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Yes, holidays are notoriously stress-inducing

Posted By: see message on 2005-11-22
In Reply to: Anyone else stressed out by Thanksgiving? - RadGuy

I'm the opposite of you; I have 4 brothers, no sisters. Guess who does 95% of the cooking and prep? Not that I mind really, but I guess it would be nice if someone actually VOLUNTEERED to do a little more without being asked. Last year my husband and I did all the cleanup after the meal while my sister-in-law parked her fat butt on the couch. One jerk brother and his equally insensitive wife are not invited 'cause they treat all of us poorly, including my elderly mother to whom he owes a substantial amount of money (talk about some bad karma...long story). So, yes, one's baggage and anxieties seem to come bubbling to the surface at this time of year...why else would suicide rates be at their highest during the holidays? My advice is to concentrate on what you are grateful for and focus less on the negativity....that's all I have found I can do personally. You might offer to help with something and ease someone else's stress a bit. Just try to smile and be a compassionate brother/son/whatever.


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I think she means the labor inducing part. NM
NM
Holidays
As an IC, can the company require you to work Thanksgiving and Christmas, I though IC set their own schedule?
Holidays
You would rather ruin their holiday than to tell what this man has done, I don't understand.  Do you really want your mother married to a man like this?  Your excused for putting your head in the sand and ignoring this situation I cannot comprehend.  If you had daughters and their stepfather was doing this to them would you not want to know? 
Alone on the holidays
I spend most of my holidays alone. Since I'm divorced, and kids are grown and married they have to divide time between Mom, Dad, and in-laws (some in-laws are married, some are divorced). It just makes it all easier. I have Christmas with my kids a week before, or a week after, the important thing is we ALL respect each other's space.

I won't say its always easy being alone, but its ok. Sometimes I have the big "dinner" with my best friends family, sometimes not. Several times, I've thought about cooking the whole meal and inviting a homeless family or something, but so far, haven't done that (visitors traumatize my dogs, they rule the roost here).

One way or another, Thanksgiving and Christmas are about giving thanks in my book, we don't all have to sit in one room for that to happen. Also, its a good time to reflect and get to watch what you want on TV!!

One way or the other, I hope you (and anyone else who's alone for the holidays) find happiness and peace.

If you want turkey/ham and the fixin's, give me a call!! LOL
To alone for the holidays

If you mean COMPLETELY alone, there are probably some things you could do - and I don't mean transcribing!!!  Does your area have a meal for the homeless where you could volunteer?  What about at a nursing home, or maybe a childrens' hospital, or a hospice.  Check and see if you could bring baked goods, and spend time with people who don't have a choice about being alone.  Giving of yourself will make you feel great!


Holidays
Every business has rules about working holidays. If you are an employee, you have to follow the rules to keep the peace. Face it - we are medical workers, and hospitals and some offices like urgent cares stay open. I have put in many holiday hours myself, but usually the manager was flexible and could allow a few people to work 4 hours on either Christmas or Thanksgiving. You take turns. Now I work for an outpatient radiology office, and we close for holidays. With my sister in town, I was able to take off Wed, Thurs, Fri, and then the office was closed on Monday for Christmas. It's my first ever real Christmas vacation from work since 1983.
Holidays...
I've worked many of them for years and still do; in fact, now I volunteer for it. I'm second shift, which makes it easier all the way around, and it's and no big deal. I just get through my shift and tell myself it's just another night, which, frankly, it is. I know I'm truly not missing out on much of anything at this stage of my life and frankly, for holidays like xmass, I actually welcome having to go home and work my shift to get away from family, ha-ha. For my sake, the relatives fix it so we can all have a meal together, then I just go on home. Those nights are usually slow, but you do get through them.
Me too. Plus, sometimes those holidays are
very interesting. Unfortunately for the people who are sick or the accidents that happen, but Thanksgiving and Christmas are the ones where the trauma notes and regular notes seem more interesting. Anyway, for me, it is a good way to get away and tune out the loudness and extremeness of the holiday. Too much food, too much noise. Put the head phones on and either veg (waiting for reports) or type and make money.
Anyone getting "Hung For The Holidays?"
U know, by American Idol's bad singer William Hung?
me too! as if the holidays aren't
stressfull enough, throw in the slap in the face thing called a pay check to ice the cake! I'm looking for other avenues to take....
Happy holidays to you all! :)
nm
Over-commercialized like the other holidays. sm
A lot of guys hate to shop and feel pressured into doing so.  Don't know what to buy, etc.  Then, there are always other women who brag about what they got just to stress out everyone else.  If he buys a card, fine.  If not, big deal.
What other companies actually pay for holidays?

