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

Angry at myself - Slacking

Posted: Jul 07, 2011

I am so angry with myself. I am having the hardest time staying on task during my shifts. I mean, really? The fact that I know what I can produce and there in turn know how much money I COULD be making should be motivator enough right? Obviously not for me.

I am so angry with myself. Besides a decent paycheck, what are your motivators??

slacker2 - mter

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I could have written your post word for word! Unfortunately, I don't have the answer for us. I've been get into these work "funks" more and more lately. I crave a vacation (haven't had a true vacation in 10 years) but don't have the money to go since my production numbers stink! I need a good kick in the rear to get me motivated.

Me2 - NJMT

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Not that I wish this on anyone, but I am kind of relieved that I am not alone on this!! Maybe we can help one another stay motivated.. I am sinking into a deep depression which is making matters worse... I haven't had complaints from my company yet, but am afraid that will be next.. know I need to get myself in gear!!

I am in for - slacker

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buddying up to try to keep motivated.

And about the complaints from the company, I feel the same way. I am always dreading checking my email....

Let me know if you want to swap e-mail and talk more about being accountable.

Feel the same way - discouraged

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I feel the same way but I don't think it's depression. I think I am just totally burnt out on transcription. It just seems like a find any excuse not to sit down in front of that computer and do what I need to. I've started to look for other jobs, although that scares me silly, but I just think I need a change.

Email.. - NJMT

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Hi Slacker.. I sent you a reply via email, but not sure if it worked right? Let me know if you got it, thanks!!

No slackers allowed! - kicker

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It sounds like you might need some outside activity/hobby to look forward to. I found myself in that same position over the winter and decided to sign up for a couple of classes (yoga, water aerobics). It was just enough to break up the day/week and I knew I would need to use my down time for that so it motivated me to keep working on the days/hours that I was at home. Good luck!

Slacking... - NJMT

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I know that is a BIG part of my problem... I don't drive, and sometimes I don't leave the house for days on end... I find that the times that I do have something to look forward to (lunch or dinner with a friend, or getting out to go shoping, etc.), I do much better with work. A big part of my problem is that I am just so isolated.

Me too - Lazydog

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I've even pretended to be sick, a lot. I'm not sure if I'm burnt out or just tired of hearing the same voices over and over again. Either way, I have a ton of bills and tell myself every day that I'm going to work harder and then my mind wonders and I decide to go to the mall or clean house.........anything but work.

Staleness and burnout - anon

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I took a Sports Psychology college course last semester and couldn't help but think of my job when studying burnout and staleness. An excerpt where I replaced "training" with "work".

"The plateau and exhaustion phase is one that you want to recognize early and avoid sustaining. This is where you are not seeing any additional improvements in performance. The exhaustion phase is where you start to see performance going backwards and the symptoms of distress, staleness, and burnout start to become evident. Distress is where you are able to still maintain adequate performance yet it is perceived as being more difficult. Staleness is associated with negative training effects that include behavioral, emotional, and technical symptoms. The primary mental and emotional marker when experiencing staleness is depression caused by the increase in physical, mental, and emotional demands of work combined with under recovery. Performance during work is poor and continues to add to the negative effects of staleness.

Burnout includes all of the symptoms from distress and staleness plus loss of interest, motivation, and maybe even withdrawal. It is at this point where a program change and a rest or recovery week must be implemented in order to achieve your endurance goals.
Recognizing the symptoms and implementing the solutions are key to avoiding staleness and burnout, and improving performance.

Chronic monotonous overwork results in plateauing and/or loss of performance; however it is a direct result of increased duration, frequency, or intensity without rest or recovery or new stimulus.

Several other factors have been associated with burnout including monotony, lack of positive reinforcement, boredom, and perceived low accomplishment."

Anon, that really could have been written for us. How - many developed that "increased duration,

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frequency, and intensity without rest or recovery or new stimulus." Or the "other factors" of monotony, lack of positive reinforcement, boredom, and perceived low accomplishment."

Those first 3 "others" are with us always to varying degrees, and we just have to handle them ourselves. That last, though, I suspect is much stronger than it used to be as our industry works to organize us out and continually lowers our earnings.

