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Simple truth, if blunt, from National MT. SM

Posted By: MissIndigo on 2008-12-15
In Reply to: Well, I do about 1800-1900 lines a day - National MT

Please note that the figures cited are averages--a lot of people do significantly better working 40 hours a week, or less. And that's the simple truth too.

As is the reality that the higher earners are pros who've been at it for some years--it makes a tremendous difference in line counts to not have to look terms up. They're typically very familiar with their accounts--busy knocking out reports instead of trying to figure out a physian's name. They're either killer typists or have built Expanders with tens of thousands of entries, doubling their typing speed, or both.

And they're disciplined workers who put in a real 30-40 hours a week of production time--not fooling themselves that they're working when they're not, whatever the reason, including slow periods in work. If an employer can't keep them working most of the time, they find a new job. Their high line counts earn incentive pay bonuses--consistently--that bump their base pay a whole cent or two per line. Or they're just paid more per line because they're good and they and their employer know it.

These are uncertain times, and incomes are going down for some, including some pros. And the shift to production pay is very hard for many who are accustomed to being paid based on the hours they show up; 8 hours a day of genuine typing, pushing, pushing to knock quality work out quickly, is much harder. But it's still possible for a skilled MT to make decent and even good money 40 hours a week.


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The plain and simple truth is
if we push, they will shove, and they will shove us right out of our jobs. Down the line sure it might help someone when they get tired of outsourcing, but we would all be out of jobs before then. I for one cannot afford that.

We can get mad, yell, scream, stomp our feet and demand better pay, then start looking for another job. We have no leverage and we are only one piece of the puzzle, not to mention the most dispensable piece.
The truth will set you free and the truth is more low level income people w/o education or proper
skills to keep up their home or train their children live in trailer homes and low income housing. If that sets you off, maybe you should not visit these threads or read the posts regarding others viewpoints on trailer parks. They have zoning laws against them in many communities because they draw undesirable people are not particularly pleasing to the community as a whole, bringing property values down. If you have issues with this, seek out the government in various communities and have them change the laws. Fact is fact and you cannot dispute these facts.
The truth stings sometimes and I congratulate MTStars for having the kahoonas to post truth.
Tired of being lied to. I'm a big girl and can handle the truth. Why can't you?
Opened a can of worms, eh? Truth hurts, but it is TRUTH!

8 cpl is about the top out in the US MT industry. If you're making more consider yourself lucky because it just might be snatched away from you at any moment. For the 14 cent per liner, good for you! You went out and got your own accounts. Others should follow your example. As far as the "stupid" MT comment, keep in mind that she was not consistent and **often** had one excuse after another not to work, yet I could see her online and when I would ask her why she was online she would give VERY lame excuses.  Also, keep in mind that I also was the one who helped this gal out monetarily to begin with and she took advantage of my generosity.  Don't make me out to be the bad gal here just because I own a service.  The shoe could easily be on your foot.


So, NEWS FLASH, if you have an MT position that is paying more than 8 cpl, consider it a real blessing and pray that your job isn't outsourced offshore. 


Being blunt is okay and

surgically, there will be no more kids.


Yes, I have made poor choices. Of the five men I have dated in my entire life, I married and divorced one, dated one for 6 months, 2.....I dated for two months, and have been involved with this one for 3 years. And yes, that includes dating during high school. There has been a total of 4.


But yes, I am a very hard worker, owned 1/2 a dairy farm, I know of hard work, expenses and hard times.


Sorry to be blunt, but some of it came by way of her own doing.
She has made poor choices, BUT, she sounds like a hard working forward looking lady who CAN make it on her own.  She just needs to unload the loser boyfriend, learn from her mistakes, and just concentrate on her kids and her own life and put men on the back burner for now, lest there be MORE kids brought into an unstable relationship.
Yes, it's blunt, but it is what it is...sm
and I agree with you.

Too many MTs are still graduating from MT schools which lured them into their program by false pretenses, for their profits only.
These newbies do not get any jobs, there aren't enough.

