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I've been thinking about all this. I made my living and loved my job for almost 30 years until the last few years with the voice recognition and all the electronic tedious convoluted corporate bullcrap and severely diminished pay checks. I have some experience with some different companies, and though I am barely staying afloat at Nuance since I escaped MQ (now MModal), here is what I believe to be true across the board.
They want more work and perfect work for less pay. They create a diversion to make you think you are solely responsible for the accuracy of the reports. What they tell you about your line counts, whatever little tricks they try to appease you with to improve your lines and pay, they are simply blowing the proverbial smoke, to make you think you have some control over your fate. It's a trick. What we all know, but what they fail to acknowledge, is that machines do not do the dictating. If machines did the dictating everything could be measured out and controlled electronically quite simply. But the dictators are human beings and this is what I find to be true: You can only work as fast as the dictator speaks, period. None of the electronic enhancements help when you are sitting there waiting for a dictator to chat with a co-worker or wake up since he/she just dozed off for a moment, or you cannot understand and must listen over and over to make sure it is correct because you are solely responsible for the perfection of the report.....
Also, no one tells the dictators how to do their part to help this whole electronic fiasco. The dictators could give complete physician names so you could actually find one when you look it up instead of finding 4 Dr. Smiths and leaving a blank because it is unclear which one after you spent valuable time trying to determine which one. and the human dictator is not aware that you are in another state and not famiiliar with "Dr. Annie." And they could attempt to just speak more clearly. The speech recognition seems to do pretty well on the dictators who speak reasonably clearly. But it is obvious to me that the dictators are blissfully unaware of what happens with their dictation. They need a little cartoon film entitled "What happens after you dictated your report" and it should be mandatory for all to see so they could be more aware of how they could assist in providing a better product for all concerned.....If I dictated a report and my name was going to be on it, I would make an effort to assist somone to get it right. I personally would be happy to sign my name to each report because I do each to the very best of my ability and understanding. But, again, I am a human being, so not pefect.
The responsibility for perfection needs to be shared more equally with the company and the dictators and not completely on the shoulders of the MT. Employees with a large responsibility for their jobs are usually paid commensurate with that responsibility. They pay MTs pennies, and if there is any problem, it is never the company or the dictator, it is always the MT who is responsible and suffers.
We are being duped. That is my 2 cents worth...