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they are just looking for ways to get hold of our work

Posted By: been there done that on 2009-03-13
In Reply to: I have received these before too. sm - curious girl

I actually got a phone call from a guy with an Indian company looking to do work for me. He got my numbe off of Monster. I had my resume posted LOOKING for a job, not looking for someone to do my work for me. He actually had the nerve to ask me why I didn't start my own business so I could give work to him. Needless to say, I was not very nice by the end of our very short conversation.


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Usually work "live" on a Cphone, while connected. There are ways to record & work off line, bu
s
work ethics should work both ways

Sorry that happened to you.  Sure, legally they can do whatever the heck they want, but they destroyed their business relationship with you.  Shame MT is a buyers market and they felt they could dump your service just like that (and without even telling you they were dropping you - who the heck are you - Milton? (from Office Space - you know, they just stopped paying him in hopes he would just stop coming to work))


I have heard of this two different ways -- Where I work now, we have no blank accounts which mean
that you must leave a QA marker for the QA department and if they can't figure it out, then in most cases they can leave a blank.  Where another friend works, her no blank account involves calling other MTs for their input, also as a last resort, can call the hospital and ask for assistance with the chart from the floor. 
mq supes are there to monitor your work not hold your hand.
you are living in another day and time. this is the internet age. people are impersonal because they don't really know you and to tell you the truth, i like it that way. i have enough real life friends and family w/o the internet acquaintences taking my time.
My clients hold the work for me. Of course, I rarely take off unless I'm sick. What's a vacati

I have one client for 11 years, another one for 15 years. They wait...they don't want anyone else doing their work. Are they spoiling me or am I spoiling them? My vacations consist of a 2 day fishing trip. One day to the site, 1/2 day fishing, and back home again.


If I'm sick, they understand. I still do the work, but at a pace that won't make me sicker. I sually catch up in a couple days.


I believe there are many ways
we have benefited from others coming to America. We have a specialist at our Children's Hospital, that is world renowned for rebuidling throats and trachea's for kids after haveing had a trach tube...guess he should have stayed in Africa, in your way of thinking?
That goes both ways, though.
I don't know how many times I set aside an entire day because the company told me there would be work only to sit there all day long checking in every 15-30 minutes for nothing.  There are days when I make $5 and days when I make $200.  If I don't have work within an hour or two of my shift starting, I turn off the computer and leave for the day.  I'm not going to be on call for free just because the companies decided to call us ICs for their own tax break purposes.  The same goes for the cherry picked leftovers.  I'm not working for $7 an hour while someone else is cranking out the lines by taking all the good reports and dictators.
Sometimes you can have it both ways.

I used to work for a Jewish lawyer and received Jewish holidays off (paid), along with all other paid holidays (including Christmas.)


The difference is that Christmas is a FEDERAL holiday, in fact, the ONLY religious FEDERAL holiday where most people are paid regardless of their religious beliefs.  So people of other religious beliefs celebrate the *secular* Christmas, which is supposed to mean happiness, charity, gift-giving and especially tolerance.  Your post gives me the impression that you want to investigate and judge every American's religious beliefs and deprive them of the holiday if their beliefs don't match yours.  This is a pretty scary thought, especially because of the recently discovered practice of the government's illegal wire-tapping and spying of Americans under the guise of terrorism.


So maybe this issue isn't really about Christmas at all.  Maybe it's just about personal freedom, and personally, I find what's happening in this country to Americans almost as terrifying as the terrorists themselves. 


I don't think we can have it both ways.

I didn't see Frontline but have read and discussed the WalMart issue in depth over the years.


As I understand it, what separates WalMart from other large department and grocery stores is their business practices. WalMart dictates the price they're going to pay manufacturers for the goods going on the WalMart shelf. If the manufacturer doesn't cut his price to meet WalMart's demands, the store will just move on and stock a different company's brand. (So maybe Bounty cut a deal to get their product distributed thru WalMart but Marcal paper towels couldn't, for example.) The manufacturer is then faced with having to trim his margins while producing more to meet the higher distribution of having WalMart's business. Some companies are much more able and willing to do that than others.


But there is a mentality there that I just personally have a problem with.


To me it's like the hospital telling the MTSO that they're only going to pay 10 cents a line, period. The MTSO will have to slash her profits and likely the rates she's giving to her ICs or employees in order to keep the work coming in. OR, the MTSO may decide it makes more sense for her to get ICs that are willing to work at a much lesser rate (like those in India) so she can keep her business profits steady. This forces the MTSO's hand in a way that I feel is unjust, as her options are quite limited. No business owner or worker wants to go backward income-wise as the years pass, but this is the kind of thing that WalMart is doing to business people. It sounds to me like many hospitals and physician practices do business the WalMart way, and I think we need to walk the talk. If you shop at WalMart to save a few cents, do so knowing that you're supporting a company policy in the process. I do shop there on occassion, I admit, but I keep it to a minimum because I don't want to contribute to WalMart's success. 


