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laid back?

Posted By: oh so CONERNED on 2009-02-21
In Reply to:

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.)


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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.
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.
should be laid-off (ROFL) ...sorry! (NM
xx
Laid off or chose to take time off? (sm)
Be accurate, now!
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
My best friend and fellow editor laid off this close to Christmas! sm

 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. 


 


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.
With short arms, I need chair with shallow seat, good back support and high back. Want arm rests
:+
OK! I'm glad you're back down here. Now don't go back up there and read those evil posts ag
Okay? But I have to leave you now, sadly. Thousands of noble dictating doctors are anxiously awaiting my help with their "dictations"....They're all loading up on chips, drinking lots of soda so they can burp, and then have to go to the bathroom...You know the routine! Off I go to earn some pennies!! But, truly, I am thankful that I have a job!
PS.. It apparently worked..I heard back and already submitted the paperwork back.

I'm not sure how many people they are hiring but you shouldn't stress too hard over it. Do the best you can.


I would not do them back to back - I have done 2 and 3 jobs at the same time -- all PT - sm
It is possible to do of course but you will burn out fast. Now I do one almost FT (about 30 hours a week) and the other is about 8-10 hours a week-- I still get beat doing that and that is w/o set hours. I find that the older I get the harder it is to work late and I am only 40! But a mid afternoon 30-minute cat nap helps a lot in order to keep going on busy days.
How do you set your computer back 1 day. I messed something up and need to go back 1 day.
NM
Yes, you get back to work now. Go back to
some routine, and it does start to hurt less. I know  And remember, she is still there at work with you. Always will be. I figure at this point I have a whole herd of loved dogs under my desk each day - along with a couple horses, hamsters, parakeets, rabbits...If only I could see them - must be quite a happy zoo! But I know they are all there I sense their love.
Can't anyway. Just get them back. sm

I actually tried to dump a report today, which I never do, because it somehow got into my pool in error (not my area of expertise), but it jumped right back up at me after the next report.  So I decided to just do it.  I don't know how well I did, but I did it.  It was over 150 lines long and took me forever.  Lo and behold, 5 reports later, same guy, same type of report 145 lines. Second time around was easier and faster though.  The way I see it is that if I get negative feedback, I'll let them know that those kind of reports really shouldn't come my way.


But cherry picking for line count is just plain wrong.


I did, but then I came back to it.

The other jobs I took involved quite a bit of computer use, too.  I got tired of the office politics and other garbage, so I'm doing MT again.  Now, I prop my keyboard up with a block of wood, although you can use a telescoping keyboard drawer/shelf to do the same thing.  I have a habit of letting my wrists rest on the keyboard, so I had to modify it to get my hands into the proper position.  It might have helped if I had taken piano lessons.  LOL  The only time my wrists ache now is if I work too much, which has been the case lately.  I don't know if it would be helpful for you to try.  I've been doing data entry or some form of computer input work for 17 years now, so I'm hoping carpal tunnel or repetitive motion injury isn't definitely in my future.


Going WAY back here
It's been a long time and I'm not "up" on the lingo, but by reformatting, do you mean you re-indexed?

I would go into whatever function that is where you can re-index all files or functions and do that.

If you still have problems, it might be that a file has been corrupted somewhere. That happened to me on that program a couple times. I'm not sure if it was the dictionary, but something somewhere stopped working right and I had to reload the entire program.

Be SURE to back up your autokeys immediately just in case you have to reinstall the program.


Can I get back to you about this later?

WAY BACK WHEN
It used to be that we were treated as valued employees, treated with dignity, and actually felt like the higher-ups gave a damn about us.  Length of service meant something and those who were dependable never had to worry about running out of work.  I knew I would be taken care of.  Never did we get cheap plastic crap as a Christmas present - we got real, thoughtful presents to show their appreciation for the hard work that they knew we did.  It's pretty much like night and day - nobody gives a damn anymore about us.  It used to be the only thing I knew I could depend on to be stable in my life was my job.  Not anymore. 
Yes, they could pay us better back then
because they weren't paying 2 people for one job (speaking of QA here). If you weren't a good, accurate transcriptionist, you didn't have a job.
Way back
I never heard the word at the time. It was fabulous! No turnaround time. I could shop all day and work all night. The service I worked for told me she wished she had 10 of me! Nice? Christmas parties and $100 bonuses! Flowers when a relative died. It was fun!
I think I might even go back further...
I recall using white-out and yellow-out for carbon copies (the REAL carbon copies) which had to be corrected separately. OH my... but I'm afraid I don't miss all that at all! LOL. I think it was okay to use the white-out until a couple years later, or maybe 10? Yeah, I'm old.

And 8 or 9 books? Did they even make that many back then? I can recall having a PDR and a word book that was separated into specialities. Oh, and the surgical word book. It was red. I am visualizing it now.

My form of research was more like finding the chart and going from there. Ah, but that was before production. Remember those days?

I wish I could remember the name of the first word processor I used. It was a mess!! More trouble than it was worth, but on the cutting edge of technology... and I was there!!

And here I am now, an MT dinosaur, getting ready to start using ASR...

Yeah, DixieDew, we have come a long way.

But miss it? Do you remember the noise those Selectrics made? And I complain sometimes because I can't stand the clicking of the keyboard when I have barely audible dictations.

