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

I am so sick of doing MT - downtime

Posted: Sep 11, 2012

How do you keep your mind on it? I just sit here all day thinking how much I hate this. I'm not a newbie. I've really done this a long time. I would rather do ANYTHING than sit here and type or edit these boring reports.

I'm in the same boat. - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I really dislike MT also. I want to train for something else but like a lot of people I do not have the money to do it. To stay on track I try to take breaks often..especially when my mind just isn't in it. I also get up and walk around and maybe straighten up the house a bit. It helps that I am an IC.

sick of it - Elssa

[ In Reply To ..]
I really don't mind it - when I can understand the dictator. If it's a mumbler, then it's just pure torture. I'd really like to punch these rotten dictators right in the nose. :p

The MTSO should be punched in the nose for putting - these mush-mouths on VR at all. n/m

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

mush mouths - Elssa

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Yeah, some of these doctors sound like they're extremely bored (and/or drunk). Wouldn't be so if it was them or a family member having to undergo the surgery, I reckon.

They sound like they're so sorry for themselves because they're so tired and overworked. Gimme a break.

So please quit... - Anon 2

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...so someone who actually likes MT can have your job.

YOU can have MY job. I'm worth more than 4 cpl. - mythought

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I'm outta here end of the month. Data entry at $15/hour to start. Your are welcome.

Don't you mean "Quit, so that someone who thinks they're - only worth pennies on the dollar can continue - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
to get jerked around and exploited"?

I think OP is right. VR is boring as hell. Contrary to the lies we are fed, we do NOT make "three times" the production or income, or anything else doing VR. All that happens is we get three times as sleepy.

I love transcription. PURE transcription, that is. The job I was trained for, do well at, and have been doing for the past 30 years. But even on the rare occasion that I still get something to actually transcribe, instead of just proofread, I still have come to HATE doing it, because I know it's making the pig-in-a-suit that owns my company even richer, and it's taking me ever further down the road to destitution.

So, don't be so uppity and judgemental towards someone who tells it like it is. Just because you've set your own bar so low, doesn't mean everyone else has.

I am trying believe me - downtime

[ In Reply To ..]
I have put in so many applications I have lost count but I still have not gotten an interview!

Been there (sm) - Morgan

[ In Reply To ..]
That is where I was when I was an IC with the same accounts, spending most of my time on two doctors. It was excruciatingly boring! Tried watching TV and doing it on autopilot but that led to requiring more proofing. I think the only thing that really helps is to get yourself in a position where you are doing more doctors and specialties. If you are with an MTSO see if you can switch accounts, telling them you want the experience (not that you are bored). If you are an IC you are in a tough spot. You could try subcontracting out the boring stuff and taking on a different specialty.

Good luck to you. I KNOW the feeling. I was so burned out it took me until 3AM to finish work because I kept leaving my desk all day, sick from boredom.

I keep falling asleep at my desk, with my foot on the - pedal, then have to find my place again

[ In Reply To ..]
when I wake up. The mental midgets that think we should be uber-productive on VR are delusional.

I take naps during pauses in dictation - Getting my Zzzzs

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Why or how did you get started doing this if you - hate the work so much?

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10 likes, just curious if everyone feels that way, why did they even bother with transcription to begin with?

I didn't always hate it - downtime

[ In Reply To ..]
When I worked in the hospital I really loved it! Maybe because there were always other things going on, people calling needing stuff stat, people needing someone to listen. Now at home it's just so tedious! the same thing all the time, especially since VR.

I never was one of these people who - just "loved" being an MT...

[ In Reply To ..]
but I found it something that I could make fairly good money doing and enjoyed work at home. Now I not only despise MT/ME, I hate doctors, nurses, hospitals, sick people, PAs, allied health professionals and clinicians, you name it. I now do everything possible to avoid going to doctors, but I know the day is coming when I will have no choice. At least I only have a few more years before retirement.

Having to work at this now, I feel like someone in a trap who would chew their own arm off to escape! And yes, I am doing something now which hopefully will get me outta here.

Eleven "Likes" now. :-D - See message

[ In Reply To ..]
When I started doing MT 18+ years ago, I was in-house at a hospital. I was paid a decent wage that included regular raises and great benefits, and I found the work to be always interesting and challenging....I loved learning something new every day, and it was a job at which I was really good. Thus, I loved the job.

With outsourcing to MTSOs and pay-per-line rather than hourly pay, if you get something challenging that you have to research, being paid "zero" for any time learning new terms and words takes some of the motivation out of it! I can still (even after 18+ years) learn something new every day in MT, but having no compensation for doing necessary research really stinks.

I enjoyed doing MT when I was typing "from scratch"; but with VR, the work is too monotonous and difficult to keep my concentration, needing eyes constantly on the monitor. I find myself dozing off while doing VR....something I never do while typing/transcribing.

Lack of work/NJA hours turn an 8-hour day into a 10- to 12-hour day for me, and that's no exaggeration. What's to love about that, while barely being paid $80/day for the "privilege" of wasting my time.

Yes, I used to love this work when the pay was commensurate to the skills and knowledge needed; raises could be earned, and the day-to-day work wasn't as monotonous. For the kind of work we do, to be paid what actually amounts to less per hour than a high-schooler can make.....well, yeah--that takes some of the "like" out of this job for me.

Having said all this, I should have written this in the past tense because I quit when it became this intolerable....at least it is for me. I'm still trying to figure out Plan B, but I just couldn't keep doing a job that was harming my health and draining my spirit.

It wasn't always crap work - angel

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I got started as an MT back in 1997. Back then we got paid for straight transcription and I made good money. The only way voice recognition is ever going to actually work is if each doctor gets their own system. I worked at a pediatrician's office also for a time a few years back as a transcriptionist/medical assistant and my doctor got voice recognition. It learned his voice in a week. I never typed another report for him. The company even stated each doctor needs their own system. I think this is just a way to get out of paying everyone with these big MTSO's. 4 cpl on something that is labeled as speech rec and I end up retyping most of the report!! BAH...I now am moving on to a good job at a call center making at least a decent living. Goodbye and good riddance to this awful profession.

Ad infinitum - MTgameover

[ In Reply To ..]
I too have been an MT for over 28 years, and as of Sept. 1, two words.... Game Over... Starting out at 5.04 in December of 1984, and progressively seeing such a downward trend in pay for this profession, I have chosen to step out of the BONDAGE of being an MT and am moving on. I serve a GOD who is bigger than any MTSO, and he has my back and will lead me in a new direction of FREEDOM. Hope other MTs receive this same revelation and stop living in FEAR and BONDAGE.

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