A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

American Workers Have Changed--And Not For The Better - See Message

Posted: Nov 08, 2011

I've talked with several MTs recently who work for different companies. The companies have to send out reminders to the MTs that they are supposed to be at work at specific times. They also are having trouble with MTs just taking off without arranging for coverage of their accounts. The list goes on and on.

What bothers me most though is the attitude of workers. Work was not easy years ago, but people did it with courage and integrity. You don't see much of that anymore.

Maybe if they quit paying crappy wages.... - lizzie

[ In Reply To ..]
MTs would have more pride in their work. They are paying the same wage for the past 15 years. I do not have to be told when to get to work nor do I take off work without notification. But I still get paid crappy wages while they are raking in the dough.

And furthermore... - If I show up at work at a certain

[ In Reply To ..]
agreed-upon shift and there is no work, then it is unlikely that I am going to adhere to a schedule. MTSOs can't have it both ways; they want hourly employees to work set shifts, and then they have no work during the shifts they hired workers for. The MTSOs should just be honest and call everyone ICs and not make any promises as to when or if there will be work, therefore not require strict schedules. That way most people will log on when they know there is going to be the most work if they expect to get paid. Even better yet, the stingy hospitals should have in-house staff and pay a fair hourly wage the way it used to be.

You said it all sm - in a nutshell

[ In Reply To ..]
You get what you pay for. You said it perfectly. I work for a company and am constantly running out of work. I cannot afford to sit here waiting for the work to come in, so I don't. I'm a dedicated worker and would work my set hours, if there was work.

So true---they can't have it both ways!!

morale - rescuemom

[ In Reply To ..]
It's hard to care anymore. Everytime we turn around, we get more screwed with lower wages. I'm not treated like a professional.

agree with everyone above - memt

[ In Reply To ..]
Just recently was notified that I will be getting a pay cut (and I'm an IC - go figure). Of course, I can either go with it and have some income, or refuse and make nothing. I will be making the same amount I did about 6 years ago. That really makes me want to work - not. Obviously, my extra effort to keep the clients happy did no good whatsoever because to keep the account, the rate had to be lowered. Well, no more extra effort from me. I will do the work as I am supposed to, but if the dictator makes a mistake or is incomplete in their dictation, I will no longer try to get the correct information to give them a complete report. They will now get blanks in their dictation, because it is their fault and I'm not correcting it. There was another post somewhere that commented about how these medical providers should be able to receive what is being produced by VR or India so they can see what their pennies are paying for. Then maybe they would realize that they need quality MT's producing quality reports. But then again, that would mean that they would have to actually review their reports which they don't always do. Another thing, If we made as many mistakes in our work as these doctors make in their dictation, we would be terminated immediately. Some of the dictators I have can't even state a 5-digit number without making a mistake, but we're supposed to produce accurate medical records from their garbage mouths. Makes me sick. Sorry for the rant.

Not a rant... - lizzie

[ In Reply To ..]
I totally agree with you. And when there's no work, we are not paid. I'm sick of this job and am looking elsewhere.

I not only want to get out of MT, I also would love - to see MTSOs forced out, as well.

[ In Reply To ..]
I'd love to be able to rat them all out and see them forced to either provide a fair, non-hostile working environment, or else have to close their doors. Most of all, I'd like to see them GONE.

You must not be an MT. Or else you'd know that - keeping "regular hours" is almost - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
impossible when your PC screen constantly says "NJA" on it. My so-called "official" hours are 8:00-4:30. Yet the actual time frame where I find any work is 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. You have to be opportunistic as all getout in order to make your lines.

And the rest of us probably have more than one job, too. So if they see "NJA" at one job, they switch over to their other one. If that one has work, then the NJA job most likely won't be seeing them for a few hours.

And one more thing. I think just about every MT in the country, who is hanging on by their fingernails trying to get by on what this horrible industry has thrown at us lately, has more courage and integrity than all of you suits put together.

-ProOccupy

American workers have changed - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
I do agree. And it not just in the MT world. I think that civility and integrity are rapidly becoming things of the past. And no, I do not blame the "young people" as some older people do. There are rude older people and nice young people and vice versa. But the work ethic seems to have disappeared.

