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We take one long one a year, usually...

Posted By: Carly d on 2006-09-23
In Reply to: Question for everyone. Do you take annual vacations. If so, where? We take 3 or 4. nm - MQer

about 3 to 4 weeks, drive cross country to see my family in Phillly. Take a different route each time. We also take about 5 to 6 three to five day trips a year and several overnighters throughout the year. We are fortunate, my husband works 14 days a month (split between 3 on 4 off, 4 on 3 off) and I have 3 days off each week. I just take unpaid leave days a few times a year. It is important to enjoy life and not work yourself to death, money is not everything!


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We do at least 3 a year, but only 1 is long - sm
In the summer we try to do a week somewhere (5-6 nights); and then in Fall and Spring we try to do a weekend trip, VA Beach or Nags Head, NC. I take off my 1 job, but my own account I will work if I have to (they changed their clinic hours so now I don't have weekend work usually, so that is nice). I also take the kids up to my dad's several times over the summer to visit, see friends, and take them to various places we like to go; that is not much of a vacation for me as I usually still work and I have the kids with no help from DH as he does not come with us. But I enjoy the 1:1 time with the girls.
Sure did...you been around for a long, long year

I live in Kentucky and we try to take a long weekend in the fall and go to Gatlinburg every year!

It is so beautiful down there in the fall with the leaves changing.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  We don't mind that Gatlinburg is too comericial, we have kids and it's fun for them.  Always do Dollyworld when here are there!  The kids love it.  We always rent a chalet when we go.  This year I think we are going to go into North Carolina and see the Trail of Tears drama Unto These Hills about the Cherokee Indians.


I'm just in love with the Smokey Mountains!


Mine are in year-round thank goodness! They've started their new year 2 months ago.
x
Union diesil mechanic - good pay, great benefits. We swap year to year on who brings home more sm
money.....but I am an IC and he has all the benefits...health insurance/dental that the company pays for, pension plan, 401k, etc.  Factor all of that in and he makes way more than I do.
to cowgirl - Last I knew, last year the job paid $25,000/year no taxes, etc.
The hospital was bombed about a year ago, but not a lot of damage, very minimal damage.
44-year-old WF, M, Texas, 3 grown kids, just had 26 year wedding anv.
nm
nope, still crunching last few days of year to hit my 50k this year. how can you when you haven'
;
Nothing this year. We ALWAYS got a cool surprise in the past, but this year nothing. :-( nm
d
After I went to a 1-year MT course at a vocational school, it was so bad that I did the 2-year colle
Not only did I finally receive the proper training, but the woman on the advisory board hired and mentored me. I also joined the local AAMT and networked. Good luck. I know how frustrating it can be. A community college will have a good program to include medical language, MT courses taught by local MTSOs, business English, anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, etc.
I hate Instant Text. It is expensive, long long learning
curve, and too much distraction for me.
How long should I wait after applying for a position before I follow-up. It has been as long as two
without hearing from some.  Just wondering if I should send an e-mail to follow-up to see if they received my resume or not.  I don't want to offend anyone but feel two weeks should be long enough for someone to at least acknowledge my resume and that I have applied for a position.  Right now I would accept anything even a note saying no thanks.  Any advice would be appreciated.  I haven't had to apply for a job for the past 10 years so I am a bit rusty at this.  Thanks again for any advice. 
Congrats! How long have you been a MLS and how long did you study for the test!

Please see message. I have three daughters with long, long hair.
I also have long hair down to my waist and my three girls have hair that long too. My daughter brought them home from school last year. I was devestated and grossed out!!!! I have never had to deal with lice. Anyway, we did the treatments and two of my girls broke out in a severe rash with the OTC stuff. Their little heads were so sore!! I thought I was being meticulous with eggs, only to find them hatching again down the road. A nurse at the pediatricians office suggested I try oil to suffocate them since my girls were allergic to the lice solution. I bought a huge bottle of veggie oil and dumped it on all three heads, plus my own. I then wrapped the heads in platic wrap and then a towel. I left this on for 30 minutes. It takes a while to wash out the oil, but we never, ever had the lice or eggs again!!! If you try this, make sure you put on an old shirt and put a towel around your shoulders. Obviously we were desperate, but we all have such long hair and very thick hair so I was willing to try anything. And I figured there was no chemicals involved so that was pretty safe. And it sure did help my littles ones since their scalps were pretty raw from the solution. Hope this helps and Good luck!
It's been a long, long time since I've used a C-phone, sm
but I do think jobs can be paused.
I think he makes $700,000.00 a year, and if they ask him to walk before his first year MQ has...sm

to pay him a cool 1 million dollars.  You can check this out at the Medquist website.   I think the CFO makes $350,000 a year, and the head of IT makes $250.000 a year.


P.S.  This does not include the perks, like expense account, car allowance, sign-on bonus, etc. 


Our 16 year old son has been working for a year now to pay for his truck.
He's learning how to sand and do body work and how the engine and transmission go together. My parents didn't buy cars for my siblings and I either. I had a 20+ year old beater car until I could afford to move up to a a newer one.