It seems that Keystrokes or Webmedx does, or is it someone else.


I do know that are some who pay for holidays.  Can someone help out on this question, please.


I work holidays and I am an IC
dont blame it on that

I take my job very seriously and worked all Thanksgiving week, the day of, the day after, and will work all Christmas week, the night before, the day of, the night after, ETc etc etc

I value my job and I do a good job, it just sucks that there is no loyalty or respect for that from some companies.
We rotate holidays among all the
MTs.
I used to work all holidays but came
up with an idea that has worked for several years now. Even though I am on an account with only one other person, I was stuck with all the holidays. I now work Thanksgiving and have Christmas off. All the other holidays we take turns rotating. Good luck to you!
the holidays and working extra
... it happens every year, people want extra money for the holidays and so everyone is working a little bit extra and in the end, we run out of work.  AND THEN we sit around during our own shifts waiting for work to file in.
I can understand the Happy Holidays (sm)
If an individual wants to say Merry Christmas because that's their holiday, then I can understand that. However, I also understand sales people saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. In the case of retailers, I think they're simply trying to be inclusive rather than exclusive or politically correct. After all, there are many gifts being bought in the stores for the other holidays, too.

You said something to the effect of after all, it IS, Christmas. Yes and no. It is Christmas AND Hanukkah AND Kwanzaa and others. When people try to claim the entire holiday season as theirs, that only creates problems. I think one of the issues non-Christian folks take with this is the arrogance, the attitude that it IS Christmas and I'm going to cram it down your throat whether you like it or not, so there!

It is silly to me that employers of private businesses are telling their people they can't have a "Christmas" party or whatever. If they insist on calling it that, though, I think they should be ready to also have a Hanukkah party and a party for employees of any other religion that wish to have one.
Chrismukwanzika? *lol* but happy holidays nm
x
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM RADGUY!

May 2006 bring you nothing but plentiful work, easy dictators and lots 'o money! Thanx for listening 2 me this year!


Well, we have to "volunteer" for 3 holidays a year
I would rather be off, but at least my kids are grown now, so it's not so bad.  When they were little, I would not work a holiday, but things were different back then.  Oh, well at least it's time and a half. 
Slow for me this a.m., too. Happy Holidays !
x
Holidays and days-off are there for a reason.
Even the strongest-work-ethic people need a rest and a break, in order to not burn out. This is true in all professions, so why should MT be different? The reason we work weekends & holidays, never taking a break, is because MTSOs DO NOT PAY ENOUGH.
don't stress too much about it (sm)
It's really not hard to learn at all.  It may seem overwhelming, I mean all the manuals they send you about it, but honestly, I haven't even opened them, except during training...which BTW, I didn't get paid for...but that's another issue! Anyways, it's fine...I only use the built in expander also, and I like it! You'll be fine...don't stress over it.  Good luck!
stress
I either play with my dog, walk or read something that requires no brain!
Stress
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to relieve stress? I work 8-10 hours a day, have a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old, and a husband who does not believe MT is a real job, and major financial stressors.

I have been slowly losing my hair over the past 6 years which I believe may be due to hormonal shock (2 babies in quick succession) and then stress and maybe adrenal fatigue.

I am hoping a stress-free living will help me regain myself and my hair! Thanks.
Are you getting extra for weekend work and holidays.
:
Yup. Sun-Thurs. I do the Monday holidays. It's fine with me.
dd
If everybody in the office got off for the Jewish holidays, there would be no reason SM
for this person not to get the day off too. You're splitting hairs here because you're intolerant of another person's beliefs.
Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays. :)
Thank you Sheri.

I want to work at your cmopany!
I got a nice message saying happy holidays sm
and be sure your account TAT is still met even though the office is closed. Such wonderful folks!
Happy Holidays to you, too, RadGuy, and all the readers here! nm
xx
I don't celebrate Hallmark holidays. If they forget...(nt)

Do any ICs with their own accounts charge extra for holidays?
nm
The pay is really good, but the stress so-so!
I do have some great MTs that I QA for and I bless them every day LOL. The title is nice on paper, yes. I don't plan on being in this profession forever, but since I do have some type of supervisory under belt, that will be good.
Hand stress

I've transcribed since 1983.  You can lessen hand stress if you observe how you hold your hands as you type.  When I was in my twenties I noticed that there was a real difference in the way I held my hands and how the older transcriptionists (they had their wrists up and hands pointing down at the keyboard).  I have always had my wrists laying on something and my fingers are going up.  I have never had one bit of carpal tunnel or pain whatsoever.