One more thing... and please tell me if you miss this... "Standard" reports that you had to copy type instead of just having them appear on your screen with a few keystrokes. I used to HATE standard reports to the point of tears!

Okay, my ranting and reminiscing is done for now.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. :)
Come back
That Alice was bad, bad, bad. Are you and "her" coming back tonight though?
I will back you up too

I was told the same about two years ago by recruiter in Midwest.  She did not give specifics, but basically said that the full time employees would get priority if the work was low. 


 


I wish they would come back!
No doubt Zipper, Chucky, MQLOVER, and Frankie Boy made this board alive - I would rather laugh in hysterics with their words than to listen to the same ol, same ol'!

By the way, admin confirmed it was not the same person posing as all of them!
You never go back
Truly - once you make the switch, it is absolutely impossible to switch back to a standard. Give yourself a couple of days is all.
I know .....been there....won't go back.
A person can only take so much hurt ......I keep my distance now. Family can hurt you the most because you love them the most. For me, it is easier and less hurtful to pull back and keep my distance. The less I know, the better off I am.

My children and I always were disregarded in a similar manner. We just see some family members on holidays. I tell my kids, mommy and daddy will always remember you and give you gifts...not to look elsewhere for them.

Be proud of your sons..they are real gentleman and not materialistic. It hurts, but guess what, they will be stronger for it.

Hugs and more hugs to you!
Yep, I would back off..
When she's 18, nothing you can do about it anyway. There are lots more important issues at this time of her life, and she sounds like a good kid! My 18-year-old graduated last year, and as soon as he did, he dyed his shoulder-length brown hair completely white and started dressing in all black. It never amounted to anything but an outward appearance, and he's a good kid, too! So try to keep it in if you can, Mom!
BACK-UP
I have a complete back up system of everything I use, computer, transcribers, foot pedal, etc.  When I buy a new one I keep the older one for back up.  Buy a new computer every three years.  It has come in handy when things happen as without them I make no money.  Also have a place I can go and work should I be without power.  That is just me. 
Back at Ya
Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to you also.

Better back then
Made way better back then. All used gross line count. Worked for smaller, friendlier services, had better dictators, thoroughly enjoyed work. Made approximately $50,000-$60,000 a year back then. Some days now even hate to touch it because of the way it has become.
going back...
As the other 2 posters said, finishing the dictation and then going back to listen to the blanks works best for me. Most of the time I can hear it then. If I'm really get uptight and frustrated with the job, I'll walk away for a minute or two and come back - sometimes just a "mini break" is all it takes.
really going back
remember the old belts before they even had cassettes? 1967-68 or thereabouts?
How far back do MT's actually go? sm

I have a 1936 medical dictionary that the hospital I used to work at was going to throw  out. It's leather bound, but the cover is missing. There is actually a section on using leeches for medical treatment.


Think about it. How far back does MT go? The docs used to write notes and then they had the nurses write the notes, but how far back does the first actual typewritten MT report go?  Did they hire someone to type while they talked to them. Someone posted below about an MT that sat in on autopsies to type the findings. Hmmmmm. Interesting.


The old doc I used to work for (with the typewriter) was from the old school and always did handwritten notes until the insurance companies required them either printed or typed. He reluctantly hired a Transcriptionist but this was in the mid-1980's and he was still grumbling about paying someone to type what he could write when I worked there in 1994.


I say run and run now!! Do not look back!
They pretend they are so great to work for, but then lie about pay and screw you over in so many other ways. PLease do not go there!!
You have to keep a back up IC job.
All companies have this problem at one point or another. Going from one to the other is not going to solve your problem. I have a full time job and an IC position.

I strongly suggest you try to add to your pot instead of jumping into another.
way back when
Mine also involves JFK - I was in 9th grade science class when the P.A. system announced his death, they let school out and I ran home crying to my mom! I was so scared, I didn't know what was going to happen. And i also remember our first color T.V. What a treat!
Why did you ask him-- why not just tell him you ARE going back?
nm
Yes, please let her know that you want it back and why.
Hopefully she will be nice and let you have it.
They may not be, but if they all come back
and they're all in one piece feel blessed. Say lots of prayers and let him know before he goes how "mommish" you'll be until he gets back. We love em, but sometimes we gotta let em go. Remember, they're only young once and when he's tied down later he'll appreciate the chances you gave him to be young. My best to you.
Wish I was 38! but went back to
school at age 39 and worked part-time which was actually like 37 to 39 hours, just under the 40 hours considered full-time.  Graduated in the top of my class, so it can be done.  Good luck to you!!
Back out while you can
We built a house and moved last year and sold our other home. You probably love this new house and are excited about moving picturing where you are going to put your things and/or redecorate, but I highly suggest backing out of the deal while you can, mention this and you will get any earnest money back. I say that because a similar thing happened to a friend of ours and she didn't back down and those "high" premiums will be higher and then when you try to sell you won't get any takers because of it. They legally have to disclose that to you. If you are out any money or there is any problem refunding your money you can sue them. Hopefully you are working with a realtor (they work for the seller believe me). Find a new home to love and call your own. :)
Getting a job back
I am using a Lanier LX-219.  I re-recorded a job but did not get the entire job.  How do I go back into the system and recall the job using the job number? Thanks.