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Is cherrypicking allowed at your company? Is this the norm? - Tired of working with lazy MTs.

Posted: Aug 26, 2011

I have been with my company for many years and have liked the account I am on until the past 3 months. Three months ago, they hired on 3 new MTs and now suddenly all the easy doctors disappear from the queue first, even if there are other reports out of TAT. Warnings have been given by account manager, but only 2 days later, the cherrypickers are back at it. I am now getting stuck with a majority of the harder docs that no one wants to do and have watched my pay decrease from $18/hr when I was doing a mix to now only $11-12 due to getting stuck with all the horrible docs. I can no longer survive on what I am making due to these lazy MTs.

So I am wondering if this goes on at all companies? I don't want to make a change to a different company if this is common practice elsewhere. I am about ready to just give up MT altogether if this is the case. Anyone know any good companies out there that don't allow cherrypicking or at least compensate the MTs who do the harder work? I don't mind doing it. I just want appropriate compensation, but have been told I am at the top of the payscale at my current company, which isn't very high.

To cherry pick or not to cherry pickâ�¦ - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
I think it goes on anywhere that the system is set up so people can see and/or access dictations at any point in the line up. I started with Transform/MD-IT at the end of April and ths is the first company I've worked for where that is the case. On other systems/platforms I may have seen one or 2 jobs coming up next, but nothing after that. On Bayscribe I see just the current job that is sent to me and the way Landmark has it set up, even if I cancel out of the document (which I've had to do because of cmputer issues, not cherry picking) when I log back in, the same document reloads for me.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do if your account manager is not going to take action against the people who are doing it. It sucks, but I don't see anyway around it, unless you stoop to their level and start doing the same thing. But what's the old saying - if you play in the mud you'll get dirty, or something like that. It's hard not to stoop to their level, especially when it's affecting your livelihood.

As to the compensation, Transform/MD-IT has a tiered system for their VR. It all starts at a base of 4 cpl but then there are a lot of qualifiers, one of which is the difficulty, so that 4 cpl can actually turn into 5 or 6 cpl. It's one of the most unique pay systems I've come across and is the only one I've come across that makes VR bearable.

I agree - long time MT

[ In Reply To ..]
I can't stand cherry pickers. Where I am at now it is done a lot even though I was promised when hired, "Cherry picking is NOT allowed!" Whatever. Been in the industry since 1998. Nothing ever changes. Some MTs just suck and bring the rest of us, who are hard workers down.

Where I work - destinyisntfree

[ In Reply To ..]
Where I work, there is no way to pull reports out of order. I work in Escription, and while we can see the queue of work to know how much is there, we have no control over what reports are downloaded to us. The reports come down in order of TAT. I have worked at companies where there was a great deal of cherrypicking, but I have yet to see that happen where I work.

You can get fired where I work... - hmmm

[ In Reply To ..]
for cherry picking, if they catch you. The list we get of available jobs doesn't show the dictator name, though, so you wouldn't be able to avoid tougher dictators anyway.

Cherry picking - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
Another thing to remember if that cherry pickers ultimately end up hurting themselves. A truly good MT knows how to do ALL worktypes and how to cope with physicians whose dictation is not particularly desirable. I once had a cardiologist (American, native speaker of English) who was worse than ESL because he insisted on eating carrots and celery while he dictated his cardiac caths. (Yes, I know, we do things differently in California.....) While I certainly increased my vocabulary (ahem) while doing his work, I would never have thought of skipping over his jobs. The way our system was set up, I could easily have recycled them off and no one would have been the wiser, but my philosophy has always been that I am happy enough to take the good jobs, so I should be just as willing to take my share of the bad. Just my two cents' worth. And, if you cherry pick, you are depriving yourself of learning how to cope with any kind of dictation done any which way.

Transcend's BeyondTXT platform - makes it impossible SM

[ In Reply To ..]
We can see the next 50 jobs in the queue, but we can't pick out of the middle. When we check the box that means "I'm ready for the next job to download", the first one on the list is the one that will download.

Having said that, team leads and above DO have the power to pick jobs out of the middle. And they very often do, alas. But in my view, the ability to cherry-pick is the ONLY upside of being a team lead, and in spite of that, they couldn't pay me enough to do that job.

Thanks everyone... - Tired OP

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for the replies. It does seem that this is not tolerated at most companies, so I have decided to start looking at what else is out there. I have actually been getting very bored with this account anyway, so maybe this is just the kick in the pants I needed to push me to look for my next challenge. Life's too short to be stuck in a situation that is just not right and that is making me unhappy.

Thanks again to everyone for your input.

On our system, they can't see what's coming, so they log out and wait. - deathtocherrypickers!

[ In Reply To ..]
When I see that, I assign it back to them and then another like it.

Now that's the spirit! :D - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
Also at Transcend, if we send back a job untranscribed, we had better have a reason that involves fire, blood, a visit to the emergency room, or at the very least, a fatal computer crash.... Everyone is expected to "take one for the team" and do one's fair share of the crappy work.

LOL. Similar story - In a small office

[ In Reply To ..]
Had an MT who would call in before her shift and ask if there was work from certain (easy, of course) dictators and to assign those to her. One day the desk clerk was out, I answered the phone, and assigned the worst I could find to her. She complained to the manager, but only got herself in trouble.

sounds like the norm .... - weed out higher paid MTs. n/m

[ In Reply To ..]
n/m

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