Good opportunity, while I have the soapbox, is to share something that has been on my mind for years as this offshoring issue has snowballed. I think the saddest outcome of all this is the illwill that has been fostered among so many us. Some of us get on a high horse about where we shop and don't shop, others resent that they have to run from to store to store, cutting coupons, just to get by every month and they last thing they want is to be preached at. Often there seems that there's not enough compassion or understanding, and to me, this devisiveness among people is just a horrible outcome as the loss of American jobs.


I also cringe when I read posts that just reek of bigotry toward Indians, Pakistanis, Canadians, etc. who wind up with work because a company thousounds of miles away made a business decision. Everyday working people, whether they're in Bangalore, Ontario, or Erie PA, do what's best for themselves and their families. I hope that no matter where we each stand on this complex issue that we don't allow ourselves to become mean-spirited and bitter people over it.


My DH is nothing like my dad, wish he was in a few ways though - sm
but for the most part I have a pretty good guy, just needs to learn to let the little stuff roll off his back. Both my dad and I are Scorpios and born 1 day apart so we are a bit alike, so I kind of went for the opposite of me which at times can drive you nuts but we have the same fundamental values and goals and that is important.
oh there's ways to get out of it....nm

2 ways
If you can go into Control I, that will show you the number of jobs (not the job numbers), but I don't write mine down with that function, I check frequently and would know if I missed a job.

on the other hand, if you have to go to the Dictaphone site, write down every job #, not that it does you any good because you have a lump dictation #, but if you do 40 reports (that you have written down) you should have at least 1000 lines and if it shows (as commonly does) 700 to 800 lines, then something is wrong, but how you prove it beats me.
Two ways. SM
1. Alt insert to add a shortcut. type in the keyword. Go to the text to type box. Hit Ctrl-K. (The next keys you hit will be assigned the shortcut). Hit Ctrl-B (for bold). Then type the text you want bolded. Do it again to turn off bold - hit Ctrl-K, then Ctrl-B.

2. After you name the macro and go to the text to type box, click on "Record" on the right side of the box. Then type your shortcut exactly like you want it, using Ctrl-B as in Word to start and stop the bold function. When finished, click "stop" on the recorder box. It will close and the shortcut will be saved.

You can do this with any Word function - italics, etc.
There are a few ways to do this. sm
Under Settings, Incoming you can specify the location where you want the files to be loaded from. Hit Add and chose either the folder on your computer or the FTP location. Check the file types you want and how you want them to load (manually or automatically). If you choose automatically, you can specific how often you want the program to check for new files. If you choose manually, you can use the Load Now button in the toolbar. This method will only load file types ES provides for selection(.dct, .wav, .mp3, and .aif file types). This will not work if you're working with .dss files (and is very frustrating to me).

The alternative method is to click on the Load button in the toolbar and go to the folder where you files are located. Hold down the Shift key, click on the first file, then scroll to the last file and click on it, while still holding down the Shift key. This will select all the files. Hit load.
Are you going to be looking for ways
If DH could "claim the income and I could be his "employee"? Really! You just want to type unlimited, have the money go to DH and then he just pay you the limit of $900.  And you dont see how this is wrong?  I would not want to hire you, would be afraid you would always be looking for way to cheat me, too. 
two ways
I work part time and in one of my jobs we use VPN which is easy and fine.

On the other we use DocShuttle which is also very easy. These are both pretty small operations.

There are ways
without having to depend on the employer to give you a raise - we all know that's getting harder, if not impossible. But someone asked about actual salaries below, so here's mine - I get 1.10/report for radiology, employee status, transcribe about 140 reports per day, work Monday-Friday and cover on Sunday afternoons for about 80-100 jobs on the understanding that I get to it when I get to it! (I do this so that they don't have to hire another person to cover this, thus possibly having us run out of work during the week.) So this comes to $3400-3500 a month.

When I first started on the account, though, I despaired of ever producing enough to pay my mortgage and car payment - UNTIL one day I kept careful track of how much was actually nose-to-the-grindstone transcribing and how much was getting up and down for snacks, coffee, water, restroom, laundry, meals, and other countless distractions. I was quite shocked!