Additionally EMR and VR also make many MTs obsolete.

When will people realize that it does not pay anymore to get into the MTing field.
You can be honest w/o being blunt

There was a huge discussion about negativity a few days back on the main board, and many were in denial about rude comments taking place. WELL  - HERE YOU GO.  Prime example.  You know - you can be honest without being blunt and rude.  Did that ever occur to you?


Being blunt, does not mean being rude!!
Just because you do not like the answer, does not mean it is rude. Not everything needs to be "sugar coated."
She was blunt but in a nice way. sm
I don't mind hearing what I need to hear if it is done in a nice way.

I am guilty of not minding my grammar on MTstars. I just kind of do the same thing I do when emailing friends or something. If it is a problem, I will watch my grammar on here. Personally, I don't think I am the only one who does it though.
Geesh, you get flamed for being blunt and you
x
A small national is a national company that is smaller
than a big national.  There are a few "big" nationals, where they have hundreds, if not thousands of employees.   I work for what I call a small national, only has about 30 employees.    An MTSO could also be considered a small national. 
I went from national to small back to national
My large national has all the resources and money to operate successfully and have decent platform, etc., to work on, the small company did not, and I went back to the national.
You don't have to believe, the truth is the truth. I, too, have seen with my own two eyes and ha

years experience as an MT.  I say misfortune because MTs with this much experience usually have gigantic egos and feel like they've "seen it all and done it all."  They simply don't make mistakes.  Not possible, no way.  This particular MT became irate with me.  She actually threw her 20+ years experience in my face and said "I've been doing this for over 20 years, I think I know what I'm doing!"  It was painfully obvious, she did not have a clue.  She'd been doing it wrong for 20 years and no one ever told her, so she thought she was right.


I had another MT with 10 years experience call me to scream at me and hung up on me when I tried to explain her errors to her.


The plain truth is, some people can't take criticism whether it be constructive or destructive.  They don't like to be wrong or be told their wrong.  Egos get in the way.  We are all guilty of letting our egos get in the way from time to time, but in this field, you need to be willing to admit you're wrong and you need to be able to accept criticism gracefully and give criticism diplomatically.


As an editor, I encourage MTs to let me know if they disagree with any corrections I've made.  I am happy to provide MTs with my reference materials and resources.  I am happy to admit when I am wrong and I am happy to say that I make mistakes too.  Just don't try to tell me that an MT with 16 years experience can't possibly be making terminology mistakes - she can and probably has in the past and will again in the future.


Simple as this!
Then you absolutely must stay where USA has jurisdiction and that is absolutely not in a foreign country.  Those are the rules and laws and everyone knows that up front.  The troops, the FBI, the CIA, the US police do not help you when you get drunk and/or lost in a foreign country.     But you know that don't you?
It is really quite simple. sm
If you are a good MT, which most of us are, and all of a sudden you start getting a bunch of crap.  I was very happy to be with a company that afforded you the luxury of being an MT, but yet a "hospital employee".  This was a very innovative thing and I jumped on the band wagon.  All the money is in ops, surgeons, they are predictable, macro-friendly, organized, don't flip through the charts and make me the most money.  After being with this company for over 3 months, at my skill level, and only to get cued 10 ops, most of which were rejected and cherry picked, that is a HUGE sign.  I did not tell "them" that is why I quit, they need to figure it out for themselves.  I personally liked the team leader, but she is obviously pooling work out to her favorites, and not giving new MTs a chance - hence they will still "be with the original team", not realizing that people unfortunately get sick, die, move on, and the "original team" will not last forever.  I am so glad to be out of there.  Don't know if new company is going to be any better, have to wait and see.
I think both, but not as simple as that.
We do all make choices, but in some instances there are very few choices.  Yes, we should first avail ourselves of education.  Basic education is available to everyone in this country.  After high school, education becomes harder to obtain, but it is available to everyone.  You do have to have either transportation or a computer, and you have to have time to participate, but if you want it bad enough you can find a way.  All that being said, if the company you work for suddenly closes, and there are few jobs available where you live, you can find yourself in a bad situation that you did not create.  I think government assistance is important for people that find themselves in a temporary bad situation, but should not be allowed to be a way of life, except in the case of disability. 
Very simple....
You tell them you're going digital, and they can either join you in the 21st century or be left behind.
well that seems simple enough! thanks
xx
Might try Simple FTP....sm
They have an option where you can log on as a guest and try out.
So simple, when you know what to do!
Thanks, that worked by just turning off and back on. I am so techology challenged!
simple
It is not your chair, keyboard, et cetera causing you to be so uncomfortable...getting up at least every 2 hours and walking the floors for 5 minutes works wonders in rejuvenating the body back to comfort level. It works for me and I didn't have to spend any more on equipment, hmmmm, not sure about the carpet yet though...LOL 
Hi - I wish it were that simple. sm
I'm not able to use Express Scribe due to company policy against outside players. The player is the one that is built in to InScribe. The sound quality is excellent, but there's no way to access the player that I can see, except as mentioned above, and those options have been turned off.

