Pay with Dict8

[juju1507]

I have been working s/e with Dict8 for 3 years now and my payment by cheques are arriving later and later. My last cheque arrived 8 days after it was issued and I noticed they are now sending cheques second class. Does anyone else work for Dict8 on here and, if so, are you finding that your cheque is arriving much later than it used to? I have direct debits set up deliberately for the middle of the month in order that my cheque would have cleared in time but now I am worrying that even by 15th of each month the cheque will not have cleared. Sorry for the ramble but just curious if others have noticed this.

@smiffypeabrain that would make sense and help to keep everyone safe. I can't understand why they refuse to do this.

Tried to get to my bank this morning - normally open on a Saturday - all closed, HSBC, Lloyds closed - Nationwide Building Society open but refusing to let anyone in! How helpful! All the assistants sat inside doing nothing, waiting for no-one to be allowed in. Barclays had queues outside but not sure if open.

I can understand they have their reasons for paying by cheque, but the whole printing off and posting invoices in this day and age is ridiculous.

I guess they either:
a) want to cut down on paper costs by making us print the invoices
b) have terrible administrative skills and couldn't cope with doing things electronically
c) are stubbornly attached to their archaic processes
d) just like being difficult
or e) all of the above. :)

Has anyone had any work today??

@Chrissols - A dribble. Yesterday was really bad as well. It gets worse day by day.

I've just had one task and that's it, very worrying isn't it.

I have typed about six very short tasks today and probably about the same yesterday.

I've managed 9 quite short tasks and 6 yesterday. Very worrying.

Normally have loads of work in the evening - nothing today. I have worked for this company for years and have been concerned about the lack of work since around October last year, it has just been going down hill ever since and today I have had nothing, and that is a first. I have just applied for bank work at my local NHS hospital. I do feel that they should be giving us a bit more information but DICT8 is a very closed book !!!!!!

Looking back i think maybe things have been going downhill for the best part of a year. It was strange that the newsletters stopped without any explanation. We always got positive news about new hospitals being taken on but there's been no news and the amount of work has been falling for a long time. I've never known there to be no work, even over the Christmas and New Year period. I wish they were more open about what's happening so we all know where we stand.

I agree with every word that has just been posted. I have worked for Dict8 for many years also, originally to help fund my daughters through university and then over the years it has been a really nice source of income for me. I have always had loads of work and on good days was probably typing about 50 letters per day and sometimes more. Since the end of last year this was dwindling and I was struggling to type half that number per day. Now through this current pandemic, when I am sure telephone clinics etc will be taking place, the work has just about dried up completely and I struggle to type five letters a day. I cannot understand where all the work has gone in such a short space of time. I agree that they should be more up front with us rather than the same old excuse they peddle about more transcribers on the system. You are quite right about them being a closed book. I fear that this company may not survive particularly given the current crisis.

I was just setting up as a transcriber when this pandemic hit. I will not be applying to Dict8 following this thread! Has anyone had success elsewhere?

I don’t think any are recruiting at the moment, T-Pro and Accurro have put recruiting on hold

I feared as much. Thanks Chrissols

Work is so sporadic it compromises a lot of my time now. A whole day can be wasted due to FOMO.

In the past, I could guarantee work so I could fit in a shopping trip or a break from my PC, meet friends. And even work again when the kids were in bed. Now it is the odd task hours apart.

I hope things pick up again as DICT8 is what kept our heads above water financially.

There is good and bad about any job/company/person you work for. When DICT8 first started Michael and James were lovely to work for and the staff were approachable and very helpful (they didn't make you feel a certain way when you queried feedback - I think you ladies know what I am talking about here). Unfortunately I have found that over the last three years or so the attitude in the office has changed and there is a degree of hierarchy and hostility towards transcribers - especially when you query something, this I have to add is not pointed at the proof-readers, but a specific person, who has been mentioned in this thread before.

Get this... my friend applied to transcribe for them over 12 months ago. They e-mailed her yesterday to ask for the name of her manager/consultant to pursue a reference!!!

