A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
I used to care - but no more
Posted: Oct 23, 2014
I worked for Medquist 7 years ago. I hated it. I found another job at a company that I loved. Worked there for a couple of years until the dreaded announcement that they had been acquired by Medquist. After suffering from PTSD for a couple of days after hearing that news, i sucked it up. nothing bad happened for a year or so. then all the changes began. again. again, i sucked it up. i've always loved being a medical transcriptionist. i hated SR but again, i dealt with it. i had my primary account that i loved, a supervisor who went out of her way to do things to make my pain less. but once ASR hit, and the 40% reduced wages that came with it, i began to sink into a hole of not knowing why i was still trying to do a good job. just ingrained in me i guess. i accepted the fact that my paychecks would never be the same but thought with time i'd at least be able to get my line count up some.
but i've figured it out. they don't want that. any time you start feeling comfortable, feeling like if you keep trying you might get back to where you are making a liveable wage, they make changes again, change your accounts, change your supervisor, etc, etc. this is their game plan to get rich. the Walmart of Healthcare is MModal. please the customers on the backs of the starving and depressed workers.
so now, i sit and stare. i only barely care that i'm making minimum wage or just slightly above. soon, i'll just stop paying my mortgage, and then, maybe, i'll just burn my house down. caring about the job you do, caring about something you love in your work life, well, that is apparently just for suckers. i just don't care anymore.
I Understand! - Nana3
[ In Reply To ..]I understand how you feel. I have worked for MM for almost 16 years and have been MT for 30 years. Wish I could have predicted the future when I went to college in 1979. I am worn out with the worry and the changes and struggling, but I have had some serious health issues and am just happy to be alive to see my 3 grandchildren. I will be 53 in a little over a month, so no way near retirement age, so I don't know what I am going to do if they keep making things harder and harder. I have several accounts right now, but if I have to do everything from all over the country, I just don't think I can manage that. Please, I know you are probably joking, but don't burn your house down if you are not joking. MM is not worth ruining the rest of your life over. Believe me, I don't know what I will do either. There are not many jobs in my area and I don't have a car right now and don't want to buy one. My husband drives me as I could not for a period of time because of medication. I guess I would have to try and get a shift comparable to his somewhere. I know the local hospital is out as they just filed bankruptcy and are not hiring and probably never will be. Life can be really hard, always a lot of obstacles, but just try to relax and you will figure out a way out of this mess. That is what I tell myself when I start to dwell on this. Good luck.
Gah ... you and I are in the exact same boat right now - ME
[ In Reply To ..]I was just sitting here staring too. I was thinking in my mind, no matter how hard I work from now until Saturday I know I will not make my rent this month. My ex-husband is getting tired of me asking for extra help but I would not be living in this tiny mobile home if it weren't for him helping me every month because I just CAN'T seem to earn enough to pay my own bills. Yesterday, he had to meet me at the gas station to put gas in my car just to take my son to school. I'm a grown adult woman, and I just can't seem to support myself on this job, which I have had for 16 years now.
The scary thing (for me) is, I honestly do not care anymore. I always told myself as long as I keep caring and keep praying, I can do this. This is the first time ever that I honestly feel I have given up. I've stopped caring and stopped praying about it and that totally scares me.
I am where you are so know that you're not alone. I absolutely despise this job - I've given my entire career life to it only to feed my son beans and rice for dinner every night. It's not right.
I'll pray for you if you pray for me. Hopefully someone up there will hear us and help restore a little fire in us to keep going.
Have you considered switching to - sm
[ In Reply To ..]a company that offers straight typing? I see ads on the job boards. It's harder on the hands, but no denying it pays better than this ASR rip-off.
That's how it was with me. I escaped a bad - sm - Coaster
[ In Reply To ..]inhouse situation to work for a wonderful smaller MTSO that I put a lot of thought and research into before deciding to leave my former good-paying job to join. The pay was only a small amount less, and the freedom and lack of stress in working for them made up for it.
Then they were sold to one of the bigger companies. We were promised things would be the same, and could only get better. What a load of hooey. Once the transition had been made, our pay was cut in half out of the blue. Then it was cut again once they switched to mostly VR.
After years of suffering and starving with that horrid company, I got lucky and landed what was probably one of the last inhouse jobs in my state. The drive to work was long (2 hrs ea. way) but the pay was fantastic and made up for the long drive time. What a concept to be able to pay my bills, on time and in full! And build a savings account again!
Then, as quickly as my luck had changed for the better, it changed for the worse when we all got dumped because of point-n-click. I got unemployment, but was unable to find another job, and it ran out. I'm still looking for work, but there's very little I qualify for without a lengthy stint back in school, which I don't have the time nor the money to do.
