Pay with Dict8

[Chrissols]

Good Morning all Dict8 ladies

@Lucylizzy123 I totally agree the lack of communication during the last year has been poor, and the extremely dismissive attitude towards us in our requests for BACS payments and emailing invoices etc. I would correct you though in that I do think we have had two communications that I can remember, but nothing for absolutely months.

My work has been so thin on the ground, in the last two weeks of January my highest daily total was 182 lines. It does irritate me that, with so many of us being very experienced and with many of us having AMSPAR qualifications, that they don't let some of us try add in other specialties rather than taking on more transcribers? It doesn't take that long to pick up specific terminology, and so what if it took us a bit longer to turn around letters at first if we were spending a more time Googling things - it's better than sitting around earning nothing. And after a week or two we'd know the specialty sufficiently well to whizz through the letters. If after a while we still didn't get on with it, then they could remove it and perhaps try us on something else if more transcribers were needed in a different specialty. They are just so inflexible and unaccommodating!!

I wish I had known about T-Pro sooner. I did apply, but heard nothing from them - I wasn't sure if that was because they had enough transcribers or because the didn't like my application, and they don't make it easy to follow up.

@Lucylizzy123 If we couldn't do 'new' specialties, then why can't Dict8 look at our CVs at the things we've done in the past - I know they've totally disregarded one specialty that I worked in for about five years because it was 'too long ago'. How long would it take to get up to speed??!! I'm sure many of us have worked in other specialties but Dict8 just won't consider allocating us work in them for one reason or another.

I absolutely agree with everyone re number of specialities. As medical secretaries we are used to dealing with unfamiliar terminology. A few years ago they were desperate for transcribers in a particular speciality and emailed me to ask if I had any experience in said speciality as it sort of went with one of my others. Actually, my experience in it was very limited, but I said yes anyway and guess what, I picked it up really quickly and at the moment it is my busiest area so I am very thankful that I have it. We could all do whatever they wanted to put our way, I'm sure. I really don't know why they restrict us all, it's pretty insulting actually.

@Lucylizzy123

It is interesting how Tpro and Dict8 alter in their approach to transcribers. Dict8 are to put it bluntly rude and obstructive. During this whole pandemic there has been no email from them regarding this and the impact on their workers. They have offered no help viz a viz payments, still insisting on cheques which are more and more frequently going astray, leading to two to three weeks delay in payment. They stubbornly refuse to accept anything except hard copies of invoices, no emails. Who do we think we are suggesting such a thing??? Anybody would think this was 2021. They are completely oblivious to their workers, and their lack of communication over the last year is appalling.

TPro on the other hand obviously DD payments without delay. They are helpful in the extreme with queries and any feedback is given in a generous and contructive way. God forbid they even sign off their messages with a Thank You !! They are far more professional and understanding. During this pandemic where
the work is obviously a bit more limited they keep communication open and they encourage you to contact them if there is a lack of tasks so they can maybe distribute more and there seems a much more "holistic" approach to things.

I have worked for Dict8 for many, many years like a lot of the people on here and quite frankly their attitutde is absolutely appalling. They do not give a flying .. for their workers, they seem to be taking on more staff in a very difficult period and quite frankly we are just cannon fodder to them. I know we would all walk away if we could just by reading the comments from nearly all looking elsewhere for better work opportunities.

Very impressively written LucyLizzy123, I suspect you could generate an income out of blogging/writing!

..Actually, reading the rest of the posts, I think most of you could be income generating bloggers, and I agree with what you have written!

DICT8 definitely need better PR.

I think they are on some sad power trip to be honest. No reason whatsoever for 1) not accepting invoices via email, 2) not paying by direct bank credit, 3) giving us more specialities and 4) why the hell are they taking on more staff, and my most annoying one at the minute 5) why are we not being paid for messages in the sodding message box. I could go on but I won't. Grrr

@flutterby18 Totally agree with all points there, but my top two are 4 and 5 as that is taking work/pay away from us existing transcribers, and taking on more transcribers is totally unnecessary as there is such a shortage of work

the only reason I can think of for DICT8 to take on more transcribers at this time could be due to the fact that there seems to be so many more companies offering similar services now than when DICT8 started up, and they are trying to keep hold of the few hospitals they have left on their books by keeping up a very speedy turnaround time on dictations. The more typists they have, the quicker the letters are generated, the happier their clients etc. (And probably more profits for DICT8).