To be honest I can put up with the attitude if I have some work.....but I do know what you mean, the feedback can be very damaging to confidence, people skills needed. Not had a single task all morning again, and its doubtful for the rest of the day........goodness knows how the bills are getting paid this month.......

I added up my yearly total earned last night as end of tax year etc and it was the lowest amount for five years! I had noticed over the last six months in particular that the work has been less, and also of poorer quality so each task took longer to decipher.

When I first started with DICT8 occasionally you could joke with the proofreaders and they admitted if they had made a mistake (such as informing you of an error when in fact they had emailed you by mistake and it was someone else's, especially if it was for a specialty you do not type) but now if you query anything it gets passed to the woman in charge and the answer is invariable that it is your error and not theirs, so I don't bother to comment anymore; as far as they are concerned I might not even read their feedback as it is rarely constructive or helpful. It would be better if they emailed you back the complete letter so you could see the mistakes in context, not just the odd word etc, but I think as they do not do this it adds to the theory that much of the feedback is "fabricated," to keep typists in their place and not to ask for a pay rise etc. Not sure if the proofreaders are on commission or monthly targets but some of the things they "claim" people have typed is ludicrous, especially seeing as they do not provide the proof.

As a proof reader, some of the things people type ARE ludicrous. But we are not on commission nor do we have a monthly target, apart from the hours required. I took a screenshot of a letter the other day and sent it to She Who Must Not Be Named and suggested sending it to the typist so she could see the issue, but the reply was that "we cannot send screenshots" but obviously they could easily attach it to an email, as I did.

We highlight what has been typed and paste it into the feedback box; we don't make it up, at least I don't. I look at feedback as trying to provide helpful advice more than anything else. My comments usually include "please do this" rather than "do this".

Some of it's annoying though, like when people query a street name when they've been given the postcode and could easily google it, or if they query a doctor's name when all the hospitals have consultant lists on their websites. A lot of time could be saved if people used google.

@IamVictoria I agree totally with sending a copy of the original typed document and the amended document. This is done by TPro and is a great help as it highlights the problem. The system is also set up so that transcribers can view previous correspondence which again is a great help, especially where diagnoses and medication lists are not dictated clearly or not at all but are requested to be added.

I spend a ridiculous amount of time googling names of doctors (where hospitals are mentioned) and patient addresses, if dictated, but quite often there is no indication as to which hospital you are typing for and, therefore, it's not possible to add any details.

I have to say, I admire any proof readers who can actually make out any of the words I query. I listen over and over and over again sometimes but just can't make out what is being said!

Sometimes I'm surprised that people can't make out what's being said as it's clear as day to me, but equally, sometimes I can't understand it either. And I agree if you don't know which hospital it is you can't always find the name, but when the doctor's title and hospital are dictated, there's really no excuse.

Can I just add, if someone corrects a foreign doctor's dictation to grammatically correct English, I certainly wouldn't feed back on that. Go for it. I myself change things like "I saw in the clinic John" or "I spoke to the mother of John" or "I saw John aged 2 years and a half" so it flows properly.

@IamVictoria - not all hospitals list their consultants, and for those that do, the lists are often out of date and also do not include junior doctors or nurses' names.

I have been sent feedback for specialties I do not type (though I note they no longer tell you which specialty is concerned) and also for dates when I have not done any typing so the system is falling down somewhere.

I agree Gally123, my earnings have gone down dramatically. I also feel, like you, that they should email you back the complete letter. On the times I have queried what a proofreader has sent me I inevitably get a curt email from "she who must not be named" written in such a fashion it can only be interpreted as a don't you dare question me or else !!!

@IamVictoria, do you also take into account that some of the dictation is ludicrous too ? I have had feedback in the past where even typing and, a, the etc is frowned upon.

@IamVictoria - I am surprised your wrote "John aged 2 and a half" as I was told not to type "half" in ages but put "1/2".

Many of the proofreaders correct letters where I had amended to correct English so I do not bother now, if they want it as pigeon-English that is what they get. I suspect you get away with it as you are a proofreader yourself.