But as a person who is pretty much at the top of their game in MT, I'm so disappointed that my work, my hours, and my knowledge aren't paid what they're worth. A very respected doctor/professor once told me that MTs are *one of the doctors' strongest lines of defense against mistakes, malpractice, and lawsuits*. He used to thank me personally every year, even though the rest of the hospital didn't seem to give a crap, for catching those tiny dictation errors that ALL doctors make, and for bringing things that seemed questionable to his attention. As a result, we both learned continually, and quality was job-one for him, as well as for me.

Now, it's just a numbers game. Crank out those lines. Cut those corners. Someday that continual haste is going to cost a lot (if it hasn't already). A life. A job. A medical licensure. A few million in a lawsuit. We used to be important players in the quality of medical care documentation. Now, we're just *expendable* cogs in the wheel.
They treat their employees VERY well.
I have been there for over 2 years and don't plan on going anywhere else. They will go out of their way to do anything they can for you if you are a hard working employee. I have never been with a company who treats their employees this well.
They don't treat you well on the CM side
You may not think it makes a difference, but it's like working for a different company. I think the staff is very abusive and disrespectful to the MTs and each other. Webmedx needs to go in there and clean house from the supervisors down.

Read ChartMatrix MT's post below. The culture really does make a difference. Apparently, she doesn't have work, either. Bad on both counts.
And that they will treat you like FAMILY, too.
Can't argue that one. I guess like most of MY family, these yahoos would never pay me what they owed me, either.

I cannot believe they still have the audacity to advertise here.


They're going to treat you the same as all other employees
and you'll not get your way by threatening and stomping your feet. You hold no more weight than the rest of us with them. Just how expensive is it for YOU to type for MQ who is PAYING YOU? LOL
?? I don't see how you can say that... I love MDI and they treat their employees well.
I have never had a bad experience with them and I certainly would not call them nasty.
And why do MTSOs treat ICs as employees? nm
x
Well, just don't go to work for Focus. They don't treat
their staff very well, they are all Indian including your leads, and there is at least one guy there who is very male chauvenistic. 
I work for 2 companies and both treat me very well. sm
Contented MTs generally don't come to these boards to complain, so our side is not represented well.

There are some very good companies out there. I've managed to find 2!

BTW, we're not nickeled and dimed. We're pennied, or ha'pennied!

Unlike government employees, we're paid on production, so lots of work gets done.

;)




As companies being allowed to treat their MT's like this.

If TT and the other companies who do not pay for downtimr/no work to their at-home MT's when they log on and there is NO WORK, then these companies would assuredly be more careful about letting us run out of work. 


Discussion was about having to stick to a schedule when they want us to, but in no work situations, mgmt will forget about a schedule then and request us not to  call the office, nor email on those days, and we are allowed to be flexible with our schedules (at their convenience).  These companies who run out of work need to be paying for downtime/no work situations, and they will be more careful about surprising us with no work days when we log into the system.


 This began as a discussion about sticking to a schedule, not about $$$ saved up. 


This is misleading. They have all ICs, so it cannot be said that they treat their employees well.
I had a rude awakening about being an IC and will never go that route again!
people should treat others the way they want to be treated. nm
.
That sure is a RUDE way to treat a co-worker.
Actions like that usually do.
They hire you as an IC and treat you as an employee. nm
.
I'll bet the Saudis will treat you...
a whole lot better than Transcend does.  Arabs are known for being extremely generous, unlike many of these 'American' transcription companies.
I agree with all the above. Know how to treat transcriptionists, and I don't just mean on holida
nm
Been there. My company didn't treat me horribly
but because I could do the very worst ESLs I got dumped on.  Work is assigned by the company and there isn't supposed to be cherry-picking, but there obviously was.  I could do the dictation, but it slowed me down considerably.  On top of the bad dictator it seemed the sound quality was also bad.  I would be stressed at the end of the day and end up with a headache.  If I were getting paid by the hour I would have still be a bit stressed, but not as much because I didn't have to worry about producing lines.  My MTSO has told me a couple of stories too.  I have looked for another position a couple of times, but every company that offered me a position didn't want to pay me what I was currently making, didn't allow me the flexibility that I have, didn't have the friendly platform that I currently have, and I had to be connected to the internet to work the whole time.  I like to get outside when the weather is nice and with my current job I download my work and then I can get off-line.  I can take my laptop outside and work.   I still read the job boards on occasion, but I have decided I can't do any better anywhere else, so I'll just accept whatever issues there are and deal with them.  
Stay away from Fast Chart. Their pay is low and they don't treat you very well. nm
nm
I treat my days of no work as an unexpected day off..
get a lot done at home, go to town and do the shopping I would have had to do on my day off. Every now and then it is nice to have a day off that is unexpected. I make up anything that I have to on my days off...just like in the real *outside* job world. If I miss a day or two of pay I don't sweat it...that is why I have a little extra $$ put away.
I think that is very good advice but how do you know if a company is going to treat you well?

During the interview they will tell you all kinds of wonderful stuff.  Are you saying it is better to look a company offering a lower line rate as an indication of a better place to work?  You could be right.


It seems kind of sad though in our industry that in order to get decent management the personal price is to take a cut in pay.  Why can't it be good management and good pay at the same time?