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Where you live doesn't factor in when you work with nationals.

Posted By: sm on 2009-03-16
In Reply to: TELL ME WHERE YOU WORK - And I will Apply!

When you work on-line, companies will pay the same regardless of whether you live in NYC or in some small town. I live in a small town and I am nearing $40,000 as an IC for 2 national companies. My pay is not based on where I live or my cost of living, rather on my production. I am paid 8 cpl, but because I use an Expander and can transcribe 250 lph, I make a decent wage.

This is only my third year as an MT and I have been with one of my companies for a year and a half and the other one for 8 months, so it doesn't take years and years. I did have to change jobs a few times though until I found the right companies and the right accounts that I could make money on. Some of the accounts I worked in the beginning had so many ESLs and the platforms were so slow that I knew I could never make any money there.


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Nationals pay same no matter where you live. If you
x
The insurance cost is double for Transcend but insurance probably doesn't factor in for her.
I have heard more good things about Axolotl than Transcend, although it seems Axolotl may be less flexible with your schedule and someone told me that QA was pretty strict, which should not matter either if you have worked for a hospital and know what your QA score is.
All nationals I work for you only work 40 hours unless they approve overtime.
x
I work for 2 nationals and one knows

that I work for the other. I asked them when they were hiring me if it would be a conflict of interest and they said no. Only my team leader at my main job knows I work for the second job. The only problem I have is some days I get their programs mixed up. I'm constantly hitting control S to spellcheck and send the chart when it's F7 at the other job.


 


I work for 2 nationals, and I think as long as you are an IC sm

no one really has a right to tell you that you cannot work for as many people as you want.  However, as someone pointed out, most companies nowadays have you sign a contract with a no-solicitation clause, stating that you cannot solicit work from any of the accounts you have worked on for them for 1-2 years.


Still, I do not broadcast to either company that I am working for someone else.  I simply let each company know the days I am available to work for them.  


Hope this helps.  Try not to let the nasty/negative posts get to you.  There are always those in every group who take more joy from tearing someone down than listening and possibly lending a helping hand.  Fortunately, they are NOT in the majority.


Good luck!


Both nationals I work for are low on ops. Which company sm
do you work for that has so many?
I find that those with experience with any nationals or many nationals
usually are invaluable if they have many years of experience.  The more nationals they have worked for, they have been exposed to many dictators and that is a plus!  I say send on the resumes if that is the case.  I also find that many hospital employees whether it be for 1 year or 10 or more usually are limited in style issues, but not a major disaster. 
Which nationals do not send work out of the country?

Which nationals do not send work out of the country? I need to find another job.


TIA.


Nationals with 10- to 12-hour window to work 8 hrs?
I did a search in the archives, but the info I found was a little outdated. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Have not had a full day's work since the 4th. Any other Nationals out of work?

Getting really frustrated.    Took a new job because they said there was plenty of work -- overtime.   National MTSO with new accounts coming in every day. Since July 4th, have not had a full day's work.   I know things can get slow in the summer with doctor's vacations, etc.  and around holidays because elective surgeries are down, but this is getting ridiculous.  Just wondering if anyone else is having the same problem,  is this normal and expected, or did I choose the wrong company to go with?  Can't afford many more of these days.  Most I ever went with low work after a holiday or during the summer with my other employers was 2 days, and then usually went into overtime, so could make up those days.  Can't make up 2 weeks.  Just curious.   What has been your experience as far as longest drought period you've gone through with a company.  Thanks. 


I live in KY but work for a PA office
and haven't received it either.
Why wouldn't they? I live in NY and I used to work
for them. Key word is USED to.
If they live up to their name, I'd love to work there!
I'm sure I could pass their test! ROFLMBO!
the key factor would
be do they consistently have an abundance of work?
Plenty of work if you live in India
.
I work at home and I live in the Midwest.
You have to consider the job market and cost of living in your area of the country.  I think I'm doing pretty darn good.  If I factor in the incentive pay, I'm making around $35 per hour.
I don't know where you live but where I live foreclosures are rising and there are no jobs -- non
I worried about my employer for part of the winter as my accounts grew sparse. I had plan to switch to being an employee with benefits but dared not make the switch in this economy (this was last year this time, got it?)
I figured keeping my seniority was worth whatever security it afforded.