I see all the nice new cars parked in the high school parking lot every day. It's nice that so many disrespectful punk kids get handed something nicer to drive than what all the teachers drive. Oh, well. Honestly, I think most of them borrow Mommy or Daddy's car or are the child of a doctor who can afford to hand them everything.

Hopefully, my kids will take better care of their cars because they bought and built them on their own. You're not going to grow up to be responsible if you don't work hard for something and expect Mommy and Daddy to bail you out all the time.

Oh, my Dad lectured us on even allowing our child to have a vehicle because Dad didn't have one until after he had worked his way through college, lettered on the football team, got straight As, lettered on the baseball team, yadda yadda. He either walked or hitched a ride. Yeah, well, times were different back then, Daddy-O. LOL At least my kid has the opportunity to work and earn his own car.
IC - 30 hours week, $98K last year. So far this year - 28K. sm
Individual IC - own account(s).
Not me, owed last year, and expect to owe this year- sm
or break even, had more expenses this year. Only owed $200 but still don't want to owe at all. Need to start doing estimated tax payments again so I don't owe! Guess I will get off my butt and do that this year.
I had a problem with this for a long, long time sm
I have always worked days, like from 6-3. Over the last few years, it didn't matter how much sleep I got, I became real groggy between 7 and 11. Really shoots the day. Talked to my doctor and he said my blood pressure pills were the culprit but he refused to change me to another brand or dosage since I have multiple aneurysms (2 in the brain). My BP has been stable for a long time and he wants to "keep it on the low side". I tried taking them before I went to bed instead of early in the morning, but then I had headaches all day. So, I am changing to a night shift for a few months so I can sleep when those pills kick in and so far it is working pretty good. I stay mostly awake during my shift and die when I hit the bed from 6 am to 10 am, then I lay down again later in the afternoon for 2-3 hours. I still get 6-7 hours of sleep, it's just split up during the day, plus I am mostly awake now when I sit down to type. I don't have to deal with the heat in my office, either. It tends to warm up real fast in here with the south sun on the house and 2 pc's running all day, even with the air conditioner on.
Way back when, a long, long time
ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I had my own accounts also and some years cleared $75,000.  Yes it can be done, but you need to have your own accounts.  Also lots of delivery, and other duties involved.  I work for a large national now and make much less, but I got tired of accountants, having to deal with hardware problems, deadlines, driving deliveries, printing, printers, etc.  So I decided to simplify my taxes and stay home and just type.  Don't have to worry about computers either, because the company will just send me a new one. 
Long, long files. Seemed like they'd never end! I'd never go back to VA again. nm
s
I've been doing this a long, long time...

I used to make $70,000 and up a year and did so for most of the late 80s and 90s (one girl used to make six figures a year working 7 days a week!)  Because we were making more money than the supervisors and Medical Records Directors in hospitals, they began to switch to transcription services which were sprouting up all over the place.  Plus AAMT came into existence and even though in the beginning it claimed it was to fight for transcriptionists (although assured us it was NOT a union), they eventually morphed into an organization that was more management friendly.  They developed the "guidelines" and the 65-char line.  That was the beginning of the end for those high-end wages.  Then all those mickey mouse transcription schools popped up, and now outsourcing overseas.  YES, we're complaining. 


Been in this biz a long, long time, 30+ years and....sm
I love/loved MTing. However, things have changed so much during these years. The job definitely gets easier; don't have to look up much, can decipher ESLs much easier, in other words, you get pretty comfortable with things and you have confidence in yourself. The more experience you have the easier the job, but....

I actually made more money 10 years ago!! We didn't have speech recognition and you actually got paid for headers/footers, demographics, carbon copies, etc., you got paid for what you did fairly; today, I am not so sure.

You will feel burned out at times, but that passes and you find you like your job again.

Good luck to you!!
come on.. you cannot compare a 2-year-old and a 15-year-old
x
46/F I have a 9-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.
.
Got $$$$ back last year but this year
I have to pay them, sold a property I never lived in but I had enough sense to set aside $45,000 so just waiting on them to send me my WT2s so I can get started.
A long, long time ago, I was going thru
a really bad time emotionally and physically. I was suffering, and my transcribing suffered. I assure you - if you are to the point of not paying your rent, literally, and needing food stamps, there is something else going on in your life than current transcription rates. We are all in this industry and many are thriving, most getting along comfortably. If you are literally to the point of food stamps, you honestly would be a fool to continue. I blamed it on my job, on my line rate, on everything but the honest truth that I was ill and was NOT working as I should or could. It is a really sad thing that you keep spreading this propaganda that MTs in our culture are doomed and now destined for food stamps. Food stamps are not something to toss around lightly, as you would know if you ever had to use them. Please let's not be quite so dramatic. Again, if you are really in those dire straits, you really need to face that MTing is not the fit for you, personally, and do something about it rather than blame our industry. You dwell on the past, but we can't do that. While you may have made other wages 20 years ago, may I remind you that we were pounding away on IBM Selectrics using layers of paper and bottles of white out, going crazy trying to rewind tapes over and over to get that dang word, with no idea what an Expander was. Technology is fantastic. Things have changed, but things are still great in this industry, and in this world. Those who change and can adapt will be fine, but you need to recognize that most of us are not ready for food stamps.  
A gross line IS a gross line regardless if it's 90 characters long or 1 character long... SM

I'm very sorry that your lines are 90 characters line and you get paid by gross lines.  You are cheating yourself - that's not my fault.  You cannot change the definition of a gross line.  So I gues I'm not understanding what you are trying to say.  Now if you are trying to say that your line equals 90 characters and that's how you figure your lines, than you are not using gross lines.  You have defined a line to be 90 characters, whereas most MTSOs define a line as 65 characters.  If that is the case, then I must say again, you are cheating yourself.