So I made it a point to sit down and type for 1 hour. Then I signed off, went and did whatever I needed - a 3 to 5 minute break that could include a quick phone call, restroom, water, etc, etc. Then I sat down for another hour and repeated throughout the day. My productivity zoomed! In addition to the obvious reason of only allowing one distraction an hour, that 3 to 5 minute break also cleared my head, was guilt-free, and made me ready for another hour of productive transcribing.

The other point that I wanted to make was that I make it a point to actively think about what repetitive motions I make, like between every job or shortcuts within the job, that could be done faster or more easily.

For instance, since I work off a C-phone and have to log the job #, physician ID, etc, I have an Excel spreadsheet that I set up with columns for Doctor, Patient ID, Job #, and Time (in the order that the "voice" reads them - those of you who do this know what I mean). At the top is a freeze pane that has today's date, today's job count, today's money made (job count multiplied by rate of pay), and then total made for the pay period (a running total). Then, although it seems so obvious now, I discovered ALT+tab so that I didn't have to lift my hand from the keyboard to go from the job log to the platform - back and forth with minimal motion.

Little time-savers like that really add up when you're talking 140 reports a day.

And there there is your Expander program. I still add to mine on a daily basis. I have 1 or 2 doctors (bless their pea-picking hearts) that say the same thing over and over, and those are the ones I build normals for. The others aren't worth it - too much editing. But I do make shortcuts for their favorite phrases (for instance, *no fracture, dislocation, or subluxation*, and another one for *no fracture, subluxation, or dislocation*). Any words that aren't caught by autocorrect and which I continually misspell gets either an abbreviation or a spelling correction.

So anyway, even if your boss doesn't cooperate and give you a raise, keep an eye out for more productive, faster ways to maximize each keystroke, each hand movement, each report, and you may find your income growing (my own personal estimate is by about 40%).



Two ways
I copied this from the Instant Text MS Word board. The link no longer works there so I think it's okay to copy it here.

Adding "-year-old" and "cc:" in AutoCorrect

The method for adding "-year-old" depends on your version of Word.

In Word 97, enter -year-old in the With box, enter yo (or whatever short form you choose) in the Replace box. Type 4yo to expand to 4-year-old.

In Word 2000/2002/2003, enter -year-old in the With box and precede your short form in the Replace box with a punctuation mark, such as a semicolon. Type 4;yo to expand. The punctuation mark backs up and replaces the default space AutoCorrect inserts in later versions of Word.

To keep Word from capitalizing cc:

Put cc: in the With box and type ;c (semicolon c) in the Replace box as your short form. The punctuation mark backs up and replaces the space (or letter) with the first letter of your expansion. In this case, it also tricks Word into not capitalizing the first letter of a sentence when you have that option turned on.

A punctuation mark after the Replace entry eliminates the space at the end of the expansion.

You can use other punctuation marks, however, the semicolon keeps your fingers on the home row keys.

This method also works for symbols (such as the degree sign).

how hold
married at 18....wouldn't change a thing even if I could go back in time. Our marriage grows stronger each year...
Hold up a sec.

You dictate your own VR as an IC?  I don't think that's what the original poster was asking about.  I think what the OP was talking about was a company that has VR and only pays 55% to 70% of regular line rate.  Most companies' platforms aren't technically enabled to allow the MT to redictate the VR.  In fact I've never heard of that before. 


If you make money doing VR you're way, more power to ya.  But I don't think that's what the OP was talking about.


Hold out for more.....7 cpl is way too low...sm
I just had the same experience, was offered that amount by one company. I held out and got something part time with a good company at 9 cpl on weekdays and 10 cpl on weekends.
Hold on........think about this. sm
First, you need to make up a pay rate to compensate you for your hard work. Re-negotiate your contract if you have one. If you do not have one, I suggest getting one.

You need to set your pay date/pay period in writing and the ramifications to the client if pay is late. Either charge 15% as a late fee, etc.

Next, you can either charge piecemeal for STAT work, faxes, etc or you can include everything in one line rate. That is up to you.

After everything is in writing, have the client/doctor/office manage, whoever it may be, meet with you and go over all of the details. If they agree, than continue on doing the acocunt. If they do not agree, and it is a well-paying account, when you get paid, try to work a few things out. If all fails, then move on.

But, don't just get frustrated and let the account go. The office just may not be aware of all the extra things you are doing and may think it is included in your line rate.

You need to either spell it out to them in writing or just raise your line rate to include everything.

Believe me, in my younger years, I was where you are now. On looking back, I would have done some things differently. Now, I can say I know things from experience that you can not learn in a textbook or college classroom.

Good luck to you.
I'd put it on hold it too. You are being
very smart right now.  Hang tight.  If it goes well-WONDERFUL.  If it turns bad, you won't have to kick yourself in the a$$ because of buying a new house. 
okay hold on I think we are...
talking about two different certifications!