My accounts have rebounded some and I can pay my bills.

By economizing seriously, I have paid off my credit card and put some money aside, just in case. I'm breathing easier, thanks.

So, all in all, I'm not complaining. This last winter was brutal, but I had a job and I paid my bills. When employment rebounds and/or national health goes into effect, people will go to the doctor again and we will be busy.

My part of the world is like a ghost town -- everyone who could left to find work in the city -- many apparently leaving their homes to the banks. Several houses in my vicinity have been on the market more than 4 years.

Forgive me my loyalty ... it pays the bills.

What does yelling at the rest of us do for you?
How does MD-IT work...do you work for the region in which you live?
If I live in the MidWest Region do I work for the Midwest Office in Mpls/St. Paul? Seems like the benefits are great. Anyone currently work for MD-IT and could tell me a bit about the company! Appreciate it!
Luck is a factor
but are MT companies all so bad? If you have been at 10 companies in 10 years, and all were bad, that is very bad luck and I feel for you. I've been with only 1 company for the 2-1/2 years I've been doing MT and have had no problems with them. Good account, good supervisors, good pay, occasionally run low on work, but rarely. I get very nervous reading that so many companies out there are horrible. Actually a lot of people think my company is horrible from the posts I read here, but it hasn't been for me. I'm going to be nervous if I have to look for a new job.
I need to change the name I use. I work for Keystrokes but live in Kansas. I am truly KS MT but ot
nm
Lots of companies require you to work live in their
system and dial-up won't allow you to do that.   Some companies ask for DSL/Cable so it is less taxing on their servers for people to download.  I know there were companies who are okay with dial-up because you just download and then work off-line, but I think those numbers are dwindling. 
Where do you live? The hospital I work for has two openings and they pay hourly, SM
but they require that you train in-house for at least the first 90 days (sometimes it is shorter/longer depending upon how quickly you pick up the nuances of the job) and you are required to come in for quarterly department meetings
There must be a personal talent factor to it. SM
So many say they lose money, I'm another who definitely makes more editing, i.e., significantly more than double the line count, but then I'm not a fast typist, so shifting a lot of the emphasis from fingers to reading and editing decisions works for me. Now, if only I had fast fingers, too...
definitely a deciding factor there. I am already stressed
with my current situation and huge cut and turned down a few other offers b/c high ESL would be MORE stressful, so good to know. thanks so much for the heads up...are you a TT?
It's that 'ol GREED factor, again! - no/msg.
x
you didn't factor in what you would have spent

working in an office - clothes, shoes, gas, vehicle wear-and-tear, driving in bad weather, lunches, travel time (what's your time worth to you), make-up (I only wear make-up when I'm going out), laundry (I wear my sweats twice before washing), office donations/kids selling stuff, manicures/pedicures, pantyhose (I count that separate from clothes cuz it's a PITA to wear).


Then there's all the stuff you miss out on cuz you're working - kids' school programs, ball games, dance recitals, on and on. 


I'd love to make more than 9 cpl, but the truth is a lot of us don't even make that.  You have to weigh the good with the bad.  I'd rather make a little less than have all the stuff above to deal with.  I never got in this biz to become a millionaire.  I got it in to be home and I wouldn't give that up for a few extra bucks!!!!


Some things to consider that factor into line rates. sm
There are two sides to this. The larger companies like MQ, Spheris, Transcend, Keystrokes, et AL have a lot more accounts and more volume so they make their money on volume and can pay more. They also have more overhead than smaller MTSOs and need payroll people, recruiters, benefits people, etc.

But here is what no one considers: If I pay someone 0.09 per line, I have to pay taxes and unemployment on them. My portion is 15% between SS and unemployment. Benefits such as PTO and the portion I pay for insurance and 401K (there is a fee to the employer to have someone run it at the company that you have your 401K with), etc cost me approximately 22% more. So actually, 9cpl + 37% = 12.3cpl. Add the cost of doing payroll, bank fees, liability insurance, etc. and there is not a whole lot left over. Most hospitals will not pay more than 13cpl, some 14cpl. My break-even is 13.2 cpl. This is normal; I talk to many MTSOs at MTIA meetings and on my own. The big ones above are the only ones that make a lot of money, but their companies produce a lot of lines every month.