Burnout treatment: Rest or recovery week is out of the question. Program change? Not sure how to manage that other than asking for the stimulus of new accounts. Practicing typing backwards?

Where do you all work where you can slack, I am in the world of NJA. - N/M

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FF

Burned out - CAMT

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I totally feel that the lack of positive reinforcement and the perceived loss of value as an MT are what have led to my feelings of being "burned out." I mean I know this has always been a job where you work basically in isolation; I knew this coming in, but how often does anyone here get a pat on the back for catching the dictator's mistake and just fixing it and moving on? I know exactly what my dictators are supposed to be saying, and I make sure my reports as accurate as I can make them, not that anyone notices or cares seemingly. I used to supervise and I always said that you could pay people less if you appreciated their effort and noticed their achievements, because honestly everyone likes to hear a good word! Barring that, pay people what they're worth. Oops, can't get that anymore as an MT either. Yep, not a very fullfilling career in any way, poor pay, poor recognition and very high expectations from management, impossibly high at times.

Had to double check and make sure I didn't write this! - ....

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I feel exactly the same way. Straight transcription, I produce in the ballpark of 350-400 reports a week. Over the last month, a total of four came back with the DOS missing. I got the "maybe you've taken on too much work" email. There has been no thanks for the 1596 reports that went through with demographics intact. No thanks for the accurate technical part of it (this account blew through MTs because of terminology and other nit-picking for years before I took it over). No thank you for me catching the mistakes and just fixing those I can or letting them know about those I can't (before insurance and regulatory auditors could cause them any grief). No thanks for being available pretty much 24/7. STAT dictation comes in at 10 PM..sure send me an email and I'll get it.

But, no, I didn't include the date of service for a couple patients and the facility has to enter the date themselves, and I'm getting nastygrams. Hmmmm. Why on earth would somebody not find that sort of respect motivating?

make it a game. - anon1

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Enough 'reasons' for it, lets talk solutions.

FIRST:

Make your office different - rearrange the furniture, hang pictures, get flowers or plants, change the lighting -give it a facelift or move to another room if wireless. Take a day, clean it up, organize, and take the garbage out - you know, all that 'stuff' from prior jobs you keep for reference, and then forget you have.

Make your computer different - change desktop, change window colors, change font colors size if your platform allows (ask your supervisor what will not affect the system on the other side, if you change it on yours).

Make it a game - set hourly goals. How many in 1 hour? now beat that by 1 or 2, and again, etc. I have to spell check every report - I don't trust my eye, redlined or not. To save time, my game is to get spell check to zip through without stopping, and I've become pretty accurate at typing. Works for me, I even did it in word-based systems to break the monotony by turning off the redlining.

Use your imaginations, give yourself little rewards (careful - not from the frig). Bottom line is it's you against you, and up to only you.

Feel better soon! you are needed.

If you use Mozilla Firefox ... - Maggie

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there is a great add-on called LeechBlock. You list all your favorite "distraction" websites, and you can set it for different times of the day or certain amounts of time, and it will block you from those websites. This has been a lifesaver for me.

I have also heard it helps to set a timer, where you put your nose to the grindstone until the timer goes off, then you get a break.

good ones, Maggie! I thought of another 'lift' -- - anon1

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Give the shortcuts a going over - change colors, fonts, size, little by little weed out the 'useless.' Come up with new keys for different funcitons like bolding, to tack on to your expansions.

That's my next project.

my MOTIVATOR is my debt, bills, food, kids. Who pays if you don't work? - no msg

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O..o

lol, that's a given for everyone. Trick is staying out of the mental rut. - nm

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.

Angry - CrazyTyper

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It's a great idea to change what you can on your system, the timer idea, and forming a group for positive reinforcement and support. I'm trying to get back to transcribing after being gone for nearly a year and was in a terrible rut before I quit. Now I'm looking for a transcribing job and have been going over what happened to me.

Anyway, the "buddying-up" was a great thought!

The problem for me is the actual job... - me

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Bad pay, isolated from others, work that's taxing on the body, benefits dependent on whether they have enough work for you, getting pay cuts over the years instead of raises, being alone so much making me socially awkward, adding to my depression. So that's why I had to leave the business.

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