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My best friend and fellow editor laid off this close to Christmas! sm

Posted By: NCQA on 2007-12-21
In Reply to:

 For everyone complaining about his or her jobs, it could be worse.  My best friend, who has been in this business for years and years and years, has a work ethic like nothing I have seen before, and is a genuinely caring and gentle soul, was laid off today from her job via a conference call!  To add insult to injury, she is scheduled to have two surgeries next month, which she scheduled for after the holidays to accommodate her employer, even though she can barely see, which she will now be unable to have since they are terminating her health insurance today as well.  They were aware of her scheduled surgery and knew she had been waiting for some time to have it.  We will not even talk about what impact this has upon her family, including her young son, particularly here at Christmas time.  How do you explain no Santa to a young child? 


She is always the person helping everyone else, both in her personal life as well as professionally.  I have witnessed her struggles and she always keeps a positive outlook.  I think this will finally "do her in."  Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the other THIRTY people who lost their jobs today.


They say that everything we do comes back to you ten-fold.  I hope it happens quickly for this heartless company. 


 




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Fall is nice, but it's too close to Christmas so I vote for
x
I have friend who works as editor, gets hourly rate and does
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
My best friend and I are going Christmas shopping....
I'm getting as many gifts as I can put on layaway this weekend.  I am determined to finish early this year so I can enjoy the holiday.  After shopping, we are going to dinner and mabye a movie. 
I've also found it varies from editor to editor -
In one case I researched it fully, and found that both of them were wrong, and I had been right all along.
[Sigh........]
Merry Christmas! There is a story named Cat and Mouse Christmas...search Google and you'll find
x
A Christmas Story is my fave Christmas movie...forgot that one!
/

Skip Christmas Day and do drinks/snacks Christmas
Eve and spend a peaceful Christmas doing whatever it is you want to do.  If you're all of 47 years old you're evidently a slow learner  : )
How about your husband tells the friend to tell his female friend to lose the #?
x
laid off
I know this because my husband has been "laid off" a lot lately!
I did when I was laid off

(fired, with no intention of hiring me back) along with a whole bunch of other MTs when our work went to the Philippines. 


This employer really played some games.  First they said work was going to get thin because some accounts were being 'lost' and people might be let go.  A month later accounts were booming, and getting way out of TAT and it was ALL OUR FAULT and why weren't we picking up the slack?  (I later figured this was the transition period as they switched over to offshore, and something got screwed up.)  Then work slacked off again and they said people were definitely going to be let go and we should start looking elsewhere.  A couple weeks later they said that they could probably find places for most of us on other accounts, and we should ask for a transfer, which I did.  Then I got jerked around by the HR person who would not return my calls or respond to my e-mails for a couple of weeks.  Then the account managers she finally referred me to did the same for another couple of weeks.  This all took about three months from first inkling to the axe falling.


Then one glorious morning I got an e-mail notifying me of a MANDATORY conference call, with 2 hours' notice.  And everyone on that call, 30-40 of us, were the lucky winners, and were locked out of the system.    


A couple of weeks later (while I was still in the 30-day waiting period in my state to file for unemployment) I got a phone call from the same HR person who had given me the runaround before.  Did I want to reapply for a job with them?  Well, not really, but I went through that whole process -  as though they did not even know me.  And weirdly enough, with 15 years of experience, I managed to fail an untimed open-book test!  Fascinating.


So here's what I think the game was (and I am telling you so you don't fall for any tricks.)  They tried to scare as many of us into quitting as possible. Then they tried to ignore as many of into quitting as possible.  (If you quit, 99.9% of the time you don't qualify for unemployment.) Then when they were forced to lay us off, they offered the jobs back to see how many would go for it; maybe 10% of us did.  (If they offer you work and you refuse, then you don't qualify for unemployment.)  But since I went through their whole reapplication process, and they did not hire me back  (and never intended to)  I DID qualify for unemployment. 


Hope you are an actual employee and not an IC, and that this info is helpful.  Unemployment is not big buck$ but with summer coming, maybe you can have a nice semi-paid vacation while you look for work.


I wish you luck.  My luck was that about a month after I was let go I broke my arm.  I would not have been able to work for the creeps anyway!  I filed for unemployment online. I was able to do all my job hunting from home, hunt-and- peck, online.  Nobody saw me.  And magically, just when I got the arm back in service again, somebody wanted me to test and I got the first job I tested for.  The whole time I was one-armed and applying for jobs like mad (a requirement for getting unemployment) and wondering what I would do if a company was seriously interested, absolutely no offers.  As soon as I could actually type again, there was a job offer. 


Think bad stuff doesn't sometimes happen for good reasons?  Think again!!


The pt is layed off or laid off from her job?
gosh.  I cant figure out anything today
He laid down for awhile, but he just did not seem sm

He laid down for awhile, but he just did not seem to be able to navigate or walk because of the dizziness


HELP PLEASE !!!  I can never get this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11


Yeah - laid off
I got walking papers courtsey of Heartland :)
Don't worry - unless you were laid off

Or there is a switch to true EMR with drop down screens and virtually no free text.  My cardiologist's office already has this.  No chart notes to type anymore; they only need transcription for letters. 