Thanks for your input. :)

Also may be something as simple as
if an injection is needed into the arm, for influenza, tetanus, whatever, that could cause soreness, they might look to see which is dominant and inject into the opposite.
Seems simple. Look for co. that will allow U to
x
Simple as that then.
If you can't make enough money to even survive as a speech rec editor, then you should choose option C. That is the point.

But, the big nationals, or should I say big globals, are not the only game in town, and if you choose option A and learn how to edit efficiently and improve your production then good for you. Editing and straight transcription require different skill sets some folks just simply cannot make the transition.


Simple explanation
The industry is in tremendous flux, and with so many unstable companies job hopping by transcriptionists is normal. Nobody is nearly organized enough to keep a blacklist. More simple explanation is that every ad generates 1000s of resumes. I once got a reply two months after the fact. Not rude, nor anything to be paranoid about, though certainly not a pleasant experience.
Simple answer:

Coast---------------------------------->


Find someone you can just "unload on" - a sounding board - we can do it if you want. 


Hunker down.


Your first goal should be to GET HIM OUT.  You don't move.  You GET HIM OUT.  You may be able to get legal advice on how to do that from counselors at any abused wife shelters or community police officer.  (of course do that on the sly) 


Find out where you stand legally on getting him out with the least amount of hassle and start getting legitimate CHILD SUPPORT from him.  That means $$ to pay for day care.  None of this 50/50 stuff.  You are giving him an easy way out and you are still going to be in a bind.  DON'T DO IT.


Forget about buying the house.


More AND cheaper ones are on the horizon, trust me.


This way you will still have your "downpayment" that will be growing interest - and it will be tucked away and you will still have your IRA for emergencies.


One thing that bothers me - you said YOU WORK NIGHTS and HE WORKS DAYS.  So he gets to sleep/while the kids are sleeping- at night, right?  But you have to take care of the toddlers all day and try to grab naps, right?  Do you get this uneven picture here?


That's what "working from home" turns out to be - you get to work all night and odd times during the day, but never get to sleep.  Between doing housework, tending babies, dealing with angry men, there is no life.  And MTing is stressful.


Forget the house.


Get him out.


Get childsupport started.  You don't need him there to babysit - he's sleeping while he is "babysitting"!


Save your money.


There, is that a plan? 


All things will fall into place after that.  Who knows, maybe you can be director of medical records instead of MTing at the hospital with your schooling. 


 


Just a simple question
Don't get yourself all worked up here, or you might just find yourself hitting the bottle soon! LOL!
simple MD error

They forgot to turn off the microphone before they said the words, OR they forgot to use the proper commands to direct you up to the location they wanted.

Had they done either, the words never would have appeared in the first place.


simple answer to

They think that typing medical reports make them as smart as doctors.


