It was my usual day of work today. We made fried rice for lunch, and had the leftovers (plus roast chicken) for dinner. I took Tyson for a walk around the block as well.
Recently, the employees of my company got together and initiated a study on the effectiveness of the speech recognition system that was recently introduced (and the accuracy of the software in providing an accurate rough draft of a dictation), and provided a detailed analysis of what effect it had on work, and compared that to the compensation employees were receiving for that work. Today, my company issued a "response" to all these employees' facts and figures proving that speech recognition was not a fraction as effective as management believed it would be for use in the medical transcription industry.
Even though I predicted what the response would be ("clap louder"), I was rather shocked at the audacity of the selective belief system my company employed to justify doing nothing to remedy the huge loss of income transcriptionists have faced recently.
Basically, after hundreds of employees presented them with thousands of data points, and said, "Here is how much work we got done before the introduction of speech recognition, and here is how much we got done after the introduction of speech recognition," management's reply was, "We use our own 'industry' statistics about you and your work, and we think those statistics are more accurate than what you are actually experiencing. (Don't worry though... we'll train you some more!)"
The simple fact is, it wasn't until after the introduction of speech recognition that my company showed a profit for the first time in years. My company isn't going to go back to being in the red just to ease its employees' economic woes. I would have respected management for coming out and admitting this simple business reality, and I implicitly understand that this is the situation (and will be the reason I still have a job in the coming months)... but instead, they take this condescending tack by providing us with their own ludicrous version of reality. Sigh.
Anyway, I watched a good show on The Australia Network about the biography of Wehrner Von Braunn (of Nazi/rocket fame), and then re-watched the North Korea episode of "Don't Tell My Mother..." on The National Geographic Channel. Then it was off to bed, where I read my book, The Forest. The particular section I'm reading now covered the various insurrections in England against Charles I, Charles II, and James II in the 1600's.
Sounds like you have an accurate summary of what your bosses think.
ReplyDeleteYour book sounds good. Who wrote it?
Have you looked into getting a Kindle? They're getting more and more popular.
Mom
Hi J.J.,
ReplyDeleteBeen following your blog for a few months now and living vacariously the 'good life' through the small details you mention in your diary that make life worth the living...
I was in Mindinao back in 2006, Green Village, and I never wanted to return to the States.. ..and this was before Obomination!
Anyhow, do you have any recommendations for readers interested in entering the medical transcription field? (Besides it's a pain in the backside, thanks to the 'new economy'.)
Can the training required be accomplished online? Any recomendations on an accredited school?
Any imformation would be greatly appreciatted as I am in a dying industry and looking for any worthwhile work at home option available..
And please keep up the great work on the blog JJ, you have many lurkers out here who dream of escaping the cubicle/domicile of police state America..
Rock on bro,
Stateside Jeff
Mom,
ReplyDeleteThe book is by Edward Rutherfurd. He apparently also wrote a similar book called "Sarum". (If you ever find/buy/send that particular book for me, I would be grateful.)
Jeff,
Thanks for reading. I got into transcription via correspondence course. I used the Review Of Systems Transcription School. It cost about $2,000 and took me about 4 months. They also set me up an interview with my company upon completion.