I mean certification as in going to school. I mean we should have to have a CERTIFICATE from a school saying that we took the courses and have passed. To heck with AAMT, I've heard plenty about them promoting overseas transcription!

I just mean that there needs to be a standard for MTs. That way it isn't so easy to get into the profession. Besides outsourcing overseas, our next biggest problem is that there are people who are getting MT positions just by the luck of passing a test or are taking jobs at 4-5 cpl which is why someone like me who has spent a year going to an actual college, actually going to campus each night, now has to start off at 6 cpl. That type of pay is ridiculous for a professional. I can make more working at Burger King.

That's why I was saying that for those that are already proven MTs who have experience there should be some type of quick certification for them. Maybe a test, or three verifiable references that they have been MTs for such a time, or something. I don't know.

But that is what I meant by certification. CMT/RMT has just become a way for AAMT to make money off of us. There needs to be a mandatory, BY LAW requirement to be an MT. Just like a doctor absolutely has to go to and graduate from med school or a police officer has to graduate from the police academy, etc.
i would hold
off until about 3 (her time). then you could call her or if you have her email address just send her an email and just say you were wondering if they had made a decision yet. I would not worry about the ad being gone.
Sleeping......no two ways about it! NM
:)
Have heard it both ways! - nm
x
Loyalty goes both ways
How loyal is the company to you if they pay you peanuts, and how hard would they cry if they decided to "down size" and let you go?
set in their ways, not with God complexes...nm
x
It can be done both ways. There are platforms out there
that you can download the sound files, transcribe them, then upload the documents. This would be like an FTP site for upload/download and Word/Express Scribe (or another wav player) to type/listen.

There are also platforms that work "realtime" over the Internet with servers. Some places have you log into their secure system to listen to the sound files and type in a Word-based platform.
let me count the ways
Terrific money! Set my own hours, take off when I want to(obviously I am IC), satisfies my interest in medicine and keeping my mind actively learning every day..
By putting up with him and his ways
you are just enabling him.  Sounds like not only are you doing most of the housework, you're providing most of the financial support.  I think he has got it pretty good and as long as you don't give him an ultimatum why should he change.  You're young yet and there sure is better out there.  I'd cut my loses.  I'd rather be alone than with someone like your SO. 
Sorry in lots of ways.

Through the crystal vision of hindsight, I now shout at the top of my lungs to any newbie even CONSIDERING getting into this field to run, fast and far!!!    The flexibility you get does not, in my opinion, outweight the mediocre pay and the total lack of respect that are given to someone who has achieved a certain level of expertise.  People who have attained their own levels of expertise in other fields do get a commensurate amount of pay and a certain level of respect; we, on the whole, simply do not.  No, girlfriend, I am pursuing leaving this dead-end field and I tell everyone I know how crummy it is and not to even CONSIDER doing this work for a living.  That is just my life experience opinion. 


Blessed in many ways here as well.
If we sit back and count the many good things that have come I would have to agree they far outweight the "bad" things.  My kids were off all this week from school.  I went to pick-up work and the office manager says to me "Your children are off all week from school?"  I said, "Yes due to the holiday on Monday and then conferences all week."  She says, "Well I guess that's okay for you since you DON'T WORK" as she's handing me a stack of "work".  She goes on to say "But what about all of the other mother's who have to work?"  What do they do for daycare?"  I said, "Well, I guess it puts those mother's in a very tight spot?"  Hmmmmm.....  Funny the perceptions people have of us work-at-home transcriptionists.  It is almost like if you do it from home it cannot possibly be work.  Let it be known that I love what I do, but I still consider it very much contributing to society.  By the way, thanks to your sister that factory stays doing what it should be doing, and thank your sister for ME personally for putting in the time and showing that she cares by going to work each and every day no matter how tired she gets!  Thank you for sharing....
There are 2 ways, see inside.

Unless they have been deleted by error, you can go to programs and look for the program folder and find it there.  For example, if you have Yahoo IM, go to the program folder for Yahoo messenger and look for the little happy face icon, drag on drop on the desktop and you will get your icon back.  You can look also in the remove/restore desktop icon in the desktop manager as below and restore them.


