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QA penalty now for blanks - anon

Posted: Jun 29, 2012

They are more and more following M*Modal. Now if a report is QA'd with a blank, you will be penalized in your score for that blank, and this has been verified by a QA person, who received the new directions recently. As I understand it, you are penalized if QA was able to find the blank either in old reports or by research, or just knowing the term.

So you have a choice, spend a lot of time on research and see your LPH plummet to minimum wage, or blank it and then be penalized by QA for the blank, kiss your incentive bye!! I'm sure the suits coming up with this are going to be able to take a lot more vacations with bonuses that they are not paying the MTs!!

BLANKS - oldmt

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I knew that was coming. My wage has already dropped to minimum, so how can it get any worse. This company is buying the smaller companies and is going to have a monopoly on this business in the next few years and will be able to do whatever they want. I'm getting out!! not a minute too soon either.

Across the board? - Dickens

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I haven't gotten any emails regarding this change (not that that's surprising). Is it taking effect immediately and for all accounts?

QA policy - anon

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As I was informed, the e-mails only went to the QA people (this was on the Wmx side but I "think" it is across the board). Someone questioned having a lot of points taken off for blanks. Their TL didn't even know about it.

Oh, good grief. - Dickens

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I cannot WAIT to find another job. :(

I did just get an email reminding us of when to pend when we have blanks...maybe a coincidence or maybe not.

This stinks big time. sm - anon

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They cannot just arbitrarily start taking more money away from us without telling us ahead of time. What kind of asinine crap is this now? I have not seen any emails, and I am on the WEBMEDX side.

"As I was informed?" This is heresay. I'll believe it when... - ...see message

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...I see it in a formal email or policy change. Sounds to me like just one person spouting off, especially if the TL didn't know about it.

just ask your QA the policy - anon

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This came straight from new QA policy, just ask your QA if they will be marking off or not if you want to be sure.

Do you have an assigned QA? I'm on the WMX side. - NM

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x

Have U seen latest lab data module-Get Real - SeaMT

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This is the height of nit picking and makes my RIDICULIST.

Perfection in grammar in laboratory data. Who do they think we are transcribing, English Professors?

And yet they think we're only worth 3 cpl. - They need to be SHUT DOWN. (Permanently!)

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Lab data - Dickens

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The whole thing about changing commas to semi-colons when there is an internal comma is ridiculous. It's time consuming, and at 4 cents a line--come on!

I'm NOT changing that crap. - mt_not_for_long

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It IS too time consuming for 4 cpl. I only change what matters, no a few stupid commas.

I haven't seen the module, but punctuating to make - meaning perfectly clear is the job. SM

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I've always used commas and semicolons as needed, so I don't expect this to be any change from business as usual.

commas and semicolons - anon

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Especially if it is needed for clarity in a long string of values or in a long medication list that is listed in paragraph form, the semicolons can be essential to preserving the meaning. Otherwise, I ignore it as well.

Re: commas & semicolons - sm

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A couple months ago, supervisor distributed an e-mail cautioning against "over-editing" which listed excessive punctuation editing as one of the examples. Anyone marked off for petty punctuation changes should dispute it and report the QA responsible.

Must depend on the account - anon

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I never got an e-mail like that. My account is verbatim though, so maybe they are more hard core because of that.

The only way I get my bonus is by over-editing. When I don't, I get slammed hard.

QA people need a reason to feel that they are superior. They clearly don't understand how VR is supposed to work.

If they do start counting off for blanks, I will be moving on. They already have the absolute worst QA I have ever dealt with.

QA (at least the old Wmx QA) - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
The majority of our WMX QA were excellent, and they would explain if something was confusing and it never ever came across as "superior." I have heard a few were like this, but I never ran into it. The thing is, this is a new policy that just came out, and Nuance expects them to follow their rules. If they don't, their jobs could be at risk. I am just saying that it is not always the QA people's fault, some may indeed be like that, but they are following what they have been told in order to keep their jobs (they get audited as well) It is a new rule and if they stick to it I think a lot more people will leave.

It is still better than M*Modal though, who penalizes you for too many blanks in your line count, regardless of whether the blanks are due to audio, horrible ESL, etc. In this case, it is a minor error on your QA score, and only if it is a blank that the QA person is able to resolve. Still, I think they have gone too far and I am not happy about it!!

I see no conflict between editing as needed and - over-editing. If a semicolon is needed SM

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for clarity, inserting one is not over-editing.

BTW, some here may be interested in knowing that some transcription schools stopped teaching people to use the semicolon. They had too many students who didn't know what it was and were having trouble understanding why it was needed (!), and so they just decided to blow it off.