You may train your system so well that administration will decide they don't need you anymore.  The system doesn't have to be perfect (human transcription certainly isn't!); it only has to be *good enough*.


Laid-off Acusis MT...

Stay away from Spheris.  They're a terrible company to work for, and they put out garbage work.  They, too, will end up losing the "big" account (which DRC did lose before the Acusis buyout).  I am one of the stragglers left behind at DRC/Acusis, but not for long.  I'll take the gum chewing, mumbling, flatulent, ESL cardiologist any day of the week over being told someone in India is going to train me on a new account. 


Let's remember, the OP is not the one just laid off....sm
It is her FRIEND, and therefore the OP is adding her own spin to it.
lain or laid
Using Webster's dictionary, the past tense of lie is lay, past part. is lain, so this would be lain.
laid back?
The term marshmellow was used by a group of light-hearted transcriptionists at an AAMT conference once.  We used it as a code name when stresses were high (and in this business, stresses are high).   We ususally got chuckles when we used it.  I really did not expect anyone to know this, except that particular group of people.  We used it for years amongst our networking days.  (We were all from different parts of the country.)
should be laid-off (ROFL) ...sorry! (NM
xx
Laid off or chose to take time off? (sm)
Be accurate, now!
laid-back company?
Well yes I did clinical & Basic 4 for a very laid-back company in L.A. for 7 years & it was great, after they got to know me. But I finally got laid off & worked for MedScribe (Jax, Fla.) doing Rad for 6 months until last week. The first time my production got a little low, BAM they ended my contract & that was IT. So it would be nice to find a little more laid-back company again. If you want a referral bonus, I have 17 yrs MT experience, type 90+ wpm, & I'm available & looking.
They laid off over 200 people at the plant
near me.  I'm sure there have been layoffs elsewhere.  I'd say that is the problem not waiting on parts.   When they opened the new plant here one of the requirements was that all suppliers had to be within 30 minutes of Dell.  
Our hospital laid us all off and I went to work for the national that got the bid. nm
x
A friend of a friend is taking CareerStep - sm
she is under the misguided idea that she will be making very good $ upon completing the course (a friend of hers supposedly makes $55K a year). I told her no way, at least not starting out and not unless all the factors click together, i.e. good typing speed, good pay (not for a newbie), good dictators (unlikely) and dedication to working hard. I told her what I make after 5 years (16K) but that is PT and I have the potential to double that if I would push myself, not procrastinate so much (I web surf way too much) and work more than I already do. I am not a fast typist but am good at what I do. I will be surprised if she follows though. She told me she'd call me when she finished the course, I just hope she is ready for reality.
my boyfriend's union has helped him to be laid off 6 months this year already...
Sure Union's PROTECT the workers... okay that's fine. but they also do plenty of other stuff that is not cool with me. I like the idea of them getting paid a good amount for what they do, but then there are times when if something happens on a job, for example, two workers get in a fight, they may get fired from that particular job, but re-hired with another one that hires union workers. It makes no sense. Obviously I see the point of unions so workers are not taken advantage of... but like someone else posted, someone would sneak away to sleep during her job with the union. I mean, have you seen DOT workers? Cal Trans ? i dont think I EVER see them working and I'm gonna guess they are a union (although I can't be sure).

For sure transcription needs something, but I don't think a union is it. Although I don't think we will ever have anything to protect or help us... too little "higher up" people know the problem.
Okay fellow MTs I know this
was probably asked many times before, but where do you all get the little spongy things that go on your headphones? Mine got a hole in and they were the last pair I had. Do they sell them in any stores?
Or you could help your fellow MTs by...
Taking the time to object to this settlement. Opt out and object!  I am sending letters to the attorneys to do just that. 
Not the OP, but he seems like such a sweet fellow.
nm
A fellow MT was asking for votes
for a singing competition she is in - like an American Idol type thing in her hometown

www.whiznews.com/ycitystar.php
Dear fellow MTs...sm
I am stuck and don't know what to do.  I keep going back and forth and now I am afraid to make any move at all.  Could use some of your opinions on this situation.  At the moment, I have two part time jobs.  The one I have worked for a little over 3 years as an IC.  The other I just started about 4-5 weeks ago.  I did seek the company out and I started with them full time employee so I could get some PTO for once in my life.  However, I had to switch to part time employee because of the schedule thing.  We all know as an IC, we have a lot more flexibility and this is very important to me, and the new company is a set schedule that must be followed.  Long story short, I went into the new job hoping to make better money, work smarter, not harder, and drop the IC job.  But, 5 weeks later, I just still can't drop the IC position so I am now working more, working harder, and working more than full time and I need to make a decision.  The new job pays better but after taxes and all, not really!  It is an employee position so I have to work a given schedule.  The job itself is basically the same as my IC job, not easier, but maybe slightly more difficult to make lines.  The IC job is a job and at one point, I was treated very unfairly by the owner and that bothers me a bit because of fear of that happening again, but for the most part, it has been good to me and is considered one of the best IC jobs out there.   I really am stuck and need some opinions/advice from you all that have made the leap from IC to employee or employee to IC.  I feel I am at a dead end being an IC, but yet I need the flexibility to some extent.  I don't know what to do.  Both companies are considered GOOD ones by MTstars company board criteria.  Any and all opinions/advice appreciated.  TIA
Hello, fellow Iowan!
There are plenty of MTSOs online. What are you looking for?
Need my fellow MTs opinions...sm

