The search for a good MT... - ndmt

I am just really troubled about this post that good MTs are hard to find.  While I agree there are bound to be some people that are not cut out for the MT business, I am just wondering how long MTSOs are going to allow that standard to continue.  This is some of my experience:

I have been hired by a MTSO that has been in business for 10 years yet not 1 single MT in the office. No one had a clue as to the account specs or ever worked on the platform. There was no training offered, some brief samples of selected really difficult authors, and the most abrasive QA I have ever experienced. I got hired and signed a contract for 1000 lines a day.  I never had close to that much work available in a day, and then the work completely dried up at which point I didn't hear from the company for a month. About that time, they had Christmas overflow and wanted to know when I was going to work, but I told them I had moved on since it had been so long since there was any work in my queue and no one responded to my e-mails.

My daughter graduated Career Step and got a job with the monster MTSO. As a new graduate, they offered her level 3 based on her experience (???) and almost fired her for not getting 98% QA. Upon reviewing the jobs she submitted, QA couldn't even fill in most of the blanks. She was allowed to stay for a while longer, but was always being berated for not doing enough lines for minimum wage yet when she pushed, her QA scores dropped. Even though she asked, she was never placed on a level 1 account. She eventually quit but they would have let her limp along doing work way over her head.

I also tried a part-time job with a company who paid 3 cpl for VR (I was desperate at that point), and their QA was paid 3.5 CPL to go through all my reports. There were so many corrections to what they called client style that I knew I was not going to work out. I left after 2 days as my style was way different than what they wanted. I e-mailed my supervisor telling her this was not a good fit, and she asked me to stay and fulfill my 2 weeks notice even though I was on 100% QA. So, essentially they were paying 6.5 CPL for every single report I did after that...double what they normally would have...and they weren't improving their TAT at all.

I can think of more examples, but my point is this...in each instance you could say the MT was not a quality MT or was not a good employee, but the MTSO never took any action. MTSOs are trading quality and good employees for the cheapest line rate. Those MTs that have held jobs for any duration probably think they are great employees since it is pretty impossible to get fired in this industry. I laugh every time I hear an MTSO say their MTs don't treat this like a real job...hey, neither do you and yet you're the dummy who cuts them a paycheck week after week after week.

Here are some of the suggestions I would make to any MTSO...

1.  One good MT is worth 2 or 3 bad ones.  Make your good employees feel valued and compensate them accordingly. Cut out the ones producing minimum lines or less or who need too much QA and take the cost of their benefits package and give your highest quality highest producers a raise. There are some of us who are dragging a little bit because we have had to take second jobs to pay the rest of the bills. Give us a chance and we'll step up to the plate - we would love to work 1 job again.

2.  Guarantee us a wage like a real job, and we will treat it like a real job.  I am willing to produce my butt off, but when I know there is always no work Monday mornings, I am not as likely to want to sit down and stare at a blank screen. I will probably be on the phone, doing a little laundry, or checking e-mail instead of working and I know you will just send an e-mail later saying that I owe lines or hours. I am more than happy to keep a set schedule and always be at work when I say I will if I am not expected to gamble on whether there is work or not and have to come back later if I lose the bet. Trust me, if I don't want to work at a job with a guaranteed minimum wage, someone else will, so you won't have to keep MTs who don't produce, show up for work, sit too long in jobs, etc.

3.  Pay a decent shift differential. Obviously, there is more help needed on the evening and weekend shifts or we wouldn't have offshoring problems. Do you know why bartenders love evenings and weekends...MONEY. Do you know why furniture salesmen love Sunday afternoons...MONEY. Do you know that an additional $7 a day is probably not enough of an attraction for people to want to give up every evening or 1 day every weekend? Be serious.  If you have to constantly invite people to get back on the system in the evenings because there is too much work, you need to make it more attractive to work evenings, and if you always have people available who need to get back on, your day shifts are overloaded.

Anyone else have any ideas?