My opinion of people being loosed on this field unable to understand when and why that key positioned efficiently under their right pinkie would be used... No need to actually verbalize, right? :)

This is true. Please see my posts below -- - QA

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the post "Clarification." There isn't much room for interpretation. Those of us who feel this method of scoring is unfair really have no power to change anything. We are audited as the MTs are. I hate my job and am trying to get out of this field altogether.

I remember that exact e-mail and... - JJ

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remember saving it just in case I needed to defend myself.

SeaMT, no professor here, but no remedial instruction needed - either. This is the job. NM

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x

I kissed the incentive goodbye and - I am happier now

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At one time I was killing myself with work and worry to achieve the incentive, only to have it go away with some arbitrary (in my view) audit deductions and admittedly some misses on my part due to trying to go too fast. Since my incentive was a grand $38 per pay period, I decided to slow down, take my necessary breaks, and quit sweating the QA knocks, and breathe and add some joy to my life. My resulting happiness is well worth foregoing $19 a week!!!! I just function as though the incentive program does not exist, since it really is unattainable by me on a sustained basis.

That's what I did also. That incentive program is a joke. - nuancemt

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I clock in, do my work, take breaks, do a load of laundry, take phone calls, clock out. I don't worry about this job. I hate this job. Have been job hunting and have 3 interviews next week doing non-MT work.

Same here. - Why bother?

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My main account has horrible audio. If I slow down for accuracy (having to relisten to words repeatedly), I do not produce enough lines for a bonus. If I speed up, the 99% accuracy goal is sacrificed. Now I do not even try for a bonus and life is easier for me. It helps that I will be looking for a new employer or career at the end of the year anyway.

The incentive can be controlled. - nana

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The incentives can be controlled. Have you ever noticed how some months (very rare) you get good enough good dictation so you can get an incentive, but others (more) you don't? They can control whether you get an incentive. The work can be routed out in such a way.

If they are doing this deliberately - I am happier now

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Though I find it hard to believe that intentional manipulation of availability of well-dictated reports is going on, if it is, that's another reason to ignore the incentive to preserve your happiness.

incentive being controlled - mt20years

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I am sure I will never see incentive again. I did for 6 months and it was nice. Also trained on 5 different accounts and all with specs totally different. Now on another account that I have no clue about. It seems like someone is vacationing with my incentive money, so I too just act like it does not exist. This company makes me sick.

Well, I still haven't figured out how to access Fiesa, but - my last paycheck had a welcome chunk

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of incentive pay, so I guess I'm scraping through anyway. Just hope some earnest QA isn't sending me helpful messages I'm "ignoring."

Puke-ance - morons

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I cannot stand this piece of crap company!

Totally confused - anon

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I never received any email about this and my AM is very good about sending out emails that has new info that we need to know.

Yes (sm) - QA

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Yes, I received the same directions to the effect that if it's easily found and seems like the MT didn't do any basic research or if it's easily heard, the MT should get points taken for the blank. I disagree with this, of course, but just another slave working here. Hate this company.

Clarification (see message) - QA

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The company has multiple platforms. As we QA/QC/whatevertheywanttocallusatthemoment are moved around, we get training, and with it comes training on how to score the Nuance way. And yes, for me, that training included some cases of taking points away for blanks. You will have some QC who are very resistant to that because we believe it's not a fair policy. I plan on being as lenient as possible in favor of the MT. We have very little wiggle room, though. They've delineated exactly what kind of "error" receives what kind of points.

Hope this explains why some may have heard of this and some haven't. I would think eventually they'll bring everyone to the Nuance way of scoring, but every time they acquire a new company, that's many new employees to try to brainwash, I mean integrate.

I never got an e-mail about blanks - anon

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I work for Nuance and was not "acquired." I never got an e-mail about blanks being counted as errors. Is this on all accounts? I don't send a lot of work to QA but when I do, I tend to have a LOT of blanks because QA is so insane that I don't dare miss a tiny word or dare to use my own judgement to "fix" grammar problems.

I have been in this biz for a looooong tmie and no one has ever counted blanks as an error.

It wasn't an email (sm) - QA

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It wasn't an email but a part of training materials trying to bring us (Wmx) people into alignment with the Nuance way of grading errors. As some move to new platforms and are using the feedback system, they get the training.

I feel for you. You're not supposed to guess, but you now have to worry that if you leave a blank you'll be docked for that. The training didn't say to dock for all blanks. It was more for supposedly careless ones, things that are easily heard, easily found, etc. The problem is that is so subjective. We've all had a blank that was tough, only to step away for a break and find it just clicked when we heard it. Other kinds of errors we (MTs and QA) can at least be able to find something factual as basis.

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