I finally got on Medicaid, and it's a life-saver. And you know what? I don't care that I am. I now pay nothing: No co-payments, no bills, and I have my own PCP. Do I give a darn that the healthcare institution I visit gets paid only pennies on the dollar for my care? I care not one iota! The healthcare industry had no qualms about paying pennies on the dollar for transcription that was produced by unscrupulous MTSOs that paid their MTs pennies on the dollar. So too bad for them! That goes around, comes around.
Karma has just come back and bitten them on the behind.
You can't make a liveable wage - Valley Girl
[ In Reply To ..]because the liars and thieves are skimming off you. You are more than capable of taking your skills and doing something else. Don't let them exploit you for your passion. Take your love out of your work life and direct it elsewhere. Can you get some counseling to get other perspectives? Don't burn down your house. My house burned down in the CA wildfires in 2000 and I felt numb for months. I got out in my car with my two dogs and the little that I could cram in my car. The fire was devastating and created lots of problems.
You might re-examine your relationship to money. I hate to recommend Suze Orman b/c I think she goes off track on some things, but she has valid things to say about $ and women. Quit "sucking" it up. You are literate and detail oriented o/w you couldn't transcribe for long. But you have to do a good job for yourself and the company has to do a good job by you. You're not stuck in a marriage with the work. Why be so passive about it? Quit that.
i used to care - but no more
[ In Reply To ..]thanks everyone for your support. don't worry, i'm not going to burn down my house, but i might put the song Burning'Down the House on LOUD every now and then.
thing is. i'm 60 1/2. only 2 more years and then i can just stop this nonsense. since i've always been poor, living on social security won't be much different. and i won't have to cry every day because of this stupid job.
transcription is all i know. i have been a secretary but i don't have the current up to date skills with computer secretarial stuff anymore and at 60, who would hire me? and that is if there were any jobs out there. i used to work at the main hospital where i lived. worked there over 20 years. had a few different jobs in different departments but it was also transcription. so at this point, that is really all i'm qualified for. maybe so maybe not, but thats how it seems.
my 92year old mom lives with me and working from home is just really the best option for the current situation. so yes, sucking it up IS what i need to do. i don't always feel sorry for myslef. i do feel down about life a lot, but not always.
anyway...its time for work, oh boy, i'm excited. carry on. and thanks again.
With you - Backwoods Typist
[ In Reply To ..]You have no idea how many more MTs out there you have just touched....because we feel EXACTLY the way you do. Your post spoke to me on a very deep and personal level.
Like many, I had a good job in-house at a hospital and loved it. I wanted to come home and work because of long commute time, but that never happened. Instead, a little over a year ago in August we were informed that we were being outsourced to N. No longer would I be making the comfy salary that I did...oh no...I would have to work twice as hard for less than half of what I had been making. Yet my ex-employer called it a "comparable opportunity" and we could actually make MORE money. They fell for the sweet song of the N sirens, believing whatever story they had been told. Now, like you, I sit here on my day off thinking about things and how they have been. I love working from home, but now there is increased stress on my husband to take care of what I cant. These were things I could easily take care of. Now, I just want to sit and cry.
Working for N has made me a bitter person, and it has caused issues between me and my hubby. I feel that N has ruined my life, but then again, the hospital just threw us (coworkers and myself) away like pieces of trash. And for what? So the CEO and other higher ups can get their huge bonus from all the money they saved? Yet, the doctors complain about the quality of the reports.
In a way I feel that I am to blame for my situation because I accepted the terms of employment, but ONLY because like a lot of others, I had no other choice. I needed some kind of income coming in and, like others, looking elsewhere for employment with no luck at all. I have been looking since and either being told I am not what they are looking for or Im not good enough. I have thought and said several times that I just want my life back..what I had when I had a livable wage. We listen to TSMs and others talk about the lavish vacations they go on and the CEO and others make MILLIONS A YEAR...on OUR backs. We got them where they are...we can bring them down. By refusing to work and letting them learn what its like to live like us, to make our paychecks. Sure, some make it, but they are few and far between.
Point of this posting is that you are NOT alone and we should all pray for each other. Karma is a....well...we know what she is and eventually it will catch up with all MTSOs. Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves. I just hope I am around to pass out beers, sit in my lounge chair and give high fives as we watch them burn....now knowing we are no longer slaves but now free. Hugs to you and hope that some ray of sunshine finds you and guides you to something better. We know exactly how you feel right now.
They're all the same - SickNTired
[ In Reply To ..]I've worked for 3 different companies in as many years and they all just keep getting worse.
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