To remove unused desktop icons



  1. Open tshared.chm::/shortcutCold.gif>Display in Control Panel.
  2. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop.
  3. Under Desktop cleanup, click Clean Desktop Now.
  4. Follow the directions in the Desktop Cleanup Wizard.

tshared.chm::/note.gif> Notes



  • To open Display, click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
  • The Desktop Cleanup Wizard displays a list of the desktop icons that have not been used for 60 days or more, enabling you to remove those icons that you don't want on your desktop. You can retrieve icons you have removed by opening the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder on your desktop.
  • Clear the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box if you don't want the wizard to run automatically every two months.
  • You can remove an individual desktop icon by right-clicking the icon and then clicking Delete.
  • To add or remove the icons for My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer, select or clear those items under Desktop icons.

Two ways to find it. sm
The quick way is hold down the Window key on your keyboard and type E.

The second is to open it from the Start, Programs menu. The icon looks like a blue lower case e.

After plugging in the recorder and waiting until the computer recognizes it, open Explorer and locate the recorder. Double click on the recorder and it should show you the files that are in there. Highlight them and drag them to the folder where you want them to be.
A couple of ways...sm
Most of time, I use a pedal bar that my husband constructed for me -- I use my ankle to start/stop the pedal.  Sometimes, I use a foot pedal and place it on an angle so I use my foot.  Just play around with it -- it is really worth it. 
There are ways, if one is *creative*, to
(
there are ways to afford it

I had the offices to pay for some of it, such as their own recorders.  But if it works for you on tape - you have advantages too like the personal contact on pick up/delivery that breeds loyalty.  Being on tape makes them harder accounts for people to take from you too. 


There are a couple of ways....

1.  Try installing an anti-adware program (and of course turn on your popup blocker).


2.  Go to control panel, add/remove programs and then check to see if there are any unwanted adware programs that have mysteriously installed themselves on your computer. I do this at least once a week just to keep my PC working properly. 


Hope this helps!


i've done it several ways.
the pillow doesn't work for me -- makes it too high and too hot on my legs.

my fav way now is to fold a small lap blanket in a strip across my knees and put a piece of that rubbery shelf liner under my keyboard on top of it. that puts it at the right angle and it doesn't slide.

sometimes i just get close enough to my keyboard tray to buttress the keyboard against that and it works fine too.

I also have a thin piece of wood (like weatherboard siding) that i use on my lap sometimes, but after awhile it bothers my knees.

i'll tell ya tho, i have almost no prob's with my arms if i get that board in my lap. but i still revert back to the tray because i don't like having to move stuff to get up and down...
A couple of possible ways...
... either select all, copy to the clipboard, and then paste into your WordPerfect document; or SAVE AS and then select the drop-down box and choose WordPerfect as your document type. Or you can save it as an RTF file; I think WP can probably open those. You might lose some formatting, though.
May want to hold off on cashing it

One of the attorneys handling the lawsuit or an associate of, suggested I hold off on cashing the check that came to me from MQ.  This is the one that came with a letter saying basically the reason they robbed us of so much money over time was a system error.  Yeah, right.  The  attorneys want to check into the true purpose of the checks.  So listen to your gut on this one   If this has already been said on the boards, sorry, I haven't read them lately.


To my goodness-You can hold your own
here! Hats off to you!
Capitalization will not hold!

I need to type  VENTILATION PERFUSION SCAN as a heading.  But when the capital letter lock key is on and I type in vps to bring up the three words in all caps, my IT changes it to small case.


Does anyone out there know how to make all caps remain all caps?  I have auto capitalization check marked already. 


Thanks soooo much if you can answer this!


Don't hold your breath
Never has for anyone I know anyway (myself included)
If I were you, I'd hold off on purchasing anything sm
until you find a position with a company as many (if not most) companies will supply you with the pedal and software. All you would need to do is plug the pedal into your computer. The companies usually will install the software for you via your phone line or will send you a CD, whatever.

USB is the type of "plug." It's small, about a quarter-inch wide and has a little design on it with a circle, an arrow that points to the plug, and a little square.

The other type of pedal outlet has the little pins inside. You will need to count the little pins to find out what kind you have.

Good luck to you!

Do they think you will hold reports for
lol
being delusional seems to hold

               


have a nice day and I will be sure to do an additional dance just for you when impeachment begins.......within the next year or two. 


Want to hold my hand.
I agree, insulting a fellow MT is uncalled for, let alone a PS to imply this is unprofessional. I guess the word "brain" "dense" and "childish" are your words for the week! That makes what now, ? MTs you are wondering whether they have brains or not, are dense or childish. Oh, and please stop YELLING at people posting on this site. We are not children nor do we act like a child. Be kind as if we were your children, because you obviously are not around adults often enough. Geez!!!!!!! PS: Congrats to making fantastic money. I'm sure you are very dedicated.
Hold the train, here!
You actually feel justified to stoop to this level of vile hatred against Tinks personally?

Not nice, not nice at all.