Re: Finding an IC on internet

You're saying a service is paying up to 20 cents a line and you're worth 200 bucks an hour? That's 1000 lines an hour I believe, though math is not my forte. Unless you're working with a lot of full templates, I find that difficult to believe. And I do know that no matter how good one is, how reliable they are, there are darn few companies paying any 20 cents/line and probably none in most areas of the country.


diggle wrote: 
Initially, thank you for a substantive post. :)

Blupencl wrote:

One thing, Deborah, is that many people _don't_ advertise their line
rate. There is a whirring little machine of blazing fast, pinpoint
accurate, well-paid MTs out there.



Oh, I know that.  I know the very best can, and do, command 15-20 cents
a line.  Generally because of well established relationships with very
happy clients.

But for somebody who is only just now finding the need fot MTs they are
not likely to pay .20 when they can pay .18 or .15 assuming all other
things are equal.  And you know as well as I that line rate charged
does not equate across the board to relative quality.


To give you something to compare with: In _1998_, my hourly rate for
_every_ kind of acute care work was $14.55 - on top of that was an
incentive program that paid upwards of $5 per hour, sometimes $8. On
top of _that_ was a wonderful benefits package - and we couldn't keep
the place staffed with people who could do the work.



I understand that acute care is a highly sought after specialty - and
you are certainly worth a premium, and I would hope that you would
never take less than the market would bear for your specialized, and
hard-to-find abilities.

But, assuming I'm not an idiot, which I'm not - I didn't post saying,
"I need an acute care MT and I'll pay up to $12."  We do need acute
care folks, and that's not what we pay the ones we have.


Now I know somebody who is desperately looking to work at home. She is
a new graduate. I am mentoring her. She'd jump at $12. She's a great
girl. I've known her since she was 5 minutes old and she truly is the
most conscientious person I've ever met. She's working for me now but
I've grown lazy in my old age and I don't have the ambition to go
hunting accounts.

That said - those are the kinds of MTs you are going to get for those
rates, only without the 25-year vet mentoring them. Brand-new, wet
behind the ears, chock-full of medical terminology just itching to get
out of those fingers, but none of that "ear" thing that we speak of
sometimes.



Why do you assume that we don't have Mentors on staff?  They may not
have your 25 years experience (I think the one I'm thinking of off the
top of my head "only" has a little over 15 years), but they do have
both the MT, and mentoring, experience.

And, believe it or not, we are getting experienced MTs joining us, MTs
with good resumes and super recommendations.  So while it's nice to
believe that everybody can get work at the higher rates, it's obviously
not true - and those who need or want to take the guaranteed income for
steady work, for whatever reason, should not be belittled for doing so,
or assumed to be any less professional than each and every one of the
rest of you.

We're not going to make any money if our clients are getting back bad
work, because we won't be retaining those clients, or have "references"
for those potential clients who ask for them.

Some of the folks here want to pretend that every MT is either fully
employed or fully empolyable at the top rates, but the more honest and
more realistic, will acknowledge that is not so.

Deborah



diggle Wrote:

JulieW8 wrote:


rates as low as 7 cents per net line. Even our top rates fall
below industry standard.


No xenophobia, Deborah, just disgust at the cut-rate, cut-throat
approach and I don't care what the last name is or where the business
and/or transcriptionsts ares located. It gives us all a bad name.


Cut rate? Have you been looking at some of the help wanted listings
lately? Our rate of pay is at worst, average, certainly far from the
lowest being offered. I saw more than one entry level position being
offered at 6.5 cents per line, and hourly rates for experienced people
as low at $7-8 dollars an hour, one even offered only $6.50. Should
they pay beginners or those with less experience, or no experience in
the specialty 12-14 cents per line simply because _you_ think _you_ are
worth more? Does that make good business sense?

We also charge, and pay, quite a bit more for specialized work (acute
care, for example). Do you charge all your clients the same rate
regardless of the specific nature of the specialty or dictation
methods? I suspect you don't.

Do you go in quoting your top rate to every possible client? Or do you
try to match the rate(s) up with the client and pay with the
qualifications of the employee?

And yes, it is xenophobic to post little more than (paraphrase), "This
looks like an Indian company with a Virginia address."


Lancesoft combines superior technology with the best MT team in the
industry, offering 12-24 hour turn around, 98% accuracy, and our
guarantee that you will be 100% satisfied with our output.


but in the next breath...


Our MT division is new, 

New is relative - it's been operational less than a year, but did not
start yesterday. As noted previously, I have the utmost faith in my
friend who brought me into the company. If she says they can do the
job, I have no doubt but that they can. She has 20 plus years
experience in the field, including running two different mid-sized MT
companies. She knows this business as well, if not better, than
anybody in this group.


Ack! I'm going back to work. I can't stand this. 

It's good that you have some. A lot of qualified MTs don't. That's
because there are more MTs than there are lines out there.

Look - I'm a bleeding heart liberal. I want white-collar unions for
goodness sake. But the bottom line is that supply and demand is going
to play a large role in what businesses will offer to their employees.
Actual "work from home" jobs are rare, and there are more and more
people who want to be able to telecommute. There are going to be
trade-offs for their ability to do so. Heck, I would work for 1/5th of
what I'm worth in order to never have to leave the house.

Your mileage may vary.

(Yes, pun intended.)

Deborah 


--
Blupencl



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Finding an IC on internet
    ... But for somebody who is only just now finding the need fot MTs they are ... "I need an acute care MT and I'll pay up to $12." ... and that's not what we pay the ones we have. ... We're not going to make any money if our clients are getting back bad ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: Lost my job... have an interview with Fender
    ... Sometimes peace of mind can be worth $10K. ... pay, but she's happier for it, and her stress level is way down. ...
    (alt.guitar)
  • Re: VENT: Oooh, Bargains! Good Buys! Good Deals! - NOT!
    ... but it's not worth their hassling with it ... quality and more difficult to work with than what she pays more for at ... I'm afraid the retort *is* economics. ... what you pay for." ...
    (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting)
  • Re: consequences of being sued (if youre` skint)
    ... Bankruptcy and/or being made to pay weekly/monthly amounts of whatever ... situation and they may decide it's not worth suing you. ... A third element would be the costs of taking you to court which are not insubstantial. ... So as you see, if you have made a very minor impact on the distributors trade, then most of the money awarded against you might be the court cost element and if they realise that since you have done very little actual business they may well end up spending thousands to save pennies and thus hope that a few threatening letters will put a stop to you. ...
    (uk.legal)
  • More on flu
    ... Osama Bin Laden extracts it from his lamb stew -- I would pay most of my net ... Risk avoidance requires ... Learning the realities and doing whatever you can is worth ... When Dr. David Nabarro was appointed UN and WHO Avian and Human Flu ...
    (misc.news.internet.discuss)