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For employees, how do you handle "bad" days? - Need to know

Posted: Feb 24, 2012

I'm just curious. I'm currently an IC, but I'm finding it very difficult to move the required amount of money out of each paycheck to set aside for estimated taxes. If it's there, I'm usually using it to pay bills and not moving it into the separate account I set up for that specific purpose. Sigh.

I was thinking I should get an employee position so the taxes are already taken out, and the responsibility is taken out of my hands because I obviously cannot seem to handle it (which makes me mad at myself). My concern is that I have good days and I have bad days. Good days, I can sit there for my 8 or whatever hours and get a good amount of lines. On my bad days (whether it's because I'm tired and my eyes are drooping, I have a headache, or I just have no focus), I have to work longer to get my lines in (if my account has the extra work), but I can do it when I have the focus to do so.

I'm concerned about an employee position. If I'm having one of my bad days, I'm afraid I would not get my required lines in during my shift or if I try to force myself, I'll end up making mistakes because I'm not concentrating enough. That's the only thing stopping me from trying for an employee position. The longer I do this work (and the older I get), the more bad days I seem to have. I'm sure some of it has to do with boredom also. The only good thing now with my current job, although I have a set schedule as an IC, is that I can work over 8 hours and outside of my "shift" to get the rest of my lines as long as there is work.

I guess my question is, do you all (specifically employees who have to have certain lines/hour or lines in 8 hours) experience those "bad" days and if so, what do you do?

I think it depends on the company you work for. - -(sm) - Meerkat

[ In Reply To ..]
I have good & bad days, too. I think everybody does! Where I work, we have more of a flex-time setup. Although we have assigned "shifts", where we should be working the majority of those hours, sometimes it's just not possible to do that if the work isn't there.

So we're allowed what amounts to more of a 12-hour window in which we should be able to get in our 8 hours' worth. I say "should", because, depending on multiple different factors, sometimes it's still not possible to do the prescribed lines in even a 14+ hour block of time.

I have to be as flexible and opportunistic as possible in order to get those lines, sometimes. If the work is slow, I can usually get more work to come in if I work either on the weekends, or late into the night on weekdays. Or very, very early, before most MTs have gotten up.

The other thing I think most companies do is average out your lines per hour. We're paid every 2 weeks, so they take the total of what we've done during that pay period, and average it out per hour worked. That's a lifesaver for me, because like you, some days I'm hyperactive, and can go all day. Or else if I've gotten lucky, and a string of good work is flowing in, I try to stay with it, because there's no way of knowing - the following day the work may all dry up. Or else you'll get bogged down with terrible dictators.

All you can do is your best, and hopefully your company's managers are realistic enough, and flexible enough, to realize that MTs aren't machines, and are going to have some high-production days, some low-production days, and mostly middle-of-the-road days.

Good luck!
=^..^=

well, I'm getting older too - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and can no longer just work a huge amount of hours. Transcend has given me a flexible window of time to work; I try to keep it framed in as 12-hr window but sometimes it works out to a 15-hr window (no one complains). We specify ahead of time what production we intend to do and keep that number at my lowest in case its a bad day. On good days, I go beyond that. FT is 35 hr a week minimum. Sometimes they request overtime. If you can do more lines than your committment in 8 hr or less, that works too. I think these times are less forgiving for an IC; and as a FT employee, you also get your disablity partly paid for etc. It sounds like the emp status would be a good option for you.

bad days - pookbina

[ In Reply To ..]
I worked for years as an IC then was let go from my job. Worked for Nuance and SoftScript as an employee trying to keep up with the required lines per hour, and yes it was a problem for me on bad days definitely and plus I don't like being tied to the desk. I want to be able to leave for a few hours etc. So PMS days, headache days, etc. were days I definitely could not "produce" what was required. I'm totally against MT jobs being like a darn factory job anyway. I didn't start this profession to work like I was in a factory, worrying about meeting lines per hour, etc. These are medical documents. They should not be rushed. True, you need to do things in reasonable time but it just should not be run that fast. Quality always suffers. But that's the way it's going today. Foolish, but that's the way it is. I doubt I will be able to stay in the profession honestly with the voice recogn continuing to grow.

