Not MT specific, but try half.com. I buy all kinds of books from there all the time. nm

• Tips 'N Techniques by Cheryl Flanders - Jennie
  • Her new edition added tips for XP and 2003. If you upgrade your word - it's worth it IMO. nm
  • Not MT specific, but try half.com. I buy all kinds of books from there all the time. nm - passing thru

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I loved WP5.1 from the getgo....and still love it and all my private MDs are fine with it - they merely convert the floppy diskette over to whatever program they use.  No complaints SO FAR and it's been TEN YEARS!!!!  *lol*

I'm too busy trying to juggle 3 jobs, and spending time reading a book has become a luxury I just can't afford.  Can really relate to the OP. 

I keep hearing how great the economy is, and I'm starting to wonder if that's simply just not true.

work type.  I've learned the dictators, done the macros, now  they need to hire new MTs because the workload has increased, so they switch me to a very difficult account, doing everything but my normal work type.  Does this make sense?  I'm productive on my original account, not productive on new account, plus I'm majorly stressed. I do ESL 90% of the time but the new account is really horrible, not only ESL but they mumble and the quality of the dictation is bad.  If you took a new hire and put them on this account and they stuck it out, maybe they wouldn't think these dictators would be so bad.  I've talked with the MTSO and they say they'll switch me back and that lasts 2 weeks and then back to this horrible account.   It would be different if they called and said we need you to do this account for a couple of weeks, but it doesn't pay enough for me to do from now on.

I understand this is the way the business is and my griping probably isn't going to help anything, but I just had to get it out.

have Stedman's Medical Dictationary on CD and I do use it quite a bit, but that's more because the actual print dictionary is so darn heavy to pick up and look a word up!

There are 2 kinds of speech recognition. Front-end, like Dragon Dictate, depends on the dictator stopping and correcting his mistakes as he goes. This is what your client should be using. Back-end speech recognition, like what InfraWare or eScription uses, recognizes that correction should occur after the fact by a qualified MT. Those systems provide the Editor with a first draft where the text is tied to the type for easy editing. Your client is confused - not you. Dragon Dictate was not meant to be used this way.

Your company didn't have to send you anything. A card is a gift -- which is optional. Since when should a recipient of a gift get to dictate what the gift is or is not?

Also, I don't think you mentioned the size of your company. Consider that not only is your attitude about the whole thing probably way off, but also you're not being realistic to think a company would have time to send each employee an individualized message.

They remembered you. They took time to send SOMETHING. Be glad and grateful. Did you send them anything?

I can understand U.S. companies wanting to cut costs and make a profit, and that of course is why they offshore.  Even though it's at a huge cost to American workers.  Which of course ultimately hurts the overall economy, because displaced workers have much less money to spend on goods & services, etc. 

Offshoring isn't likely to be outlawed (though I sure wish it were, especially when it comes to sensitive records, such as financial and medical records!)  But don't you think that if the U.S. is going to allow companies to send work offshore, those companies should have to pay a pretty hefty TAX for that privilege?  

Here in Calif., our infrastructure such as roads, bridges, school system, fire and police departments, etc. is crumbling, and always needs more money.  So of course they continue to raise taxes on us working-class people - the same ones whose jobs are going offshore!  They get a little from the Lottery, and a little more from Indian casinos, who are paying the state for the privilege of running gambling casinos in a state where gambling casinos aren't legal!  There is a tax on liquor and tobacco.  All of those things aren't really good for people, and should be taxed.

Well, offshoring work away from hard-working, middle-class Americans isn't good for people, either!  So don't you think companies should be encouraged to keep their work onshore by a TAX that would not only help each state in this country pay for things, but also remove the huge profits those companies make by taking good jobs away from Americans?  Maybe that money could even be used to save our failing Social Security system.          

You, the parent, want something done.

They, the child, want something(s).....

When the something you want gets done by the child...

The child gets something.

Deals and contracts - works every time....*S* 

The "account" that I do - I currently transcribe for only one facility - does not offshore - so only transcriptionists are hired that can produce the work required without needing someone to edit the transcription.  I understand that editing can be in either form - correcting or filling in the blanks of someone who isn't qualified to produce a final document (as in a new transcriptionist's work) or VR (which I have done with past accounts).   As I said, I am fortunate to have that opportunity and not all are so fortunate.  I also have the luxury, because of years of only acute care experience, to have had a choice in who I work for.  I know that isn't the case for everyone.  I am also not currently the sole supporter of my family and I have been in that position in the past. 

However, I think that if each of us who personally has the ability to do so - economically-speaking - that we try not to make it easy for those companies offshoring who are asking for our years of experience to train their transciptionists.   In a perfect world.....