This is a rant. - PSM

Let me preface by saying that I am not a veteran in this field. I have only been a MT for about a year and a half. I graduated from one of the AHDI accepted schools. In the short time I have been working, I have worked for both of the national MTSOs. In my opinion the grass is brown on either side of the fence. I was originally enamored by the possibility of working from home and setting my own schedule. The later may be true if you have experience and are fortunate enough to hire on with a good company.

This is where I start my rant. Before MT I worked for over 6 years in various call centers. Benefit wise, the worst company provided me with 40 hours of PTO, 24 hours of sick time, and 8 hours of floating holiday a year. Oh yeah, I also always received benefits whether I was part time or full time. The thing that really gets me is that expirience was not a huge factor. Most companies would hire candidates with no experience, and almost everyone got hired at the same hourly rate. If you were lucky you got a higher rate because you had experience, but that was not common. What was more common and actually average throughout my experience was yearly raises based on performance, which is almost nonexistent in MT positions.

Working from home has degraded this profession. If they can not see us, they do not care (this is just my opinion by the way). Working from home is a benefit to the MTs as well as the companies we work for. We are not seen as more than something that delivers reports in a timely manner. The only time we are brought to our manager’s attention is when we are not making our line count or accuracy. We are nothing more than a blip on their radar. As long as we are within their standards, we are nothing.

What can we do about this? Really we can do nothing from my point of view. This forum is so minute. Even if we get every MT on this board united, we will not accomplish anything. I doubt that the MTs on this forum can even unite to form one voice. If I said “We should release murders and pedophiles from prison. Say yes or no to cast your vote.” more than likely we would still be divided. I know this is a very extreme viewpoint and do not mean it literally. My point is really just to show how fractured this entire website is let alone this profession.

The last person we should be spiteful towards is our fellow MT. I really do not want to give anyone the wrong idea here. I am just trying to put forth some ideas for your consideration. After just more than a year in MT, I bit the bullet and enrolled in an online college. I am currently pursuing a BA in Health Care Administration, and I am counting the days to get out of this underappreciated profession. Thank you for reading to whoever has made it thus far.