So which is it, do you get paid by gross lines or by a 90 character line?


Ask me next year. sm
I quit as an IC telecommunting for a hospital where I was making $35,000 a year, and started for a national as an employee in April. So far, only made $4600 with them. Big OUCH! But just getting the hang of expanders and the 4 accounts I have.

Can't wait to see my end of year :(
less and less every year - sm
Used to be about $35,000, now is about $30,000
Can RAM die? I put in more RAM last year so I should have 768 -- but it says 256 now- sm
anyone have any ideas?  I am positive after I put in the new card back in early 02/2005 it read 756. So if anyone had any insight or suggestions I'd appreciate it.....might explain why my computer has been a bit slow lately...we have also had a lot of power surges/outages lately, but I do have battery back up now (after it wiped my work out 2 x), maybe it got fried from that?  TIA.
About a year now. Don't like it. NM
x
3 year old
I am very glad you have a happy ending. A friend of mine, who is an MT, had the same thing happen to her with a tragic ending. Her son had drowned in a pond on their property. He was also 3 years old. They just don't realize the danger.

Make sure he removes his make up before he goes to sleep, LOL.
Big S does. For one year.
I am actually thinking of dictating the information into a microcassette and then hiring a typist to type it out for me.


year-old
I believe I put it in Autocorrect as -yo and then expended to -year-old and it finally worked.
I kept a log my first year but never again. NM
x
-year-old
When you save -year-old in your autotext check the formatted text box NOT the plain text. This should work.
I did it one year...sm
I lived in PA and was losing about $300 a week because of being out of work.  It wasn't really worth it because they only gave me $20 a week to make up for it.  I did it over the internet, so paperwork wasn't a factor, but keeping up with the check-in dates got to be a pain for so little money.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there is much help for us during the slow time.  Unemployement isn't just for the totally unemployed.  If you are losing work due to things beyond your control, that still counts.  Hope this helps!
Well, I did get a cat the next year...
so Dorothy was treated to those three cans of cat food! However, she didn't like 'em.
Maybe next year
she can blind carbon copy everyone and nobody will be the wiser.
Anyone else with an 18-year-old
My son is pulling the "greater than thou" attitude.  I don't know if this is his way of getting me to kick him out of the house or what.  He is to start college next year and we had told him he could stay here to save on rent, but I don't think it is going to work out.  Also, what obligation do we, as parents, have as far as assisting in college payment?
> 1st of the year I think she said. nm
x
My ten year old said to me the other day, sm
Mom, you look like a Saint.  I said, "a Saint"?  He said, "ya a Saint Bernard" 
So much for the new year being better than the last.

Life could be a lot worse, right?  I know, but I still have no work even at a different job.  I still have no money.  My bills are still behind because my jobs have just snowballed in the past three months.  Home life is the same old, same old.  Can't get the kids to pitch in without complaining.  Still can't get them up in the morning despite moving their bedtimes back.  Can't get the husband to cut back on the budget.  His job has been really slow since Thanksgiving, too.  Christmas was the same old thing.  I wound up returning my Christmas presents again this year.  Nobody gives refunds even with gift receipts so I get to use the gift cards to buy groceries.  I don't know why I thought the new year would be any different.  It's so darn depressing.  What's the point of trying so hard when nothing ever changes?


What year?
x
$700-$800 F/T, although 3-year-old
is constant interruption. Not her fault, of course. She is going to the sitter's starting next week. I have seen how much of a difference it makes when she is not around.
It's a man's year this year!
They are unstoppable. It's too early to call for me, but my best friend thinks it's going to be Elliott. He is good. Beautiful voice.
I was going to do this last year
but figuared my then 3 year old would just splash my laptop.  It would be nice to have one but I don't think I would get much work done with my son.  He is an only child and wants to be played with a lot of the time
One 3-year-old and trying for my second!!

I have only been doing this for a year..

and I am fully aware of all of the above, except the (GERD). Like the others said though, that is just probably how the account wants it done. My account wants the 2 spaces after each period though, so that is how I do it.


I personally would not worry about what other people are doing. If they are not doing their jobs right, that will be their problem. By correcting the above though, you only benefit yourself.


I would suggest entering some of those in your expander. I have bid put in to expand out to b.i.d. The same goes for q4h, expands out to q.4 h. Once you enter all those in, you won't have to worry about doing it wrong anymore. It will correct them for you. It doesn't get any easier than that. Good luck!