With so many new start-up transcription companies it's worrying that it may get to the point where the rates of pay for transcription are so low it's just not feasible to do it as a main job any more, as it barely is now. Has anyone looked into virtual PA work or any other work from home opportunities?

@Whitestar5 I would like to think they cannot reduce rates for people who are already transcribing for them, just new people coming I. Having said that, it is like having a pay cut with never having a pay increase....if that makes sense 🤔

I agree with @Gally123 - more competition out there and makes sense for DICT8 to go for the quick turnaround

@Chrissols - yes DICT8 could reduce rates for new people coming in. 'They could also try to "persuade" longstanding typists to leave by sending out more dubious "feedback" and reducing further the amount of dictations available to people, or only supplying them with poor quality stuff so that they get fed up and pack it in.

To be honest, I really don’t think they can decrease their rates considering no one can remember if they have ever increased them or if they are the same now as when Dict8 first began

@Chrissols - a woman I worked with at the local hospital applied to work for DICT8 and was disgusted when she received the notification that she would be earning 6p a line, so she never bothered. Obviously this is only one instance of what someone said and I cannot remember when this was but she retired a few years before I joined DICT8, but I remember being surprised at the 8p a line thinking it was only 6p.

@Gally123 oh well they must have increased it once then, albeit many moons ago......maybe it’s every twenty years 😂😂😂

I too find it strange that they are recruiting but I guess only in the specialties where people have left? Perhaps an e-mail to those already working for Dict8 to say there are gaps open in xxx specialities; so that we, if it is a specialty of ours could do that work too??

@danblack87 absolutely, they know we are all scrabbling for work and have the expertise to pick up unfamiliar tasks and still carry out to our usual high standard

I think with Dict8 as far as they are concerned they don't care how many transcribers they have. They just want the work completed in the fastest possible time. Unfortunately, that has meant that because there are so many of us we are scrabbling for the scraps at the moment. They really have no interest in the people who work for them. It would be good if they could offer some sort of incentive to long term regular transcribers of high quality work, maybe by allocating extra to them. The problem at the moment is, I think, because a lot of people are working from home that they are on the system looking for extra work. It is easier to do that if you are not in the office with someone looking over your shoulder I guess. It's really not good for us regulars.

If DICT8 is currently recruiting new transcribers has anyone looking for more specialties recently asked to increase theirs? I already have several, although saying that, there is still large periods of time with nothing and then what there is is poor quality hence I applied to Tpro. About four years ago (about this time of year) when work was very thin on the ground and I earned my lowest amount pre-lockdown of around £13 I asked and had my specialties increased, so perhaps, if DICT8 are recruiting now is a good time to ask, esp if you mention that you understand they are taking on more transcribers and you already know the layout etc.

@Gally123: I might ask actually. There was someone on here who said they had just be recruited in cardio by Dict8 - I know nothing about cardio. Hence they are recruiting in areas that the rest of us are not doing?? I really don't want to work for anyone else. I asked for an extra specialty before but I was told they were not recruiting in other specialities at that time --- that was a long time ago. I just might do that and see what happens -finger's crossed.

@Gally123 @danblack87 I did ask some time ago now and never got a reply

With all this talk of adding new specialties - and having moaned that we should be offered the chance to try them - I have just remembered what happened to a colleague of mine who typed for Dict8 for a time. She started with one specialty and was ticking along quite nicely when Dict8 allocated her another related specialty. Unfortunately it backfired badly because she actually ended up transcribing a lot less. Apparently the main person dictating was virtually unintelligible so she used to get hours on end where the tasks in the new specialty just did not move so she was missing out on the work she had previously had access to. Only having one specialty, she thought she would get access to two separate lists of five tasks - one for each specialty. In the end she was so frustrated she had to ask Dict8 to remove the extra specialty. But that said, it was in a time when there was plenty of work to go around.

@poppy379: I understand what you are saying. You only see the top five so the new specialty may come out on top leaving you without your valued specialties. I just think it is worth I try. I can always ask to have the 'new' speciality removed if it is not working .. after a month

@Poppy379 - I can relate to your colleague - some time after I asked to increase my specialties DICT8 asked me to take on another one, and I agreed, however it was never my favourite when I did it in the hospital. I too ended up spending more time on this with rubbish poor quality dictation and was going to ask for it to be removed before lockdown hit - in hindsight I would have had much less work if I had, but still toying with the idea once we get back to 'normal' assuming that we do.