You said it! - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

You say American Workers have changed? - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
No, American Workers have not changed. The employer still gets exactly what they pay for. Pay at poverty level, get workers who produce poverty level work. NOTHING is free. Yes, we get to work in pajamas (if that's your thing), but now with new internet and web technology, doctors work from home, IT guys work from home, lawyers work from home, professors teach coursework from home, etc. Should we lower all their wages too? Is their products/services worth less because of the production environment? The doctors dictate while eating, while driving in a car, while walking outside with all the ambient noise, but if the point is where the work is done, perhaps we should pay them less if we know they dictated our medical records while not in the office? By the Pajama Model, if you are comfortable and if you don't have a lot of out of pocket expense, your work is worth less than if you work where you are made miserable. The Pajama Model neglects the variable of pre-history....how much does a good MT know? Most seasoned MTs know way more physiology and medical knowledge than the average person, of course, they have to. I LOVE learning, and to me it is a benefit of the job that I learn something new every day. I LOVE being an MT. I planned to do this job until I was a little old lady, but I cannot find any company, (It's not just MY company), that will pay a good wage. Before I became a mom, I worked all the time, and on ESL accounts, and the pay was great. But they enforced abbreviations that cut our line counts, and with no hope of promotion or raise, even if VR was not coming down the road, I would be forced to leave. I HATE looking for another job. I really like the work. But the price of living goes up every year. Our employers tell us they cannot give raises because the clients would leave if they raised their prices. So, now many good, seasoned MTs are looking for a new start in a new job. With our present job market, there are plenty willing to take our place. But who will lose? The doctors and the patients. I've done some editing, and so many new MTs think all they need is Google and a medical spellcheck and they are set...and those of you laughing at this know it's true. I correct my doctors nearly every day, sometimes serious errors such as drug allergies, etc. I know a less educated MT would miss many things I catch. Wait and see, the seasoned MTs are fleeing, the green MTs and the poorly trained are poised to take our place, and after about 2 or 3 years of really bad transcription the doctors are going to say "to H#@! with this, I might as well go with speech recognition".

Forget these companies, everyone. Just let the mediocre take our place, and let's just go forward, and leave our outdated employers where they belong...behind us.

I think what you don't realize is, wages of all of those you mentioned have been lowered - Are you not aware of that?

[ In Reply To ..]
The struggles we've been going through are not unique to MTs. Others are going through it too. Have you not noticed that almost every worker in America has experienced a lowering of their wages and job loss at a level unprecedented since the Great Depression.

and.....what is your point about many professions... - minwageworker

[ In Reply To ..]
wages being reduced? The CEO's wages aren't being reduced. So, any reduction in pay to all employees just floats to the top thus the 99% versus the 1%

That's true everywhere, and a problem that I can't fix - So we all do the best we can

[ In Reply To ..]
You are correct that CEOs in just about every field you can name are overpaid and those who work for them, other than the top executives are horribly underpaid. We all have to work though, so we do the best we can. We find the best jobs with the best employers that we are qualified to take and do the best job we can for them, hoping that eventually things will even out and become more fair. I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, I'm working hard to earn a living, just as my parents and grandparents and those before them did, even when things weren't fair for them. They worked. They actually didn't complain much either, but they did join unions, and that helped. That won't work for us though because that ship has already sailed.

Workers are TOO DUMBED DOWN now. - OldMTPro

[ In Reply To ..]
I am in my late 40s and have decades in MT so have been in the workforce for almost 30 years.

ALL Americans -- across the board -- have been so dumbed down it's incredible. Comparing the radiologists and other physician dictators of 30 years ago with the ones now, there's such a stark contrast it's astounding. Then there are today's MTs who can't spell, don't know anatomy, and don't have a lick of common sense on which to base ANY kind of decision (just read this board).

It's not just MDs and MTs -- it's EVERYWHERE. Americans are so ignorant now they don't even know how to make change at the store.

If I'm seeing it in my generation, it must be even more evident to our senior citizens.

What a sad, sad, sad state of affairs.

