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

If you run out of work during your regular hours - and asked to work past the get off time

Posted: Nov 05, 2014

Do you work or do you not?

Well yes... - Slave

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Seems like I have to unless I don't want any pay. I am having a hard time making sense of your question...

Straightfoward: From one hour to the next no - work, then work picks up and

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you are working until your 8 hours are finished. You quit at your regular time and then get email asking you to return as more work. Is this clearer?

Scheduled hours versus no work during those hours - Cantaffordthis

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If I am working my scheduled hours until my 8 hours are finished but there is no work, I am not actually working as I only get paid for lines typed. Therefore I have to work past the 8 scheduled hours, waiting for work, because my time sitting there while there is no work results in no pay.

I do for a couple of reasons...sm - Old Woman

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First of all, as the other poster pointed out, if I am merely sitting at my desk during my regularly scheduled shift with no work, I am not making any money. So, naturally, I do take advantage of working outside my regularly scheduled shift in order to make up for not having work during my shift. In addition, I will work after my regularly scheduled hours, even if I did put in a solid 8 hours.

Secondly, as a medical transcriptionist and healthcare professional, I have an obligation to the patients and physicians to get the medical records on the charts as expediently as possible. Notice I did not say that I feel an obligation to the MTSO to help them avoid penalties for work falling out of TAT. I take my job seriously, and the main objective of that job, in my opinion, is to provide the best quality report in the least amount of time in order for the patient to receive the necessary healthcare.

Well you must have a lot of time - on your hands

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If I am an employee hired to work set hours and I work those hours, I should at least be able to expect a "professional organization" to provide that there will be work to do. You also must work day hours. Just how does that work for someone that works 2nd or 3rd shift? We should just forego all food and sleep so we can be at some faceless MTSO's beck and call.

For a lot of us, that is also using the term "healthcare professional" pretty loosely. What other "healthcare professionals" are paid a few cents a line to work this hard?

That line about your obligation to patients and physicians sounds like something right out of the annals of MTSOs. Obligation to the rotten doctors who can't be bothered to dictate as if any listening human is hearing any of it, the ones who belch and snort, are completely disorganized, shuffling through papers, yelling to someone else for information they should have before they started dictating, haven't bothered to read a thing about the patient they so dearly care for before they open up their big trap to mumble and yawn all the way through the dictation? Surely you jest!

If you wish to be serious about all of that, go ahead and knock yourself out.

Absolutely! Unless I have a scheule conflict - I work

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I actually have a list of things that I want to get done and I use this downtime to get those things done. Sometimes I get a lot done (like clean the house, checking for work every 10 minutes or so) and sometimes I get a little done. I'm rarely just sitting at my desk waiting for the next report because that can take up to an hour in some cases. Now that the holiday season is upon us, I'm using that time to also search for the items I want to buy online, wrap the gifts I've already bought, and soon enough I'll be decorating my house possibly during my normal work hours if there is no work.

I can't afford to not work, and when I realize that there is never any work from say 6 AM to 8 AM Tuesday and Wednesday but there is work from 4 PM to 6 PM, I ask to have my shift changed so that I do have work when I'm scheduled.

I did run ouf of work and asked to work over - but still made

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over $130.00 for the day, so all not wasted. The issue I have is I work from start to finish, no breaks, no dinner. I eat lunch just prior to starting my day's work and by the time I am finished I am really famished. I leave my desk to have my dinner then. Thanks for the input.

I'm not understanding your dilemma - then

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Your question is whether or not you should work outside your shift if asked to work outside your shift when you didn't have any work. Yet, by your standards you had an okay day that day and were happy with your line count.

So here are my thoughts:
1. Terrible, TERRIBLE idea to sit at your desk not moving anything other than your fingers for 8 hours with no break. This puts you at great risk for DVT and PE. As a DVT/PE survivor, I can tell you it's not worth it. This is an especially bad idea when there's no work on your screen and you still sit there as the blood pools in your legs and slows down because obviously you also aren't hydrating enough (unless you happen to have a gallon-size jug of water on your desk also, in which case you'd need a bathroom break and it sounds like you don't do those either).
2. If you're offered more work and don't want to take it, don't take it. It's not a requirement that you work when it's offered outside of your shift. However, I can tell you from personal experience that your relationship with your supervisor is of utmost importance as an MT. They know who they can count on.

When emails sent out they go to every higher - up in the company

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not just to you. You never just talk to one person. You respond to all if you send email or they send you one, everyone gets the same message. Never is it a 1 on 1 conversation. As far as just sitting here and not ever leaving my chair, I do not take breaks and dinner but I do get up, go to the bathroom, get drink of water, coffee, get the mail so it is not like constant 8 hour sitting in one spot.

If I had made an amount I was happy - with even

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though I had run out of work, I wouldn't work extra hours than my schedule if asked. I have in the past because I valued my supervisor and wanted to help her out, but I have a very busy and fulfilling life outside of the schedule I WAS HIRED FOR with friends and family. They are the priority. I work to live, not live to work. Some of these MTSOs must think we have no life.

So for those of us that run out of work on - the

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night shift you don't mind if we sign on and work during your daytime shift to make up for our lack of lines?

Hate when TSMs e-mail to say if you're out of work in the morning, etc., to flex your time and work later in the evening, during other MTs work hours!

Shameful to be competing against each other to have enough work. Just bring it back from India!

Totally agree - sm

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I usually work 3rd shift and if I run out of work and have to stay up all night to keep checking back to see that there is still no work, I'm not staying up all day to work because when I was working my shift there was no work. If I really needed the money, I might, but the idea of it all is just complete and utter crap. Does anyone know of any other line of work where you show up to work, there isn't work to do, you don't get paid unless there is work, and you have to come back to work later when there is work? What other line of work hires more employees than there is work for and then has the employees compete against one another for the work so they can get paid for working?

As far as trying to impress my leads and supervisors, it's not as if we are going to become fast friends one way or the other and less likely that I'll soon be invited to dinner. Since I can't depend on them to see that there is work for me when I take the time to show up to work online, how much should I care if they can depend on me if they get swamped? I would think that if they cared more about making sure that I've got work, I might care more about lending a hand when they're swamped.

Totally agree - Sammie

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I run out of work at least a couple times a day. I don't know how 11-7 people have any work. They have hired so many MTs, there is never enough work for everyone. I need the money, but I don't make up the OOW and I don't use my PTO. I do keep track of all of this. I have asked to change my schedule repeatedly but they say no. I am scheduled to work 8 hours a day, I don't take lunch, keep the clock running. I have a life too, and this job is taking a toll on me mentally and physically. I'm too old to change careers, so I'll put up with it for a couple more months.

Guys! If you run out of work they have to pay you minimum wage for your state! - 1verytiredMT

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Sometimes I flex when requested (because I want to be a team player and happy to like my boss) but other times I don't. I've stated it before, but when you are an employee and have been hired to work 9 to 5 or whatever, and there is no work during your shift, you put OOW on Webclock and they pay you state minimum. This is the law. Of course, since it is minimum wage and where I live that is pretty low, I sometimes flex because I can make more. However, I REFUSE to keep checking back every hour to see if there is work. I check back when it's convenient for me.

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