I've been working from home as an IC for my 7 years of MTing.  MUCH has changed in my life and I find that it may be time to leave the home office and get back into the world of the living.  I spoke wiht a hospial in my area and got a bit of info - full time position Monday through Friday, full benefit package, tuition reimbursement, life insurance, healthcare, disabiliy, etc.  The top pay is 6k less than what I'm making now, but that is not that important as there are other factors I have to take into consideration.  My question to those of you who are in-house MTs, would you share your hourly rate - just a ballpark.  This is the first time I've ventured down this path and actually received figures from a potential employer. 


So, what do you all think?


Fellow struggler
I, too, struggle with my line count (though slowly growing).

I have a few accounts but ENDLESS dictators with one of them.

If I didn't use an Expander I would be toast. Between spelling, word/drug oddities, and making tons of various sentence expansions (to help conform to soooo many dictators), I feel there is no other way.

It is true it takes time but worth it ultimately.

Any knowledge you can gain as far as medical language would be a big plus too. That is another problem I have ... trying to retain the meanings of things to verify if they fit.
g'night fellow vampire! I'm right behind ya (sm)
Hey, stick figures would be okay... heaven knows we're ALL thin in THIS city!!

Thanks for the fun ;-)
She is a fellow MT. I thought it was the right thing to do as many might know her. why?
x
Thank you fellow Northeaster. I'll try it! sm

I'm a Mainer.  It's getting chilly tonight.  I'm not happy. $2.499 for heating oil here and old man winter is coming. I'll break out the heating pad. :)


Thank goodness we have a wood backup and some wood.  I've already told the hubby and kids to break out their socks and sweaters because that thermostat will NOT go above 65 this winter.


to fellow psych major
I would like to start working in the field before I get my BA.  Do you know how many credits you would need in order to do that, and is an AA degree far enough to begin work?  You're a lot closer than me so I figured you might know this.  It would be a big weight off my shoulders knowing I could work within three years rather than 7, which seems so long.  Thanks in advance
fellow animal lovers/MTs

boycott Iams pet food - they have been charged of horrible animal cruelty in testing their food, see web site below. 


 


www.peta.org/


good morning fellow MTs
Does anyone have a used C phone for sale. E-mailed a few people on board who said they had one but have not heard back from either one. Thank's in advance....
A fellow co-worker said it was all mucked up

last week.  I think she's off today though so haven't heard.  Wouldn't doubt it. 


Ok to snag this and send to a few fellow MTs? sm
This really rings a bell for me, and I know it would a few friends of mine, also. I would never copy it and send it on without asking permission, though.

Merry Christmas!
Fellow QAs/editors: Using a mouse 8 hrs a day
is really making my right hand hurt.  Has anyone found a mouse that's more comfortable?  TIA!
Just wanted to say STAY SAFE to my fellow Tx MTs. sm
I am in East Texas and although we don't expect the hard hit, very high potential for flooding, tornadoes, and power outages.  Everyone take care of yourself and prepare if you haven't already. 
Good 4U! Fellow people-pleaser here LOL.nm

OT - Restoration of faith in fellow humans.....
Homeless man receives rewards worth $4,000 for honesty
7/25/2006, 9:55 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — A homeless man is finding out that it pays to be honest.

Charles Moore, who found and turned in nearly $21,000 worth of U.S. savings bonds, has received rewards worth $4,000, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.

Moore, 59, was originally given $100 from the son of the deceased bond owner, but residents here and in other states decided that wasn't enough.

A Belleville man sent him eight trash bags full of returnable bottles and a bowl of coins. Three people pledged a combined $2,500, while two Troy businessmen donated $1,200, a shopping spree at a men's clothing store and a lead on a job.

"I was thankful for it," said Moore, who lost his job in Toledo, Ohio, as a roofer, moved back to his native Michigan and can't find a job.

David C. Smith, of Albuquerque, N.M., gave Moore $1,000. Smith said he and his fiancee wouldn't have thought twice about what to do if the bonds had belonged to them.

"We would have given him the whole amount, period," Smith said. "No questions asked."

Moore said he plans to use the money to find an apartment.

He was searching for returnable bottles in a trash bin when he made the discovery last week. Moore took the bonds to a 24-hour walk-in homeless shelter, where a staffer made some phone calls and tracked down the owner's family.

___

Information from: The Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com
I'd make fellow VLC students aware, to
nm
Hey fellow Montanans, I'm in Lolo, crazy!. nm
nm
Wow...cold reply. No empathy for a fellow MT at all. nm
s
You are welcome! I'm glad to help my fellow MTs. And to answer your philosophical
questions...  it does seem they stack the deck against us.  So that's why we have be sneaky, more clever, and technically savvy!
Nice to see a fellow dirt-roader. :-) nm
nm
Fellow of the American Association of Medical Transcription
x