Simple solution
Keep the door closed and the cat out! Cats CAN indeed be trained that certain areas are off limits, but nothing works better than a keeping the cat out of the room. Problem solved, yes?
The solution is simple
Report that MT to your boss. If the MT continues then report to your boss again along with your boss's boss. Keep climbing the chain of command until SOMEONE does something about this MT.
simple question but here goes...

why do some messages have those yellow markers in front of them, they seem to have a lot more  views  than the other messages..can't figure it out...and it's probably something simple..thx.


simple question

I'm relatively new to transcription, so this is probably a dumb question, but here goes...


How does a C-phone work?  Is this live dictation?


 


you sound new and simple
nm
Simple -- do the math
Pull up one of your old documents and figure out your gross line count and then divide characters by 70.   See how the totals compare.  Do not know what your margins are in your gross line, if they are longer  with margins at .5 and .5 versus then you could come out ahead but if they are at 1. and 1. then you will be close to even  with an increase of 1.5.   But again would be simple to figure out from one of your old documents.   Just me 2 cents worth.  Patti
I think the answer is simple
some people are just faster typists than others. I had 2 bosses that both typed circles around me and yet I average 130-140 wpm. I think you could have all kinds of macros, etc. and still if your speed is slower, well that says it all.
Very simple procedure
Download your voice files from the email to directory (folder) on your hard drive (usually should create special one just for this) you know you will always use for docking these recordings. Then open ES and click on the Load square at top of program. This will open the directories on your computer. Go find the one where you just downloaded the email recordings to, click on the one you want to bring into ES (one by one or batch). Then click the "load" key at the bottom of that screen and you should see them coming into the ES window. Takes a while for them to install if they're long. It's only complicated the first time!
Keep it simple - make it fun
I wouldn't get too much into the nitty gritty, but just give them an idea of what it is about.  Most people don't know that transcription means listening to doctors and typing.  Something simple as that can go a long way. 
Well, all decisions should be so simple! SM
The very best of wishes to you. It can work great--The key to making it work great is organization and self discipline. I presume like almost all of us you'll be paid on a production basis instead of the salary you were used to?

You may find it works best to split your workday into blocks, with the assistance of your husband, of course. An hour before the babies wake (if there IS one!), 3 hours while a babysitter watches them, 2 hours at night. That sort of thing.

Interruptions absolutely kill production and turn workdays from 6 hours of intensive work into those 12-hour marathons people complain about.

Let us know how it's going for you.
It is very simple to understand...

She most likely has never heard this dictated before.  She is probably unsure if she is hearing it correctly.  She is questioning it, which is her right. 


Probably a simple mistake...sm
You know this is not supposed to be perfect. We are posting on here on free time when we let our guard down. Sometimes we don't go back and proofread our posts. When we are working we proofread and make sure things are right. I assume you never make mistakes?
You can't-- simple answer-- I use my - sm
autotext for that.
This may sound like a simple
question, but can you run both Microsoft Word and WordPerfect on the same computer???  My kids have my old one and I have recently bought a lap tap and MS Word to install on it.  Since they have to use my new computer for school work as the computers/teacher's programs all have MS Word, can I install the Word and keep the WP, or do I need to unstall WP first??? 
Simple enough question
I know exactly what happened on the boards last week with a company going to VR and the hysteria that followed. I saw you there several times and know your feelings about VR. My question was valid and think it deserves an answer.
And a simple Google said nothing
about the lung. End of comments.
Ain't it the truth!!

This is just too much fun!


Yes, that's the truth.... Think about this...
When you play by the rules, work hard, and pay your own way, you are penalized.  When you have 4 kids by age 20, never marry, never finish school, and sit on your butt with an occasional ambulation to the mail box for a free check, you get priority over everyone else.  Our society REWARDS poor choices an penalizes those who try to play by the rules and do things in the right order. 
Isn't that the truth
If you don't give your name, who is going to talk to you in the first place.

Anyone have connections with a nurses UNION who might be interested in taking us on!!!
That is the truth
I know first hand because I was on it, and off it and went what was left for me to do on my account was so bad, I went back on it again. I wanted off again when the letter came out and I was told remember what happened when you went off it the last time, your primary account is worse now, more doctors have been added to the ASR.