OldMTPro - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
I so agree with you. I am pushing 70 and I hate to see the loss of good manners, the loss of civility, the lack of ability to use grammar correctly. Even on the national news, where you might expect grammar, you hear things like "Where's it at?" and so on. I blame a lot of this sad result on the fact that many Americans sit on their tails watching gibberish on TV. TV is not allowed in my house. We read. We converse. Oh, and I don't use my BB during dinner, either, nor do I use BB code in business correspondence, i.e., R U ready?

dumbing down - L&L

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm 60, my brother is 20 years younger. It started in the schools in the 1960s. It was more important that students feel good about themselves. Then the teachers teaching the teachers started having lower standards. It is not reversible. Unfortunately, apparently a lot of the changes in 1960s leading us down the path of ruination started out as a backlash to the hippie movement, so I have only myself to blame.

Similar Messages:

Sep 19, 2014

Every catalog I get is full of imported goods, so I emailed LL Bean and Lands' End to take me off their mailing list permanently unless they start building factories here and bring the work back and that I would also encourage others to do so. I got a pat response, of course, that my email was "forwarded to the appropriate personnel" who would then "look into the matter." With each catalog that happens into my mailbox and has only imported goods, I will email that company to re ...

Nov 17, 2012

Afro pertains to a "hair style" usually worn by black people or African-Americans. African-American refers to a group or nationality of people whose decendants originated in Africa. Has anyone ever been corrected on that when getting audited? Just curious. I see this a lot. P.S. Not trying to stir the pot or offend anyone so please, no racial slurs or offensive posts. This is a ligitmate question. How do you type it? or do you think it matters? ...

Apr 15, 2010

Well, I see not much has changed. I've been out for nearly three weeks, just flat out stopped working, I think they probably know by now I'm not coming back. Have not heard a thing from the Q about it. But I think I've found another way to go. We have a bartending school near where I live. My sister used to bartend, I never have, but I know what she used to do. The school will teach everything about mixology and offers job placement when you graduate ...

Aug 20, 2014

Doing the same thing I have done for years...Now all the sudden there are some QA that are comma and semicolon nazis..They are everywhere. You want them, you will get them, more money for me with the extra spaces. ...

Apr 02, 2010

I didn't get points off but still - the client profile says NOT to use cc but to change it to mL Go figure! ...

Oct 15, 2010

All headers are now no longer counted in the line count. We're already out of work most of the time and now this. We don't get paid for cc's that we add or all the info on the pt before we ever start typing. I'd say when we do have work they're getting a lot of free work from us. ...

Jun 29, 2011

murmurs, gallops, or rubs OR murmurs, gallops or rubs? I am old school and taught that the first is correct, but I waste a huge amount of time and keystrokes correcting this and other instances like this. I looked at the AAMT link, but really didn't get a sufficient answer if the second is OK to leave as that is the preferred way ASR puts it; however, every grammar site I looked at online puts the additional comma in. ...

Apr 26, 2013

Log on this afternoon to NJA. This is after my TSM asked me to switch hours because they needed help on Friday. Praying and hoping work starts to trickle in soon as I do not want to be sitting up all night waiting for work. Need to get in hours like everyone else. ...

Feb 03, 2010

There probably have been answers to my question out here before, but does anyone know what causes the formatting in an EditScript document of which I am either editing or transcribing? It tabs, bolds, changes font sizes, and messes up the spacing between lines.....things I did not manually do myself. Is there something I should be changing on my RTF? Or is it something else? Seems like I may have seen something about that, but I can't find it in my manual (which doesn ...

Mar 15, 2010

I just got an email saying the 10% submission rate starts April 1, and the 5% on May 1. ...

Jan 24, 2012

Instead of the funky little Q's everywhere, it will be a pair of M's. Then for MT week, they will pass out a tiny bag of M&Ms, gold of course, with little MM on one side and big $$ on the other... ...

Feb 06, 2012

It's probably because Medquist has such a bad reputation--and the name alone leaves a rotten taste in your mouth hearing it. I want to be positive and hope that maybe there will be some good changes like they boast in that email. I'll believe it when I see it though. ...

Mar 20, 2013

just wondering. Was it at a lower rate before. and now its higher. What is going on? anyone know. was it always 99% and now its 99.5, i thought a few years back it was like 95% ...

Apr 06, 2013

Thank you all for answering my questions lately. I'm definitely at a crossroads with where I'm going. I have an Associates Degree in medical transcription, have completed two A&P classes, two medical terminology classes, a pharmacology class, etc. and have worked as a transcriptionist for two decades. I am now looking at either going to my local community college and adding on to my degree with a certificate program, or just recently I have considered Western Gove ...

