Do not sell yourselves short!! There is a world without VR. - Former Nuance MT

So many of us have been "gobbled" up by Nuance in the last few years. So many of us are transcriptionists with specialized, honed skills, and those skills are valuable. Do not be deceived by a company who devalues your worth and causes self-doubt and continues to tout itself as the leader in the industry. I believe there are many facilities, doctors, clinics, etc, who do not want their work run through a computer to be deciphered. It may be time-consuming and seem like a fruitful task, but if you currently unhappy with your employment, I urge you to consider looking for other work. VR is not necessarily the wave of the future, but that is the info Nuance employees are spoon-fed. Of course, it is their goal to have VR replace us as it only puts more coin in their pockets. As almost a monopolizer of the market, we have begun to believe they are telling the truth. At the same time, we have all suffered at their hands. Please know there are other jobs out there, jobs that still require straight typing and no VR and even hospitals. We are the backbone of this industry and need to make our own stand. I left Nuance 3 months ago, emotionally and physically sickened, disheartened. Most of all I had lost my self-esteem and my feelings that I was an A1 transcriptionist. That was the hardest part for me, the loss of self-respect. I am a strong person, but this company participated in bashing its employees in every way possible, loss of income, loss of benefits, loss of self-worth, loss of connection to a company that cared that we existed. I have been an MT for over 30 years. With Nuance, my income tumbled rapidly from its high to the lowest it had been in 20 years, and if you look at the cost of living, it was even much below that. I have now found other employment. At this time I will not reveal the name of the employer as I have not yet started there, but in a few months if my feelings are confirmed, I will post their name. What I do know is they have all straight transcription, hospital accounts, clinics, everything that Nuance has, and they are paying 8.5 cpl with bonus levels. Fifteen years ago, I was started at 9 cpl, had been raised to 10.5 cpl, always reached bonus levels, and I earned around $48,000/year when Nuance took over. When I left Nuance, my income was projected to be $28,000/year. There was talk of a new pay structure at the beginning of 2013, but I am not seeing mention of that on this board. Supposedly, HR and the higher-ups were discussing how to more fairly compensate employees. Sounded like the usual to me. Has there been a significant change? If not, and if you are being made to feel that our world of MT is gone and VR is replacing us, I urge you to look around and consider options. My biggest fear was leaving and going to work for a company that would be absorbed by Nuance anyhow, but I do not believe this is the case. My employer now is disgusted by Nuance and its practices and professes to never employ VR. I am back to square one with pay, but I have my self-respect and the prospect of raises, and true bonus levels, no frigging flex time concerns and making up time on Friday night. Nuance is a joke, not an employer, and please do yourselves a favor and try to find a way out. Do not be dragged down in the mire. Respect yourselves and look around and you may find there is still a market for you, a valuable employee, a master of medical transcription, a recorder of the medical histories of this country, one who listens to babble and makes it a coherent record. If we support companies who support our skills and oppose VR, it can only be good for us. Since MTs are the reason there can be a medical record, we are gold and should be treated as such. This is not a job that can be done by any untrained professional MT. Do not forget that. You are worth much more than Nuance values you. Good luck to you all!!