bad days- pookbina - M

[ In Reply To ..]
Pookbina, I agree. I'm 58 and started out as a medical secretary for one doc at NCBH back in the 90s, worked there for 10 yrs and then decided I wanted to do transcription at home. My body simply won't let me sit here and type for hours on end, plus some days I'm bored to death, and that's when my mind starts wandering, and that means a "bad day" for me. I just send a note to my supervisor telling her I'll need to step away a few times that day. Then I'll go outside for a bit, play with the kitties for a few mins, do some stretching, etc. As far as required lines, I get them somehow. I seem to go on auto-pilot and do some self-motivation by talking to God and thanking him for my many blessings. It does help. :)

my experience - carmen

[ In Reply To ..]
I briefly did IC work part time for about 2 months along with my full time job. I only had to make 600 lines per day and could choose my own schedule and was also able to do more if I wanted.

*HOWEVER, it seemingly took forever to get those lines in and I am a fast typer.

Other than that, I have always been an employee. I think everyone has their bad days, but when you average your lines out over the course of the pay period, you always seem to make up for it.

I think the place I worked part time as an IC was doing something weird with their line counts, because there is no way it should have taken me nearly 8 hours to do 600 lines, when at my full time job I could get that done in 3hrs sometimes less.

My suggestion is do what works best for you, but I certainly could not see myself full time at the place I worked as an IC because the time it took to get the lines in was unreasonable; and having to set aside money for taxes and social security, I probably would have been typing like 16hrs a day just to maintain.

Good luck!

Suggestion for tax money - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
I know this is not what you asked, but I thought I'd toss this out anyway. When I was an IC, I paid the taxes every time I got paid. I learned my lesson the hard way when I was a brand new MT/IC and not making much. I had to pay the mortgage, so the IRS didn't get paid.

I started then paying the taxes every time I got paid and it made a huge difference for me.

As to your actual question, every company is a little bit different, but most of them have allowances for bad days and good days. If you're consistently below their target marks, then they would probably say something, but if it's just here and there, doubt anything would be said. Everyone has an off day every once in a while.

I seem to focus better (sm) - AuntieAnxiety

[ In Reply To ..]
I seem to focus better as the day wears on, so I've begun to work the p.m. shift, starting at 3 p.m. and ending at 11 p.m. (I normally don't take a meal break so I just do 8 straight hours).

I find there are a lot less distractions (not so many telemarketer calls, not so many door-knockers, etc.) and I pretty much have all morning and part of the early afternoon to take care of errands and other things that I know will drive me crazy while I'm trying to work if I don't get them out of the way.

I DVR any shows I want to watch and my husband and I eat dinner when I get off shift while watching something that was on earlier. I'm usually asleep by 2:00 a.m. (the same time I'd usually be up to anyway), and then sleep comfortably until about 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., when I wake up out of habit. The 5 or 6 hours is enough for me but I know some people require more.

Good luck to you. I know I have some days where there is something going on with my family that really preoccupies me to a great degree. I've found working a later shift helps me get the "small stuff" out of the way early in the day so I can totally focus on my work in the evenings.

Thank you everyone - Need to know

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for all of your replies. There are some great suggestions in here.

I really like the idea of sending in the payments immediately. I didn't know that was an option. Granted, I suppose they wouldn't complain about getting our money early, but I always thought you had to pay them in quarterly installments. I get paid weekly, though, so that might be a bit too much for the IRS to handle if I sent payments in weekly. Hmmm. I'm going to definitely look into that. I might call them to see if that would be okay.

Again, thank you to everyone. For those who struggle with the same issue(s), I feel for you and hope you can find a balance also.

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