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

Overstaffing: The New Norm? - PonderingMT

Posted: Apr 16, 2011

Just wondering if there are ANY MTSOs out there that don't overstaff their accounts. Read the boards here; it's fairly obvious that ALL if not MOST of them have overstaffed their accounts.

And to the Keystrokes Damage Control team, don't even bother with your spin. Keystrokes accounts are grossly overstaffed! And even IF some of them weren't, as a few on here repeatedly proclaim, then that is an INDICTMENT of the "PRODUCTION COORDINATORS" because *everyone* I know who works for KS is starving to death, just as I am. So they have some accounts with tons of work and many with NO work, which means that the PCs are totally incompetent!!

Something to think about. sm - oldtimer

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I realize that this post is directed at Keystrokes, but I want to say something that has been bothering for over a year.

I keep reading all the posts that everyone is running out of work at most of the big companies. I could care less about KeyStrokes or SoftScript or WebMedix or MQ or any MTSO. I care about ME and only ME at this point.

What in the heck is going on? Why is there no work sometimes and other times there is too much to do and every account is out of TAT? I have worked for most of the companies out there, something I am not proud of. I don't give up after a week; I give it a few months and often work 2 or 3 jobs and STILL don't have enough work. Currently, I am working for a small local company, and it's even worse. They all seem to have a lot of work, but where is it?

It seems like we are ALL fighting for work, regardless of which company. Is there any company that has a lot of work?

Try asking the MTs in India and Pakistan where the work is. - Old and Tired MT

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That's where most of the transcription work is going because they can get away with paying them 2-3 cents a line and after all, we US MTs make WAY too much money. Guess that's why I'm working two jobs because I am just so GREEDY. (?)

overstaffing - s/m

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It is so sad that we have to fight amongst each other for work. MLSs used to supported each other. I find that I have to work most nights and weekends day and night. I have to make my weekend during the week.

why manage TAT if you don't have to? NM - uh my humble opinion.

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//

My MTSO seems to be trying to resolve this - problem. Unfortunately for the good old ways,

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this involves requiring us to work set 8-hour schedules, no flexibility, so they can depend on production of a certain number of lines each shift.

Of course, any time they pre-hire for an account or lose a significant one, availability's going to drop.

For us, this is a production-pay problem. Hourly pay people get paid to sit around and chat. Production workers need a guaranteed income floor, something to fight for when the labor market finally tightens up again.

In the meantime, it should also be kept in mind that most companies take at least some care of people they want to keep and that many companies will take work away from people they're willing to lose--whether there's an actual shortage of work or not. A cruel way of accepting a resignation in advance without informing the victim.

Until we are able to do something about all this as a group, the best protection is still to get oneself established in management's eye as someone they want to keep.

Pragmatist

cancel - sweetgirlsmom

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Very good points, SG'sM, not least the importance - of having a job well suited SM

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to personal needs. In this field, some ability to flex in time and money is necessary.

However, this issue has become a much larger problem than it ever was before, even for MTs who can flex. More and more jobs that used to pay by hour are going to production pay, hurting large numbers of MTs who were protected from fluctuations before.

Plus, like my company, more are requiring strict adherence to schedule, even when work is not available. We recently had a bad period of no work at my company. If I were to divide my income for those weeks by the 40 hours per week required, I really could have made more taking calls in a doctor's office (a level of income I outgrew in by my mid 20s).

Plus, lack of flexibility in hours removes an enormous part of what makes some flexibility of income worthwhile. Many of us can no longer use nonworking hours as we wish, shopping or taking kids to the zoo. We have to log in periodically to show we are at work. This past period I thought of taking my laptop out with me, but now and then a report does come up and has to be done. Plus, the mere situation of being tethered to a computer for a single-digit hourly income is outrageous.

So, we're arriving at a point where periods of plummeting incomes combine with rigid schedules create situations that are entirely unacceptable, even to those who can afford them as well as, of course, those who cannot. This could only have happened in an era of very high unemployment. Either we are also evolving back toward hourly pay, or this will eventually be solved another way, such as a guarantee floor per pay period, as it's unsustainable as is. Unhitching health care from employment would also help tremendously as this very large expense is a major reason for employers needing to get a genuine full 40 hours from each worker.

I agree with everything you say. - sweetgirlsmom

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I have always objected to production pay. When the doctor is talking, the MT is working. When the doctor is thinking or shuffling papers, the MT is working. Production pay makes the worker absorb the losses instead of the employer. In 32 years as an MT, I was paid hourly for only 18 months at the hospital, and then they closed the department and sent everything out. But I have accepted production pay because I needed the job. Employers know this and use it to their advantage. I hope transcription will return to hourly pay and the production pay will be high enough to live on.

It is outrageous that you are chained to a computer for a full shift with only one report now and then. Seat time is work time and should be compensated.

SGM, I doi believe the topic here is famine when there IS feast and famine when - not the work flow itself but how they manage it.

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cancel - sweetgirlsmom

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lets say 1000 reports daily is a feast, busy time. 100 girls on acount. see? - it is not about the flow, it is about how they man

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overhiring.

cancel - sweetgirlsmom

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YEAR-ROUND, not SEASONAL! - PonderingMT

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I have been an MT for over two decades so understand about SEASONAL fluctuations in workload.

Holidays, vacations, and inclement weather have NOTHING to do with what I am referring to. I am talking about YEAR-ROUND, CONSTANT overstaffing with NO WORK. Based on board posts here and elsewhere, it happens at ALL SERVICES no matter WHERE they are located (so much for your "bad weather" "explanation!").

You could have saved yourself the trouble of typing a l-o-n-g post that's not germaine by merely ASKING if that is what I was referring to. It wasn't.

Well said Pondering MT - BusyCAgal

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I have worked at home doing MT for 30 years, and could not have said this better!

curious, how many years have you been at this sweetgm? NM - nutherdaynotadollar

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cancel - sweetgirlsmom

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too long and condescending. moved on. - sorry.

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