Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Flip

1 2 ··· 8 9 10 ··· 39 40

Original poster

Pay with Dict8

999 replies

juju1507 · 09/03/2015 09:19

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.

OP posts:

Chrissols · 29/01/2020 11:27

Just seem to be sat here forever refreshing the screen. Have just had to agree to go back to working in the NHS two days a week which really isn't what I wanted.......needs must 😢

smiffypeabrain · 29/01/2020 12:29

Sorry to hear that Chrissols, I am really hoping that I don't have to do that also. There are much fewer in haematology lately compared with a few months ago.

Torn between going out to the supermarket and staying in, refreshing - just in case.

Hopefully Feb will be better.

Gardeninggirl56 · 29/01/2020 14:28

Thanks for this. I have changed back to Internet Explorer and, fingers crossed, this seems to be working better.

Original poster

juju1507 · 06/02/2020 10:28

I originally started this thread back in 2015. Reading through I can see things have not improved at all! I am backing working in the NHS part-time and for the Director who is implementing electronic referrals and electronic letters direct to the GP. I think this is why the workload has gone down. It's all being done in-house again by many hospitals; the consultant dictates using speech recognition, it is checked off by the consultant secretary and then sent electronically to the GP, therefore, cutting out the need for us, I suspect this is the way most hospitals are going now but obviously it will take time for it to be implemented everywhere but I feel the days of Dict8 and others like it are numbered which doesn't help us I'm afraid.

OP posts:

IamVictoria · 06/02/2020 11:14

The hospital I used to work at tried speech recognition. It was appalling. They said it would learn after six weeks but a year later we were still correcting the same words. It would transcribe things like "two thousand and 13" or if they said "CAMHS" it thought they said "caps" and went into upper case. It took twice a long to faff about correcting it and adding punctuation than just typing the letters. Terrible, awful system.

Original poster

juju1507 · 06/02/2020 11:47

I think most med secs would agree with you! but I have to admit I haven't used it so can't comment. It will be interesting to see if the work does pick up on Dict8 or whether there will be a slow decline.

OP posts:

ElleBee56 · 08/02/2020 12:38

I've been doing some work for TPro for the past few months and the hospitals that use them use voice recognition which, quite frankly, is awful! The work mostly consists of proof reading and editing and I can honestly say some of the work typed using VR is appalling. I've had references to dogs, goats, teeth (nothing to do with the work being checked), and all sorts of other weird and wonderful stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with medicine! If this is the way forward God help us all!

IamVictoria · 12/02/2020 12:46

Very little work this morning and I have five specialities. I'd only typed four letters by 10am.

lucylizzylovett123 · 18/02/2020 10:42

Absolutely no work coming through in my speciality this morning, and very little yesterday. Wonder what is happening here.

lucylizzylovett123 · 18/02/2020 11:31

Wouldnt it be nice to have a "news update" or some information coming through to let us know what is happening

MymbleClement · 19/02/2020 16:20

I'm no longer reliant on Dict8 as I've returned to the NHS, but I do like to do some of an evening and I'm getting maybe 10 jobs at the moment! V quiet

smiffypeabrain · 19/02/2020 17:00

I have nothing in the evening now, unfortunately.

Original poster

juju1507 · 20/02/2020 09:36

The work is next to nothing now on Dict8 so I've gone to T-Pro as a back up. I've also noticed that we don't have the monthly newsletter anymore or is that just me? Half of me is worrying that if they suddenly go bust or whatever we won't be paid. I think they may have lost Sandwell Hospital too because I used to recognise the consultants from there and I haven't heard them in months. It is odd though as they are claiming they are going to be doing a system upgrade shortly.

OP posts:

IamVictoria · 20/02/2020 10:41

I noticed the lack of monthly newsletter too. But a few months ago they sent an email asking us to recommend people as they wanted to take more typists on (my friend got taken on as it happens) and now I wonder if there are just too many typists for the workload, especially if they've lost hospitals.

Gally123 · 20/02/2020 12:03

I asked them about the monthly newsletter when they stopped sending it as I was unsure if I had missed anything and they replied they were not doing them anymore. That must be over a year ago now. Not sure if it had anything to do with the new regulations about people having to agree to receive emails before companies etc send them out.

Original poster

juju1507 · 20/02/2020 12:32

So, do I email them ask them directly if they are losing work from hospitals? I'm sure they wouldn't tell me even if they are but I might just ask them in passing that the work seems to be drying up a bit. I expect to have my head bitten off as customer service when it comes to us transcribers is pretty poor.

OP posts:

ScapaFlo · 20/02/2020 12:49

I'm setting up as a home-based transcriber and it seems pretty clear to stay well away from Dict8! Any tips for a newbie?

Original poster

juju1507 · 20/02/2020 13:38

@ScapaFlo I don't think I can really help you as I've only ever transcribed for Dict8 but I'm starting with T-Pro next week as well to keep the income up. You have to be very focused and head down to earn a decent amount of money and be prepared for some really bad dictation, people eating whilst dictating, background noise, strong foreign accents can be difficult too but after a while you will sort of get a feel for what you want to pick up and type and what you don't!

OP posts:

smiffypeabrain · 20/02/2020 14:14

Juju - I do hope not! I agree though, not heard a Birmingham accent in a while.

I see that the cheques are still from Coutts. I took that as a ray of hope because someone informed me that turnover had to be considerable to remain with Coutts.

ScapaFlo · 20/02/2020 14:18

Thanks juju. My first audio typing boss back in the mists of time used to dictate while he was driving having collected his children from school, so there was swearing at other road users, squabbling kids and Radio 4 to tune out

Lucylizzy123 · 20/02/2020 14:57

I agree they are not forthcoming with information. I too worry about not being paid. I cannot believe how quickly the work has dropped off in such a short time. It all seems very odd

Whitestar5 · 20/02/2020 15:32

I'm wondering if the absence of newsletters is due to the re-classification of what constitutes self-employment/employment/gig economy working etc, as the newsletters often included instructions on how to carry out the work, which could be seen to be classing us as employees.

I've also noticed there is less work coming through too.

Lucylizzy123 · 20/02/2020 15:43

It would be disappointing if this is the beginning of the end for Dict8. I think we all enjoy the freedom of working from home and speaking for myself it has been a valuable source of income over the years. Not knowing what is going on is quite unsettling really.

Original poster

juju1507 · 21/02/2020 10:27

@Lucylizzy123 I agree. I have been sat at my PC for over an hour now. I have four specialities plus veterinary (??) that I can type for Dict8 but there has been nothing this morning on any of them. It is very disconcerting. I can only hope things will pick up for all of us.

OP posts:

Lucylizzy123 · 21/02/2020 10:32

Same here this morning. No work coming through for me either. Not feeling optimistic here

Flip

1 2 ··· 8 9 10 ··· 39 40