an idle mind - is my own workshop

Posted: Jul 27, 2010

Okay, I just started my first job with an MTSO, and now I'm looking at an empty queue. This is the same running-out-of-work scenario that has been following me for the past 6 years, everywhere I go. Three on-site jobs have gone down the tubes because the clinics/hospitals were "streamlining" with VR, and making their remaining employees more "efficient." Every time this happens, I promise myself: Will retrain, will find a new line of work. This is a dying field. Every time, something happens to make me go back and give transcription another try. Maybe there is SOME place that is prospering, and has enough work that I can do well in this profession. Then I find a place where things go well for a while, and I tell myself, See, you were overreacting. There's still plenty of work. Then, it happens again. Work gets low. (Just temporary, everyone says.) Then it rebounds. Then it gets low, and doesn't rebound. Then a head honcho starts inspecting transcription payroll and decides it's too big. Wages are cut. Production is increased. Work supply really bottoms out then, MTs start fighting for work. I decide, OK, get into another field. Then I find another place that is hiring, and another time I tell myself, See, there's still work, there's still a job for you. This last time was IT, I swore. I quit and went back to the community college to find something, anything I could train for. Well, I didn't take into consideration that in the recession, everyone and her brother had the exact same idea. The certificate and diploma programs for just about everything were filled solid. So, I crawled back to my computer and applied to an MTSO, and got hired, and felt optimistic at first, and now, it's NJA, again. My question is: What would you do, if you could not do transcription anymore? And have you looked into the feasability of retraining? I had just a blind idea of "getting certified in something else" at the community college, but found out it wasn't a good plan in reality! So now I am thinking about it again, having to make more realistic plans. My problem is that in the back of my mind, I feel I can always fall back on transcription, and it hinders me from making any drastic change. Maybe that is human nature. But here I sit, at the beginning of my shift, ready to work, and NJA, and no pay. I am going to do some online research now. What do I want to do for a living? What do you want to do for a living?