Do I make good money? Yes, but I put in a lot of time getting accounts and keeping them happy, doing the juggling act to keep my employees busy on good accounts. Payroll takes time, recruiting takes time, sales take time PLUS a lot of accounts take a lot of day-to-day work.

I am not complaining about being an MTSO, I just want you to know that there are two sides to everything and the industry changes prevent us from paying more than 7 to 9 cpl. Factor in offshore driving our costs down and those companies that undercut everyone, and small MTSOs may go the way of 8-Track Tapes.

I see the industry going to just 10 companies or so and hopefully they can stay in business too with speech recognition, offshore and everything else that comes along.
Sure, factor it in, but no one knows what the future holds and MTSO has no control over those
:+
Agree. It' hard to use that as a rule-out factor nowadays.

What you need personally to cover your bills should be the deciding factor. And what you MIGHT earn
m
I'm another MT who doesn't run out of work, never have. sm
Except of course around the holidays and a few summer weeks, I'm nearly always busy with actually more work on my accounts than I can possibly volunteer for. Lots of OT. I think the overhiring was true for a brief period last summer, but now things seem to be pretty well-balanced. LOTS of work, good managers, good equipment, nice people.
Doesn't work
This is the one I used, in addition to others listed on the website. I receive a MAILER-DAEMON failure notice on all of them ----- strange.
Vonage, but I know it doesn't work well everywhere (nm)
x
That doesn't mean I have to work for a company
who chooses to send things out of country. I feel no need to suck it up and take it.
VOIP doesn't work with it.
I was specifically told, when I went to work for them, that Vonage, Skype, and other VoIP systems do not work with the dial-in dictation systems because of signal degradation and depending on the carrier, the tones the system needed to hear were different.

I don't know if that is still the case, but prepare yourself in case it is.
Doesn't escription work better than
what the Q has? People post their ASR funnies, and they are unbelievable. I think escription works better, but that's just through the grapevine.
Work for a company that doesn't offshore

I used to work for a company that offshores -doesn't mean I do now (sm)

Do I sense some some sour grapes here? 


My company doesn't pay for ANY holdays if you don't work
nm
Doesn't sound like the Transtech I work for...NM
nm
Yes, they have several ER accounts...the one I work on doesn't have any ESLs (sm)
but I'm sure some of them may have an ESL here or there.  I started there in September after being with Medquist for 8 years. So far, so good.  They have been very accommodating and the office staff couldn't be nicer.  Good luck!
Have 4 accounts and no work. SR doesn't pay enough. Like the company, but..
X
I think this is the same person who complained about this before and she doesn't even work there
nm
"For someone that doesn't work at Transcend...." sm
Note to TranscendMT: We are ALL in this together; it really doesn't matter which company YOU work for. It's data collection (wink wink) ;-) MTSO trends DO matter to ALL employees, not just employees of said company and the company cheerleaders can't stop people from posting on a public forum. A lot of us have been transcribing before there even was a “Transcend.”
Good luck.

Doesn't explain why the work has been so low for 6 months.
It only makes sense in the context of this week. Hope WX is not about to MDI us.
Wbx doesn't even send work offshore. nm
.
Doesn't matter how nice they are, I wouldn't work
xx
Doesn't matter how many companies you work for. I'd like to know how you manage to do this???
What kind of work do you transcribe?

How many hours a day do you work?

What kind of line rate do you get from the companies you work for?

How many lines you do an hour?

Do you work as an IC or employee?

I'm very interested in hearing how you manage 100,000/year.
Beyond Text doesn't work long enough to allow you to get any lines. nm
nm
Transmitting back the work doesn't cause a problem

because the file is a very small fraction of the size of a voice file.  A voice file is huge, but a text file is small in comparison, so doesn't take near as long to transmit. 


After the first file is downloaded though you can work, so it isn't like you are just sitting waiting for them to download.  When I had dial-up I would set to download and then go take my shower. 


Amphion doesn't make you work weekends
or nights.  They're a great company, and I hear they're hiring.