Stress in the office
I'm one of the unlucky ones NOT at home, but still in the office. The stress level in there is making us all sick, both physically and mentally. I would get out of MT and learn to do something else if I didn't think that by the time I finally got through school, I'd be too old to be hired.
Yes, but no. I used to stress over it when we had to eat two meals
between my parents and the in-laws. Then I started hosting, but that was stressful because it was expensive and a lot of other reasons that I won't get into. DH and I got into an argument because he's upset that I refuse to host this year. I've done it for the past several years. We don't have the money and half of our house is ripped apart for repairs, plus I have to work both Wednesday and Friday while all the in-laws are off those days. I don't care. I quit. They can do whatever they want to do. I'm tired of being a people-pleaser.
reduce your stress
i guess you have someone sharing the load. it is hard to reduce your stress level if you are the breadwinner, caretaker, and housekeeper.
STRESS ECHO
Agree with the other poster. More than likely, in my experience, the tech just didn't do a good job and that is why the images are not clear.
What do you do for stress reduction?
I am 100% stressed to the max, all the time. I wish I wasn't so high strung and jittery. So what do you do to relax and reduce stress? I need ideas.
stress reduction
I have lots of hobbies that I enjoy soI can easily immerse myself in one of those and forget my troubles for awhile.  My favorite hobby is scrapbooking.  I also go to the gym daily and that helps reduce stress as well.
Less stress so true
A few of us on this particular discussion feel the same way. I have felt only a tiny degree of stress working overnight transcribing. It is the only luxury time just for me. This is why I switched. It is so quiet. I am not scared the kids will bug me or husband or some emergency at school etc. I love my work at night I get the stats and ops and they are so interesting. I must say I would have died early if I kept days and or second shift because the family has needs. Now, at night I am 100% me and transcribing, my productivity is great. So, if I get cancer I would be surprised because I think that stress makes a person open to all kinds of diseases. To you night owls out there enjoy your peace and quiet, this is your "me" time!
job stress. die or get fired.

i am quite upset.  one of my co-workers passed away.  we here all know it was from job stress, but we are not to admit it and were repremanded so by our superiors.  basically it came down to "die or get fired".  lucky for her she died before she could get fired.


now i am sitting here at work today wondering what the heck am i supposed to do? we cannot talk about the job stress and that is what did her in, but she was sick and getting sicker and this is why she passed away.  she was sick and getting sicker from the stress dawg-gone it. 


nobody gets it.


tuesday she told me that a lot of her sickness had to do with wondering if she was going to have a job or not and what would she do if she got fired?  she was beside herself with worry.  she worked her for 25 years, and was a good employee and excellent Transcriptionist until the new supervisor took over and started ragging on her like a pit bull dog and his prey.  and this is a catholic hospital.  i guess this is the new christian work ethic.


i need to vent.  any comments would be appreciated but since i am at work please make them nice.  i have had enough bad stuff happen around here today.


 


 


 


 


 


I always volunteer to work holidays, weekends, etc. because my husband is off
so he can watch the kids while I earn incentive and holiday pay.  Plus, I'm the one who has to cover so the childless women can go on cruises with their latest boyfriends or husbands, or they didn't show up for work because they met a guy at a bar and have the bottle flu.  Oh, poor you.  Life's unfair.  Suck it up and get over yourself.
I don't agree. The decision to pay for holidays should not be based on money alone. sm
If it is, perhaps you need to look at the prices that you are charging.

If you decide to pay a higher than average line rate to make up for benefits, don't say that they do unless they really do.

I make a good living as an MTSO and hate to see whiners make us all look bad.

Time to rethink this business. We need to make our companies places that people want to work, not places that everyone complains about. If we all did that, this field would be much better off all the way around.

LMT
My boss routinely gets drunk during holidays and fires
everyone. She needs a membership to AA so she can get off the beer.
TransHealth has separate PTO, holidays and sick time. nm
 
Geesh! What's up with you people who refuse to work holidays?
Don't you think people get sick, have accidents, etc on holidays too? What about the doctors and nurses that have to work holidays? Did you forget about them too?

How about police officers, firemen, paramedics...

Do you think you are the ONLY people out there with family and would like to spend time with them during holidays? We would all love to do that but this chosen career requires some sacrifices.

If you can't give a little you should have never started doing this kind of work.
Work some holidays - don't really mind during the winter months, but
when summer rolls around, I am at the beach on the holidays and do not work them. As an IC, we get nothing extra as far as $$ just the extra work.

Can't complain - have plenty of work all of the time.
Ask about working the holidays. Recruiter led me to believe it would be their choice and not mine,
s