May 30, 2013

There's a site I'd been referencing for a long time when I couldn't find a doctor through Fluency, which is often. It was always easy, user friendly and reliable, and I could usually find the doctor I was looking for under his or her specialty. Now it's been changed to a newer, sleeker pretty look, but the format for finding a doctor doesn't work and is not helpful at all. For instance, in looking up, say, Pulmonary doctors, it shows an assortment of doctors of variou ...

Nov 23, 2013

got a report from auditors with a several below 99.6% and they were still marked as passing. anyone else? ...

Feb 27, 2014

In my 3 years here at Nuance they have taught me the greatest lessons in frustration and humility I have ever experienced. They have forced me to learn how to be frugal and thrifty. They have taught me to earn extra income and streamline my life through selling a life’s worth of memories and tchotchkes by having rummage sales. They have taught me that you can find not only fashion, style and quality, but even designer clothing at Goodwill. They have taught me that paying cash is way bette ...

Dec 10, 2014

Since Saturday when the new pay plan went into effect, I've gotten nothing but the worst of the worst doctors on this account. Most of these I've only gotten a few times in the past (luckily), but now that is all I am getting. What happened to the regulars I used to get before Saturday?? How did they just magically disappear? Is this all a part of this new pay plan? Not only lowering our pay rate, but also making it even harder than it already is to make a living wage ...

Jan 30, 2015

...

Jun 17, 2015

Fiesa sent me an error email. QA changed my report, which was correct, to text that would be considered a critical error. As you would imagine, I submitted a reversal. I know they are just as stressed out as we are and that their pay was cut too, but this is unacceptable. ...

Oct 19, 2010

I am hearing voice that is being drawn out, smushed, altered, very hard to differentiate the sounds to figure out the words. Sometimes I get a few of these in a row, and they usually seem to be the MT jobs. Anyone else have problem, or is it my ears not getting enough fuel due to Headings hyperattentiveness. ...

May 27, 2011

If QA changes a lab value to something that is possibly wrong, will I be blamed for that mistake or can they tell who changed it???? ...

Sep 30, 2011

I have been off..and I come back and notice my Alt function key does not work in ADP screen and autocorrect and called in and told now they are case sensitive and I have to now capitalize A for accept..., etc.? ...

Mar 30, 2012

I was working for a company that got bought out by another company and the client I was typing for was paying 12 cents a line, now the new company will only give me 7.5 cents a line for the same client. This client is ESL and very hard to learn and his files are always 10+ minutes each. They told me I would eventually get 10 cents for him, but that was almost 6 months ago and still only get 7.5. I have asked for a raise to at least 8 cents and they denied me. What would y ...

Dec 15, 2012

/ ...

Jan 19, 2013

In the year 2000 I started making 34,000 then by 2005 I was making over 55,000/year. I bought a house, thought eveything was good. Suddenly in in 2008 I made 37,452 and by 2009 I lost my house, my job and had to live on my 401K money that I had to take out early to survive on, plus unemployment of course. This year 2013 I made 18,000 dollars. I lost my standing in life, I feel depressed alot, I can't take my grandchildren out anymore like I used to, maybe once a year is all I can afford. ...

Feb 22, 2014

before the Feb 28 deadline? Got a packet in the mail regarding "Changes to Your Plan's Investment Menu." Tried to change online and it told me I was getting ready to sell my whole porfolio, so I got scared and backed out. I know I can wait til Monday and talk to a real person, just wondered if anyone has done it online. TIA ...

May 09, 2014

I haven't been on this board in many years since I stopped working from home. I just logged on for the first time this week after a long absence, and it really has changed. It used to be that the regular posters used consistent nicknames for all their posts. That was nice because you got to know who was who, who was good for word help, etc. Now it seems almost no one at all uses a nickname and not only is it less personal but it contributes to the confusion in long threads. Nobody knows wh ...

Nov 19, 2014

It is still 150 lines/hr for straight isn't it? (I think I've gotten a total of 3 straight transcription jobs in the last month). So, is it 150 lines for VR too, which is what the majority of our work is? Or is the line requirement much higher for VR? This is all assuming there is work of course........ ...

Apr 29, 2015

Is it 2 months or 3 months? ...